Bio
Peter Chelsom is a member of the British Academy, the American Academy, The Directors Guild Of America, and The Writers Guild Of America.
Peter was born in Blackpool in the North of England. He is a US and UK citizen. (Trivia: he is an Honorary Citizen of a small town in Tuscany, Italy, called Fivizzano). He is married with three sons. He trained at London’s Central School of Drama and worked as an actor playing leading roles in TV, films and in the theatre for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theatre, and the Royal Court Theatre.
At 30, Peter became a film director/writer. His first film, TREACLE, won a BAFTA nomination and invitations to festivals all over the world, including New York.
His first full length feature was the successful romantic comedy, HEAR MY SONG. The film is a wild and highly entertaining tale inspired by the life of the charismatic Irish tenor, Josef Locke, played in the film by Ned Beatty. Locke mysteriously disappeared in the late fifties only to be secretly replaced by an imposter, who passed himself off as the great man for thirty years. HEAR MY SONG was praised universally by the critics as well as being a hugely optimistic crowd pleaser. It's Royal Premiere was attended by Princess Diana and one of the awards it won was Best Newcomer for the Evening Standard British Film Awards.
Peter’s second feature was FUNNY BONES, a film about comedy. Made for Hollywood Pictures and starring Oliver Platt, Jerry Lewis, Leslie Caron, Freddie Davies and newcomer Lee Evans, it once again won rave reviews in the States and the rest of the world. It won Best Picture at five European Film Festivals. Bigger, richer and darker than the first, it tells the story of two half brothers one American and the other British who will stop at nothing to get a laugh, even murder.
Peter’s third feature, THE MIGHTY was based on the best-selling award winning book, FREAK THE MIGHTY, it stars Sharon Stone, Gillian Anderson, Gena Rowlands, and Harry Dean Stanton. It received two Golden Globe Nominations.
He followed this with TOWN AND COUNTRY and SERENDIPITY, which grossed $52m at the US Box Office. His next film, SHALL WE DANCE, included Richard Gere, Jennifer Lopez, Susan Sarandon and Stanley Tucci. The film grossed $170m worldwide.
His next film, HECTOR AND THE SEARCH FOR HAPPINESS, had its US Premiere in a special presentation at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival. It is distributed by Relativity Media. The cast includes Simon Pegg, Rosamund Pike, Christopher Plummer, Toni Collette, Stellan Skarsgard and Jean Reno. It is the story of a disillusioned psychiatrist traveling the world researching what makes people happy.
He latest film, THE SPACE BETWEEN US, opens on August 29th 2016. It stars Gary Oldman, Asa Butterfield, Britt Robertson, and Carla Gugino. It tells the story of the first boy to be born on Mars. A love story wrapped in sci-fi.
