Danny Boyle
Birthdate: October 20, 1956 (69 Years Old)
Birthplace: Manchester, England, United Kingdom
Danny Boyle (birthname: Daniel Francis Boyle) has created one of the most eclectic and widely-seen bodies of work as any British director/writer/producer has enjoyed since the mid-1990s, when he debuted as director with his acclaimed black comedy crime movie, Shallow Grave (1994), written by John Hodge and co-starring Ewan McGregor, Christopher Eccleston and Kerry Fox, grossing a robust $20 million against $2.5 million costs for lead producers PolyGram Filmed Entertainment and Channel 4 Films and distributors including Rank Film Distributors.
Boyle had his directorial breakthrough movie two years later along with screenwriter Hodge and star McGregor with the black Edinburgh-based comedy, Trainspotting (1996), with Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller, Robert Carlyle and Kelly Macdonald, and earning universal acclaim and a remarkable $72 million global gross (against approximately $2.6 million costs) for PolyGram Filmed Entertainment.
Boyle’s third consecutive black comedy with screenwriter John Hodge and star Ewan McGregor, A Life Less Ordinary (1997), was also his first feature with an American cast, including Cameron Diaz, Holly Hunter, Delroy Lindo, Ian Holm, Maury Chaikin, Dan Hedaya, Tony Shalhoub and Stanley Tucci, but was also the first to lose money for PolyGram Filmed Entertainment ($14.6 gross against $12 million costs).
Boyle had his first collaboration with writer/author Alex Garland and his first Hollywood studio-backed feature with The Beach (2000), written by Hodge adapting Garland’s 1996 and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, with Tilda Swinton, Virginie Ledoyen, Guillaume Canet and Robert Carlyle, receiving mixed reviews and box office for 20th Century Fox after premiering in competition at the Berlin Film Festival.
Danny Boyle proceeded to his first feature as director with screenwriter Alex Garland and regular producer Andrew Macdonald, but returning to smaller budgets with U.K. backing for one of his biggest hits, the post-Apocalyptic horror movie, 28 Days Later (2002), starring Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Christopher Eccleston and Brendan Gleeson, and the first of several Boyle movies released by Fox Searchlight Pictures, returning ten times costs with a robust $84.6 million gross.
Boyle was the director of screenwriter Frank Cottrell-Boyce's comedy-drama about a kind-hearted nine-year-old Catholic lad (which Cottrell-Boyce adapted into a novel), Millions (2004), starring Alex Etel, Lewis Owen McGibbon, James Nesbitt, and Daisy Donovan, but delivering modest returns for Fox Searchlight and Pathe Distribution.
Boyle directed his only sci-fi drama with his third project with writer Alex Garland and second starring Cillian Murphy, the U.K./U.S. production led by regular producer Andrew Macdonald, the failed $40-million-budgeted Sunshine (2007), co-starring Rose Byrne, Cliff Curtis, Chris Evans, Troy Garity, Hiroyuki Sanada, Mark Strong, Benedict Wong and Michelle Yeoh, and losing money for producers DNA Films/UK Film Council/Ingenious Film Partners and distributor Fox Searchlight.
Boyle then enjoyed his greatest success with the megahit set in India, Slumdog Millionaire (2008), starring Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, Madhur Mittal, Anil Kapoor and Irrfan Khan, and then premiering at the Telluride Film Festival to rave reviews, with a fabulous box office return of $378.4 million (on a $15 million budget) for distributors Fox Searchlight and Pathe Distribution and capped with eight Oscars (including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Director for Boyle).
Danny Boyle’s only movie as director/co-writer/producer, 127 Hours (2010) is a stark departure from Slumdog, an intimate depiction of a rock climber in crisis based on Aron Ralston’s 2004 memoir, Between a Rock and a Hard Place, co-starring James Franco, Amber Tamblyn and Kate Mara, and released by Fox Searchlight Pictures/Warner Bros. Pictures U.K. to a profitable $60.7 million return.
Boyle was director/producer of the feature adaptation (by regular Doyle collaborator John Hodge) of writer Joe Ahearne’s British TV movie and story, Trance (2013), co-starring James McAvoy, Vincent Cassel and Rosario Dawson, and grossing only $24.3 million (on $20 million costs) for distributors Fox Searchlight Pictures/20th Century Fox (U.K.)/Pathe Distribution (France).
Boyle switched to the biopic genre as director/producer of screenwriter Aaron Sorkin’s version of Walter Isaacson’s biography, Steve Jobs (2015), starring Oscar-nominated Michael Fassbender (as Jobs), Oscar-nominated Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen and Jeff Daniels, grossing a mediocre $34.4 million (on a $30 million budget) for Universal Pictures after premiering at the Telluride Film Festival. Boyle returned to one of his first successes with the John Hodge-written sequel, T2 Trainspotting (2017), reuniting the original cast of Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller and Robert Carlyle, and delivering a successful return of $42 million (against $18 million costs) for Sony Pictures Releasing/TriStar Pictures.
Danny Boyle’s sole feature as producer only (with co-producers Christian Colson and Robert Graf) was the comedy-drama depiction of the Billie Jean King/Bobby Riggs tennis rivalry, Battle of the Sexes (2017), co-starring Emma Stone and Steve Carell, with Andrea Riseborough, Sarah Silverman, Bill Pullman, Alan Cumming, Eric Christian Olsen and Elisabeth Shue under Valerie Faris’s and Jonathan Dayton’s co-direction, but failing at the box office for Fox Searchlight Pictures after premiering at the Telluride Film Festival.
Boyle was director/producer of screenwriter Richard Curtis’s jukebox musical (based on Curtis’s and Jack Barth’s story), the Beatles-inspired Yesterday (2019), co-starring Himesh Patel, Lily James, Joel Fry, Ed Sheeran and Kate McKinnon, and grossing a fab $154.6 million global gross for Universal Pictures after premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Boyle once again returned to one of his earlier successes with the back-to-back projects reviving the 28 Days Later franchise backed by Columbia Pictures/Sony Pictures: Director/producer Boyle first reunited with writer/producer Alex Garland for the franchise’s third entry, 28 Years Later (2025), starring Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ralph Fiennes and Jack O’Connell; and then the immediate sequel directed by Nia DaCosta and written and co-produced by Garland, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026), for which Boyle was producer only and which co-starred Cillian Murphy.
Personal life
Danny Boyle was born and raised in the Manchester, England, community of Radcliffe by Irish-born parents Frank and Annie. Boyle has a twin sister, Marie, and a younger sister, Bernadette. Boyle was raised in the Catholic Church, but was persuaded by his priest not to train for the priesthood at a seminary. Boyle was a student at the Catholic boys’ grammar school, Thornleigh Salesian College. Boyle then majored in Drama and English at the University College of North Wales (currently Bangor University), from which he graduated. Boyle’s height is 5’ 11½ ”. Boyle’s estimated net worth is $60 million.
Danny Boyle Movies
Director
Collapse
Previous (6)
- 2025 |
28 Years Later
A group of survivors of the rage virus live on a small island. When one of the group leaves the island on a mission into the mainland, he discovers secrets, wonders, and horrors that have mutated not only the infected but other survivors.
- 2019 |
- 2017 |
T2 Trainspotting
After 20 years abroad, Mark Renton returns to Scotland and reunites with his old friends Sick Boy, Spud, and Begbie.
- -- | Steve Jobs
- -- | Slumdog Millionaire
- -- | National Theatre Live: Frankenstein
Producer
Collapse
Previous (5)
- 2025 |
28 Years Later
A group of survivors of the rage virus live on a small island. When one of the group leaves the island on a mission into the mainland, he discovers secrets, wonders, and horrors that have mutated not only the infected but other survivors.
- 2019 |
- 2017 |
T2 Trainspotting
After 20 years abroad, Mark Renton returns to Scotland and reunites with his old friends Sick Boy, Spud, and Begbie.
- 2017 |
Battle of the Sexes
The true story of the 1973 tennis match between World number one Billie Jean King and ex-champ and serial hustler Bobby Riggs.
- -- | Steve Jobs
Writer
Collapse
Previous (1)
- 2025 |
28 Years Later
A group of survivors of the rage virus live on a small island. When one of the group leaves the island on a mission into the mainland, he discovers secrets, wonders, and horrors that have mutated not only the infected but other survivors.
Facts About Danny Boyle
High Rank: Danny Boyle’s second movie, Trainspotting, reached such heights of acclaim that it ranked number ten on the British Film Institute’s list of the top 100 British films of the 20th century.
Theater Life: Boyle launched his directorial career in the theater with distinguished productions of Howard Brenton’s The Genius and Edward Bond’s Saved at the Royal Court Theatre and then five productions at the Royal Shakespeare Company, as well as a 2011 production of Frankenstein at the National Theatre.
Olympian: Danny Boyle served as artistic director of the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony in London, titled Isles of Wonder.
