Richard Stanley (born 22 November 1966) is an award-winning film director and screenwriter born in South Africa. Stanley currently works and lives in Montségur, France. Richard Stanley was born in Fish Hoek, South Africa on November 22, 1966. His mother, Penny Miller, is an artist and anthropologist best known for her book Myths and Legends of Southern Africa. As a child Richard travelled extensively with her as she documented the folklore and witchcraft of the subcontinent, spending his formative years in a world where 'magic' was still a fact of everyday life. While still a student at the University of Cape Town, where he studied anthropology, Stanley worked for the archival department of the South African College of Music, filming tribal dance and initiation rituals. During the Angolan Bush War, Stanley was forced to relocate to London where he joined the COSAR, the Committee on South African War Resistors, and he became prominent in the anti-apartheid movement. Stanley's first foray into film making began in high school where he joined the Young Filmmaker's Workshop. Here he created his first film, Rites of Passage.