David Yates (born 1963 in St Helens, Merseyside) is an English film and television director. He has worked extensively in British television, mainly for the BBC, helming high-profile drama projects such as When I Was a Girl (1991), The Sins (2000), The Way We Live Now (2001), Paul Abbott's State of Play (2003), The Young Visitors (2003), Sex Traffic (2004) and Richard Curtis's The Girl in the Café (2005).
Yates was trained at the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield.
He received his highest-profile assignment to date when he was chosen to direct the fifth Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which is currently in post-production. He has been confirmed to film the sixth film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which is due to start filming in September 2007. In 2006 he won an Emmy Award for Best Direction in a Made for Television Movie for The Girl in the Café.
David was first inspired to become a director when he saw Steven Spielbergs "JAWS", and his father bought him his first camera at the age of 14. He then began making small movies with his brother, Andrew, in local parks. He studied Politics, English literature and Sociology at St Helens college in Merseyside, in which he produced grades of two A's and a C, although he was in hospital for six months at the time of studying.Following this, he attended University of Essex, followed by Beaconsfield film school, where he excelled as a fantastic student.
