Scott Hicks Biography

SCOTT HICKS

Date of Birth: March 4, 1953

"Each stage for me has been an enormous learning process and I firmly believe that you keep applying yourself to what you do and the chances are, if you have a sliver of ability, you're going to get better." Scott Hicks

Born in Uganda, Hicks lived in Kenya, just outside Nairobi, until the age of ten. His family then moved, first to England and, when he was 14, on to Adelaide, Australia. An only child, with little exposure to the film industry, his first love was radio.

At 16, he had completed high school and decided to enter Adelaide University for a degree in the arts and law. "I'd been enrolled and accepted and then I went to go see a musical VietRock and at the end of it they said there would be a discussion that would be chaired by a philosophy professor from a new university that had been established a few years earlier. I thought it would be some boring old fart that would just talk my ears off when all of the sudden this guy came down the aisle in his mid fifties with long hair and denims and I thought he looked pretty cool. I decided to stay and watch him speak and afterwards went to visit the university. I found it extremely interesting and decided to enroll there but I wanted to do English and History. They said I couldn't mix disciplines with major subjects so I had to choose something else. So I decided to do English and a much easier subject in drama. It ended up changing my life."

Four years later, he graduated into an industry which was emerging from decades of inactivity, stimulated by renewed government support for the arts. Hicks worked as a crew member on a dozen features over the next few years. At the same time, he was successful in bidding for contracts to write and direct short dramas and sponsored documentaries.

By the mid-1980s, he had managed to make a couple of low budget features, one for the South Australian Film Corporation. Hicks began to make non-fiction films. The Great Wall of Iron which was the Discovery Channel's highest-rated program was soon followed by his series Submarines: Sharks of Steel.

By 1996, Hicks had struck gold with his feature film, Shine. Starring Geoffery Rush and telling the story of pianist David Helfgott, the film was a resounding hit and soon became a cultural phenomenon, beloved by people around the world. Garnering him award nominations from the Academy Awards, BAFTA and Golden Globes for Best Director, Best Picture and Best Screenplay, it received the People's Choice Award at the Toronto Film Festival.

With his first worldwide success under his belt, Hicks went on to direct more feature films like Snow Falling on Cedars (1999) and Hearts in Atlantis (2001). He most recently directed Zac Efron and Taylor Schilling in the romantic drama The Lucky One (2012).

Despite his Hollywood success, Hicks continues to live in Adelaide with his wife and collaborator, Kerry Heysen, and their two sons.

Filmography (director):

The Lucky One (2012)
The Boys Are Back (2009)
Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts (2007)
No Reservations (2007)
Hearts in Atlantis (2001)
Snow Falling on Cedars (1999)
Shine (1996)
Sebastian and the Sparrow (1989)
Call Me Mr. Brown (1986)
Freedom (1982)
Down the Wind (1975)