English director Gregory (Greg) Doran was BOTD in 1958. Born in Huddersfield, he was raised in Preston in Lancashire. He studied drama at Bristol University, before training as an actor at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. He worked briefly as an actor before shifting his focus to directing, working for the Nottingham Playhouse. He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1987, appearing in productions of The Merchant of Venice and Julius Caesar, where he formed a relationship with the actor Antony Sher. He directed his first play for the RSC in 1992, rising to wider public attention when he directed Sher in a successful production 1995 ofTitus Andronicus. His 2000 production of Macbeth, again starring Sher, was later made into a TV film. His 2002 season of rarely-performed Jacobean plays earned him a Laurence Olivier Award. He went on to direct over 25 productions of Shakespeare’s plays, working with theatre stars including Judi Dench, Simon Russell Beale, Patrick Stewart, Harriet Walter, Eileen Atkins and Simon Callow. His 2007 production of Hamlet, starring Dr Who star David Tennant, became a box office juggernaut, and was later filmed for television. He a made a rare excursion into 20th century drama with a 2015 production of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, starring Sher as Willy Loman, followed by a musical adaptation of David Walliams‘ children’s book The Boy in a Dress. In 2005, he and Sher became one of the first same-sex couples in Britain to have a civil partnership, marrying in 2015 and remaining together until Sher’s death in 2021. He stepped down as artistic director of the RSC in 2023, and was knighted in 2024. His current relationship status is unknown.