Trudie Styler


Trudie Styler is an English actress, film producer and director.

Acting career

Styler trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and went on to appear in various period BBC productions. She joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, in which she played multiple major roles. Her theatre credits also include The Vagina Monologues, Twin Spirits, and The Seagull.
She has appeared in many British television series such as The Mayor of Casterbridge and The Scold's Bridle, and in the United States television shows Empire, The Night Of, and Falling Water.
Film work includes Lifetime Television's Living Proof and Paul Haggis' The Next Three Days. Styler has also made seven mind-body fitness DVDs released by Gaia, Inc..

Film production

In the mid-nineties Styler established Xingu Films, a production company dedicated to supporting new talent, such as Guy Ritchie, Dito Montiel and Duncan Jones. In late July 2008 it was announced that Xingu had optioned American Reaper, an upcoming graphic novel written by Pat Mills, who would also write the screenplay.
Styler has produced and co-directed several award-winning documentaries and feature films, including Guy Ritchie's Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch; Duncan Jones' Moon; and Michael Apted's Moving the Mountain, which won the 1994 International Independent Documentary Award.
After moving to New York, Styler co-founded the production company Maven Pictures with Celine Rattray in 2011. Their first feature, Girl Most Likely, starred Kristen Wiig; closely followed by Filth, starring James McAvoy; Black Nativity starring Forest Whitaker; Ten Thousand Saints starring Ethan Hawke; and American Honey starring Shia LaBeouf, which won Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016. Styler's 2017 directorial debut, Freak Show, is based on the New York Times bestseller by James St. James, and stars AnnaSophia Robb, Alex Lawther, and Bette Midler. Freak Show debuted at the 2017 Berlin International Film Festival.

Philanthropy

In 1989, Styler and Sting started the Rainforest Foundation Fund, an organisation devoted to protecting rainforests and their indigenous peoples, and since 1991 she has produced regular Rock for the Rainforest benefits at Carnegie Hall. As a UNICEF Ambassador, Styler has also raised millions for their projects around the globe.
In 2008, it was reported that Styler donated £10,000 into the charitable Ama Sumani cancer fund. Sumani was terminally ill with cancer and unable to afford treatment in her native Ghana, but had been deported from a Cardiff hospital after the expiry of her visa. Sumani died on 19 March 2008.
Styler is also a patron of the Elton John AIDS Foundation.
In 2011, she and producer Celine Rattray founded Maven Pictures, a motion picture development, production, and financing company.

Personal life

Trudie Styler was born in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, England, the daughter of Pauline and Harry Styler, a farmer and factory worker. When Styler was two years old, she was hit by a van. She received severe facial injuries that left her badly scarred and required several plastic surgery operations up until the age of 18. Her classmates nicknamed her "scarface", which caused her to feel for many years that she was "not a very attractive person".
Styler met rock musician Sting while she was at the Old Vic Theatre and dating actor Peter O'Toole. They were married on 22 August 1992, and have four children, including Brigitte Michael and Eliot Paulina. Eliot is the lead singer for the band I Blame Coco.

Filmography

Producer