Lewis Arnold

Biography

Lewis Arnold is an English director working in television. He is best known for the shows Time, Sherwood, and Des.

Arnold studied at the University of Gloucestershire and graduated in 2007 with a 1st Class Honours degree in Video Production. He later studied for an MA in Directing Fiction at the National Film and Television School, graduating in 2013.

On graduating from the National Film and Television School in March 2013, Arnold embarked on his first TV project, directing two episodes of the final series of BAFTA-winning channel 4 show, Misfits. 

He then directed the first four episodes of Russell T Davies’s new E4 show, Banana, and was named a Broadcast Magazine Hot Shot 2014 for his work on both shows.

In 2015, he directed two episodes of C4/AMC series Humans, which has become Channel 4's most successful original drama in over twenty years.

A second series was recommissioned and a year later he returned to direct the opening block. He followed this up by directing an episode of British crime drama Broadchurch for Sister Pictures.

In 2021, Arnold directed James Graham's Sherwood for BBC One. The show starred Lesley Manville, David Morrissey, and Adeel Akhtar who won the 2023 BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Andy Fisher. 

Sherwood was described as "an adeptly executed crime drama, driven by tight, deliberate plotting, genuinely unforeseen turns, and a palpable friction between its two detective protagonists.”

In 2022/23, Arnold is set to direct all seven episodes of George Kay's The Long Shadow for ITV.

In 2020, Arnold created and wrote Directors Now, a free online resource and downloadable book. The document contains the breakout stories of over a hundred, working directors, across a variety of disciplines including TV, film, animation, documentary, and commercials. 

Created for aspiring filmmakers during the 2022 pandemic, the book has been downloaded by 2,000 individuals, whilst the site itself has been visited by 32,000 unique users.