Guy Stuart Ritchie (born 10 September 1968) is an English film director, producer and screenwriter. His work includes British
gangster films, and the
Sherlock Holmes films starring
Robert Downey Jr.
Ritchie left school at age 15 and worked entry-level jobs in the film industry before going on to direct television commercials. In 1995, he directed a short film,
The Hard Case, followed by the crime comedy
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998), his feature-length
directorial debut. He gained recognition with his second film,
Snatch (2000), which found critical and commercial success. Following
Snatch, Ritchie directed
Swept Away (2002), a critically panned
box-office bomb starring
Madonna, to whom Ritchie was married between 2000 and 2008. He went on to direct
Revolver (2005) and
RocknRolla (2008), which were less successful and received mixed reviews. In 2009 and 2011, he directed two box-office hits,
Sherlock Holmes and its sequel,
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, respectively. The former was nominated for
Academy Awards in
Best Original Score and
Best Art Direction.
His other directed motion pictures are
The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (2015), which is a remake of a 1960s spy series,
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017) and the
live-action adaptation of
Disney's
Aladdin (2019).
Aladdin earned more than $1 billion worldwide, becoming one of the
highest-grossing films in 2019, and the 34th
highest-grossing film of all-time during its theatrical run. In 2020, he returned to crime comedy with
The Gentlemen (2019), which was mostly well received and a commercial success. In 2021, he directed
Jason Statham in the action film
Wrath of Man. His thirteenth feature,
Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre, initially set for 2022, released in March 2023.
