Nicholas Hytner at the Shakespeare Schools Festival Gala Night, 2003

Nicholas Hytner is Director of the National Theatre.

His first theatre productions were at the Northcott Theatre, Exeter. He then directed a series of productions at the Leeds Playhouse, and in 1985 became an Associate Director of the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester. His productions included Shakespeare's As You Like It, Marlowe's Edward II, Schiller's Don Carlos, Wycherley's The Country Wife and Robin Glendinning's Mumbo Jumbo.

He has directed three productions for the Royal Shakespeare Company: Measure For Measure (1987), The Tempest (1988) and King Lear (1990).

From 1990 to 1997 he was an Associate Director of the National Theatre, directing Ghetto by Joshua Sobol (1989), The Wind in the Willows adapted by Alan Bennett (1990), The Madness of George III by Alan Bennett (1991), The Recruiting Officer by George Farquhar (1992), Carousel by Rodgers and Hammerstein (1992), The Cripple of Inishmaan by Martin McDonagh (1997), The Winter's Tale (2001), and Mother Clap's Molly House by Mark Ravenhill (2001). His first production as Director of the National was Henry V (2003).

Other London work has included:  Miss Saigon (Drury Lane, 1989; Broadway 1991; and worldwide), Volpone by Ben Jonson (Almeida Theatre, 1990), The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, with Maggie Smith (Aldwych Theatre, 1993), The Lady in the Van by Alan Bennett, with Maggie Smith (Queen's Theatre, 1999), Cressida by Nicholas Wright, with Michael Gambon (Albery Theatre, 2000) and Orpheus Descending by Tennessee Williams, with
Helen Mirren (Donmar Warehouse, 2000).

New York productions include Carousel (1994) and Twelfth Night (1998) at Lincoln Center Theatre; and Sweet Smell of Success (2002) on Broadway.

His first film, The Madness of King George, was released in 1994 by the Samuel Goldwyn Company. It was nominated for four Academy Awards and won both the BAFTA and Evening Standard awards for best British film. He has since directed The Crucible, nominated for two Academy Awards, and The Object of My Affection.

His first opera productions were for Kent Opera, for which he directed Britten's The Turn of the Screw, Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro and Tippett's King Priam. Other opera productions include, for English National Opera:  Wagner's Rienzi, Handel's Xerxes, Mozart's The Magic Flute and Verdi's The Force of Destiny;  for Glyndebourne: Mozart's La Clemenza Di Tito;  for the Paris Opera:  Handel's Giulio Cesare;  for the Theatre du Chatelet, Paris:  Janacek's The Cunning Little Vixen;  for the Geneva Opera: Mozart's Le Nozze Di Figaro;  and for the Bavarian State Opera, Munich: Mozart's Don Giovanni.

He has received, in addition to the BAFTA and Evening Standard awards for best British film, many other awards including two Olivier Awards, two Evening Standard Awards, the London Critics' Circle Award, a Drama Desk Award, and a Tony.  He was Visiting Professor of Theatre at Oxford in 2000.