James Hawes

James Hawes is a British television and film director. He has a notable career in British television drama since the mid-1990s, also producing documentaries for British and American networks. His work includes high-end period pieces and prime-time adventure dramas.

He is known for directing episodes of popular series such as *Doctor Who*, *Black Mirror* (including the feature-length finales "Hated in the Nation" and "Smithereens"), *Snowpiercer*, and the entire first season of *Slow Horses*.

Hawes made his feature film directorial debut with *One Life* (2023), starring Sir Anthony Hopkins, which premiered at TIFF and LFF in September 2023. His second feature film, The Amateur, starring Rami Malek, is set for release in 2025.

In addition to his directing career, James Hawes is also an author. He studied German at the University of Oxford and University College London and held lectureships in German at various universities. He has published six novels and is the author of *The Shortest History of Germany* and *The Shortest History of England*, both of which were bestsellers. He also served as a Series Story Consultant and on-screen contributor for the BBC TV history series *These Brilliant Isles: Art That Made Us*.


The Amateur
The Amateur (2025)

A mild-mannered CIA cryptographer, whose wife is murdered in a terrorist attack, blackmails the...

Director