David Yates

DAVID YATES brought the Harry Potter film series to an epic conclusion, having directed the last four of the eight films in the franchise.

An award-winning director, Yates won his first BAFTA Award for his work on the BBC miniseries "The Way We Live Now," a period drama starring Matthew Macfadyen and Miranda Otto. In 2003, he directed the drama series "State of Play," for which he received a BAFTA Award nomination and won the Directors Guild of Great Britain (DGGB) Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement.

The following year, Yates directed the gritty two-part drama "Sex Traffic," for which he won another BAFTA Award and earned his second DGGB Award nomination. The unflinching look at sex trafficking also won a number of international awards, including eight BAFTA and four RTS Awards, both including Best Drama, as well as the Jury Prize for Best Miniseries at the Reims International Television Festival, and a Golden Nymph at the Monte Carlo Television Festival.

Yates earned an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special for his work on the 2005 HBO movie "The Girl in the Cafe," a love story starring Bill Nighy and Kelly Macdonald.

Yates grew up in St. Helens, Merseyside, and studied Politics at the University of Essex and at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. He began his directing career with the award-winning short film "When I Was a Girl," which he also wrote.

©2011 Warner Bros. Pictures