Sam Menedes
Director. Born August 1, 1965, in Redding, England. Raised by his mother, an author of
children’s books, after his parents’ divorce, Mendes grew up in north London. He attended
Cambridge University, graduating in 1987. After graduation, he got a low-level job at the
Chichester Festival Theater. When a veteran director dropped out of a production of London
Assurance, the 23-year-old Mendes was asked to step in. The production became a hit, and
soon moved to Haymarket’s Theatre Royal. Mendes’s second effort, The Cherry Orchard,
starring Dame Judi Dench, opened later that same year.