About Stephen Woolley
Stephen Woolley (born 3 September 1956) is an English filmmaker and actor. His career has spanned four decades, for which he was awarded the BAFTA award for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema in February 2019. As a producer, he has been Oscar-nominated for The Crying Game (1992), and has produced multi-Academy Award nominated films including Mona Lisa (1986), Little Voice (1998), Michael Collins (1996), The End of the Affair (1999), Interview with the Vampire (1994), and Carol (2016). He runs the production company Number 9 Films with his partner Elizabeth Karlsen. == Career == === Early career === Woolley's first film as a producer was The Company of Wolves (1984), but his career began after leaving Dame Alice Owen's School in Islington, London. In 1976 he became an usher at the venue Quentin Tarantino described as “the coolest cinema in London”, The Screen on the Green in Islington, run by Romaine Hart (OBE), at a time when its ushers wore hotpants. He then joined the exhibition arm of film collective The Other Cinema in Charlotte Street in the West End of London, before going on to own and run his own repertory cinema, The Scala Cinema, on the same premises. As part of his programming, Woolley developed Friday evenings for special events which in March and May 1980 included early live gigs by the pop group Spandau Ballet, school pals from Dame Alice's, the second being filmed for London Weekend Television's youth series 20th-Century Box. === Palace Video and Palace Pictures === In 1981 under Woolley's management the Scala relocated to near King's Cross railway station. At the same time he established Palace Video in partnership with Nik Powell, in the early 1980s to distribute the types of cult cinema and international art films that had been the core of his cinema programmes.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.