Leonard Ian Abrahamson (born 30 November 1966) is an Irish film and television director. He is known for directing such praised independent films as ''

Adam & Paul ''Adam & Paul'' is a 2004 Irish buddy comedy drama film directed by Lenny Abrahamson and starring Tom Murphy and Mark O'Halloran. It follows a day in the life of two Dublin drug addicts, Adam and Paul, as they wander around Dublin trying to s ...

'' (2004), ''

Garage A garage is a covered structure built for the purpose of parking, storing, protecting, maintaining, and/or repairing vehicles. Specific applications include: *Garage (residential), a building or part of a building for storing one or more vehicle ...

'' (2007), '' What Richard Did'' (2012), and ''

Frank Frank or Franks may refer to: People * Frank (given name) * Frank (surname) * Franks (surname) * Franks, a medieval Germanic people * Frank, a term in the Muslim world for all western Europeans, particularly during the Crusades - see Farang Curr ...

'' (2014), and Room (2015), all of which contributed to Abrahamson's six

Irish Film and Television Awards Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

. In 2015, he received widespread recognition for directing ''

Room In a building or large vehicle, like a ship, a room is any enclosed space within a number of walls to which entry is possible only via a door or other dividing structure that connects it to either a passageway, another room, or the outdoors, that ...

'', based on the novel of the same name by

Emma Donoghue Emma Donoghue (born 24 October 1969) is an Irish-Canadian playwright, literary historian, novelist, and screenwriter. Her 2010 novel ''Room'' was a finalist for the Booker Prize and an international best-seller. Donoghue's 1995 novel '' Hood'' ...

. The film received four nominations at the

88th Academy Awards The 88th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2015 and took place on February 28, 2016, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, 5:30 p.m. PST. Dur ...

including

Best Picture This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

and Best Director for Abrahamson. In 2020, he directed six episodes of and executive produced the television series '' Normal People'', for which he was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series.

Early life and education

Abrahamson was born in Rathfarnham,

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

, the son of

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

parents Edna (née Walzman) and

Max Abrahamson Max Abrahamson (29 October 1932 – 7 October 2018) was an Irish lawyer, internationally recognized as an expert in construction law. Background Abrahamson was the son of Tillie (née Nurock) and surgeon Leonard Abrahamson, whose Jewish familie ...

, a solicitor. Although his upbringing was not devoutly religious, his family belonged to an Orthodox synagogue, and he had a bar mitzvah ceremony and attended a

cheder A ''cheder'' ( he, חדר, lit. "room"; Yiddish pronunciation ''kheyder'') is a traditional primary school teaching the basics of Judaism and the Hebrew language. History ''Cheders'' were widely found in Europe before the end of the 18th ...

. Both sides of his family were originally from

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, whi ...

; his maternal grandparents were

Polish Jews The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Ashkenazi Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the l ...

who settled in Ireland in the 1930s, while his paternal grandfather, after whom he was named, was surgeon

Leonard Abrahamson Leonard Abrahamson (April 29, 1896 - 1961), known as 'the Abe', was an Irish surgeon specialising in cardiology. Born in Odessa, Ukraine, he was, from the 1920s to the 1960s, described as the "natural leader of the Jewish community" in Ireland. ...

, a

Ukrainian Jew The history of the Jews in Ukraine dates back over a thousand years; Jewish communities have existed in the territory of Ukraine from the time of the Kievan Rus' (late 9th to mid-13th century). Some of the most important Jewish religious and ...

from

Odesa Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrati ...

. Abrahamson's mother was a childhood friend of the future

President of Israel The president of the State of Israel ( he, נְשִׂיא מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, Nesi Medinat Yisra'el, or he, נְשִׂיא הַמְדִינָה, Nesi HaMedina, President of the State) is the head of state of Israel. The po ...

Chaim Herzog Aluf, Major-General Chaim Herzog ( he, חיים הרצוג; 17 September 1918 – 17 April 1997) was an Irish-born Israeli politician, general, lawyer and author who served as the List of Presidents of Israel, sixth President of Israel between ...

; both were the children of Polish-Jewish immigrants to Ireland, and grew up on Bloomfield Avenue in

Portobello Portobello, Porto Bello, Porto Belo, Portabello, or Portabella may refer to: Places Brazil * Porto Belo Ireland * Portobello, Dublin * Cathal Brugha Barracks, Dublin formerly ''Portobello Barracks'' New Zealand * Portobello, New Zealand, on Ot ...

. He was educated at The High School and

Trinity College Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

, where he was elected a scholar in philosophy in 1988, having transferred after a year of studying theoretical physics.

Career

Abrahamson was offered a scholarship to study for a PhD in Philosophy in

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...

. He abandoned his studies after six months and returned to Ireland to take up filmmaking, initially directing commercials, filming a popular series of adverts for

Carlsberg Carlsberg may refer to: Places * Carlsberg (district), a district in Copenhagen, Denmark ** Carlsberg station, its train station * Carlsberg, Germany, a municipality in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany * Carlsberg Fjord, Greenland Other uses * Carls ...

. His first film was ''

'', a black comedy that featured a pair of heroin addicts as they made their way around Dublin in search of a fix. The follow up film to this was 2007's ''

'', starring

Pat Shortt Patrick Shortt (born 12 December 1967) is an Irish actor, comedian, writer and entertainer. His role in the 2007 film '' Garage'' led to him receiving the IFTA for Best Actor. Career Shortt toured alongside Jon Kenny as comedy duo D'Unbelieva ...

as a lonely petrol station attendant in rural Ireland. Both films won the

IFTA Ifta is a former municipality in the Wartburgkreis district of Thuringia, Germany. Since 1 January 2019, it has been part of the town Treffurt Treffurt () is a small town in the western region of the Wartburgkreis district which belongs to the ...

award for best film

Also in 2007,

RTÉ (RTÉ) (; Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the national broadcaster of Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, whil ...

screened Abrahamson's four-part TV miniseries ''

Prosperity Prosperity is the flourishing, thriving, good fortune and successful social status. Prosperity often produces profuse wealth including other factors which can be profusely wealthy in all degrees, such as happiness and health. Competing notions ...

'', which was written in collaboration with Mark O'Halloran, the co-writer of ''Adam and Paul'' and ''Garage''. Like these two films, ''Prosperity'' focused on people on the fringes of Irish society, with each one-hour episode focusing on a specific character, including an alcoholic, a single mother, and an asylum seeker. ''Prosperity'' was nominated for six Irish Film and Television Awards in 2008 and won in two categories, Best Directing for Lenny Abrahamson, and Best Script for Mark O'Halloran. In 2012, he won his third IFTA for best film with '' What Richard Did''. In December 2012, in an interview with Eurochannel, Abrahamson announced that he was working on a UK film called ''Frank'' which is set in Britain, Ireland and the USA. "It's a comedy about a young musician who joins an eccentric band led by an enigmatic singer called Frank. It's a kind of road movie, strange, funny and quite original, I hope. It stars Michael Fassbender and Domhnall Gleeson." Abrahamson directed the film ''

'', which premiered at Sundance Film Festival in January 2014. The film is about an eccentric musician modeled after Frank Sidebottom. It stars

Michael Fassbender Michael Fassbender (born 2 April 1977) is an Irish actor. He is the recipient of various accolades, including a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Critics' Choice Movie Award, and nominations for two Academy Awards, four British Academy Film Award ...

Domhnall Gleeson Domhnall Gleeson (; born 12 May 1983) is an Irish actor and screenwriter. He is the son of actor Brendan Gleeson, with whom he has appeared in a number of films and theatre projects. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Media Arts from Dublin Ins ...

and

Maggie Gyllenhaal Margalit Ruth "Maggie" Gyllenhaal (; born November 16, 1977) is an American actress and filmmaker. Part of the Gyllenhaal family, she is the daughter of filmmakers Stephen Gyllenhaal and Naomi Achs, and the older sister of actor Jake Gyllenh ...

. He next directed the film adaptation of

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself ...

, ''

'' (2015), for which he received his first

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

nomination. The film was successful, both critically and commercially. In 2014, it was announced that Abrahamson would direct an adaptation of

Laird Hunt Laird Hunt (born April 3, 1968) is an American writer, translator and academic. Life Hunt grew up in Singapore, San Francisco, The Hague, and London before moving to his grandmother's farm in rural Indiana, where he attended Clinton Central Hig ...

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polici ...

novel ''Neverhome''. In 2015, Abrahamson was working on ''A Man's World'', a film based on

Emile Griffith Emile Alphonse Griffith (February 3, 1938 – July 23, 2013) was a professional boxer from the U.S. Virgin Islands who won world titles in three weight divisions. He held the world light middleweight, undisputed welterweight, and middleweight ...

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...

rivalry with

Benny Paret Bernardo Paret (March 14, 1937 – April 3, 1962), known as Benny Paret or Benny "Kid" Paret, was a Cuban welterweight boxer who won the World Welterweight Championship twice in the early 1960s. Paret's death occurred 10 days after injuries ...

. In 2016, it was confirmed that Abrahamson is attached to direct

Neal Bascomb Neal Bascomb (born 1971) is an American journalist and author. He is known for his books on popular history. Early life and education He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Miami University with a B.A. in Economics and English Literature. Career Af ...

's upcoming book ''The Grand Escape'', a true story of three daredevil

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

pilots being held in Germany's most infamous POW prison. The story chronicles WWI's greatest mass prison escape, and the pilots' subsequent flight to freedom. A writer to adapt Bascomb's book has not yet been attached. Element Pictures and

Film4 Productions Film4 Productions is a British film production company owned by Channel Four Television Corporation. The company has been responsible for backing many films made in the United Kingdom. The company's first production was '' Walter'', directed b ...

are producing.

Personal life

Abrahamson is married to Monika Pamula, a Polish-born film studies teacher; the couple have two children. Abrahamson is an

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

Filmography

Films

* ''3 Joes'' (1991; short film) * ''

'' (2004) * ''

'' (2007) * '' What Richard Did'' (2012) * ''

'' (2014) * ''

'' (2015) * ''

The Little Stranger :The Little Stranger ''is also the title of one of the Color Classics series produced 13 March 1936, in three-strip Technicolor, by Fleischer Studios. It is also the 2018 film adaptation of Waters' novel.'' ''The Little Stranger'' is a 2009 g ...

'' (2018)

Television

* ''

'' (2007) * '' Chance'' (2016; 2 episodes; also executive producer) * '' Normal People'' (2020; 6 episodes; also executive producer) * ''

Conversations with Friends ''Conversations with Friends'' is the 2017 debut novel by the Irish author Sally Rooney, about two young women who become involved with an older couple in Dublin's literary scene. The novel was published by Faber and Faber and received critical ...

'' (2022; 7 episodes; also executive producer)

Commercials

(2006) *

Meteor A meteoroid () is a small rocky or metallic body in outer space. Meteoroids are defined as objects significantly smaller than asteroids, ranging in size from grains to objects up to a meter wide. Objects smaller than this are classified as mi ...

(2009)

Awards and nominations

Academy Awards The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

* Best Director – ''

'' (2015) — Nominated

British Academy Television Awards The BAFTA TV Awards, or British Academy Television Awards are presented in an annual award show hosted by the BAFTA. They have been awarded annually since 1955. Background The first-ever Awards, given in 1955, consisted of six categories. Until ...

British Academy Television Award for Best Mini-Series The British Academy Television Award for Best Mini-Series is one of the major categories of the British Academy Television Awards (BAFTAs), the primary awards ceremony of the British television industry. The category is described by the BAFTA webs ...

– '' Normal People'' - Nominated

British Academy Television Craft Awards The British Academy Television Craft Awards is an accolade presented by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), a charitable organisation established in 1947, which: "supports, promotes and develops the art forms of the moving imag ...

* British Academy Television Craft Award for Best Director: Fiction – '' Normal People'' - Nominated

Primetime Emmy Awards The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the Primetime ...

* Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special – '' Normal People: "Episode 5"'' (2020) — Nominated

Irish Film & Television Awards The IFTA Film & Drama Awards are awards given by the Irish Film & Television Academy for Irish television and film, the awards began in 1999. The ceremonies recognise Irish creative talent working in film, drama, and television, and winners receiv ...

* Best Director for Film – ''

'' (2004) Winner * Best Director for Film – ''

'' (2007) Winner * Best Director for Film – '' What Richard Did'' (2012) Winner * Best Director for Television - Prosperity (2007) Winner

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films ...

* C.I.C.A.E. – ''

'' (2007)

Satellite Awards The Satellite Awards are annual awards given by the International Press Academy that are commonly noted in entertainment industry journals and blogs. The awards were originally known as the Golden Satellite Awards. The award ceremonies take place ...

* Best Director – ''

'' — (2015) Nominated

References

External links

*
Interview with Lenny Abrahamson
a
Eurochannel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abrahamson, Lenny 1966 births Living people Irish film directors Irish television directors Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Scholars of Trinity College Dublin Film people from Dublin (city) Irish people of Polish-Jewish descent Irish people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent Irish atheists Irish Jews Jewish atheists 20th-century Irish people 21st-century Irish people Stanford University people Best Director Genie and Canadian Screen Award winners People educated at The High School, Dublin People from Rathfarnham