Stephen David Daldry, CBE (born 2 May 1960) is an English theatre and film director and producer, as well as a three-time Academy Award nominated and Tony Award winning director. He is also notable for having all of his feature films that he has directed go on to be nominated for Best Director or Best Picture at the Academy Awards, the films of which are Billy Elliot (2000), The Hours (2002),The Reader (2008) and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2011). Daldry was born in Dorset, England in 1961 (according to imdb), the son of bank manager Patrick Daldry and singer Cherry (née Thompson). The family moved to Taunton, Somerset, where when Daldry was aged 14, his father died of cancer. After this, Daldry joined a youth theatre group in Taunton, and then aged 18 won a Royal Air Force scholarship to University of Sheffield to study English, where he became chairman of SuTCo (Sheffield University Theatre Company). After graduation, he spent a year travelling through Italy, where he became a clown's apprentice. Returning to Sheffield, he became an apprentice at the Crucible Theatre from 1985-1988. He then trained as an actor at East 15 Acting School, London.