Ridley Scott

An alumnus of the Royal College of Art in London, Scott began his career in television as a designer and director before moving into advertising as a commercial director. He made his film directorial debut with The Duellists (1977) and gained wider recognition with his next film, Alien (1979). Though his films range widely in setting and period, they showcase memorable imagery of urban environments, spanning 2nd-century Romein Gladiator (2000) and its 2024 sequel, 12th-century Jerusalem in Kingdom of Heaven (2005), medieval England in Robin Hood (2010), ancient Memphis in Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014), contemporary Mogadishu in Black Hawk Down(2001), futuristic cityscapes of Los Angeles in Blade Runner (1982), and extraterrestrial worlds in Alien, Prometheus (2012), The Martian (2015) and Alien: Covenant (2017).

Scott has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director three times, for Thelma & Louise (1991), Gladiator, and Black Hawk Down, while also receiving a nomination for Best Picture for The Martian. In 1995, both Scott and his brother Tony received a British Academy Film Award for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema. Three of his films—Alien, Blade Runner, and Thelma & Louise—have been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being considered "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In a 2004 BBC poll, Scott was ranked 10th on the list of most influential people in British culture.

Scott also works in television and has earned 10 Primetime Emmy Award nominations. He won twice, for Outstanding Television Film for the HBO film The Gathering Storm (2002) and for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special for the History Channel's Gettysburg (2011). He was Emmy-nominated for RKO 281 (1999), The Andromeda Strain (2008), and The Pillars of the Earth (2010). Along with Hugh Hudson, Adrian Lyne, Alan Parker, and his brother Tony, Scott was part of the "Adland Five" of British directors operating in the late 1970s and early 1980s who first established themselves in the advertising world before going on to Hollywood success.  Christopher Nolan and Christopher Frayling have cited the group's influence.