Alex Hardcastle

Director

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Alex Hardcastle

Director

Alex Hardcastle is an award-winning director of feature films, commercials and television, and has worked with some of the biggest names in entertainment including Robin Williams, David Bowie, Chris Pratt, Steve Carell, Daniel Radcliffe, Rebel Wilson, Sir Elton John, Kevin Hart, Jon Hamm, Amy Poehler, Lily Tomlin, and Jane Fonda.

Alex recently released his first full length feature film Senior Year, starring Rebel Wilson, Alicia Silverstone, Sam Richardson, Mary Holland, Chris Parnell and Justin Hartley. The movie reached #1 in over 60 countries including the USA, UK, Canada and Australia, and stayed in the worldwide Top 10 for 6 weeks. It was in 2022’s Top Ten most viewed movies on Netflix, and was nominated for a People’s Choice Award for Best Comedy Film 2022.

Alex has directed nearly 200 episodes of television, including some of America’s most popular shows The Office, Parks & Recreation, New Girl, Love Victor, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, You’re the Worst, Grace & Frankie, The Crazy Ones, Fresh Off the Boat, Suburgatory and The Mindy Project.

Other shows Alex has directed include the cult-hit David Cross comedy The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret, A Young Doctor’s Notebook, Running Wilde, A to Z, Spy, The Middle, Superstore, The Good Cop, Outsourced, Selfie, Mixology, Krod Mandoon & the Flaming Sword of Fire, Trophy Wife, Super Fun Night and Breaking In starring Christian Slater.

Alex directed the pilot and first two series of the UK’s most successful multi-cam sitcom of all time, Not Going Out (BBC1). The show is now in its 14th season, won The Rose D’Or and is shown in over 120 countries worldwide. Alex also directed over 25 episodes of the critically acclaimed Lead Balloon (BBC2), and the pilot for the award-winning School of Comedy (Channel 4).

Alex has produced some of the biggest selling stand up DVD’s of all time including Lee Evans XL, Jack Dee Live and Lee Mack Live, and music specials with Elton John, Rod Stewart, The Spice Girls, The Pet Shop Boys and Sting.

Alex was nominated for Best Director at the American TV Awards 2012 for his work on Suburgatory, and was selected as Rising Star of Tomorrow by Screen International 2014. In 2017 he was included in Indiewire's list of the 20 best directed TV-shows of the 21st Century for his work on You’re the Worst. His shows have been nominated for Golden Globes, Emmys, British Comedy Awards and BAFTAs.

Click to see showreels of some of Alex's comedy and drama work, including The Office, Parks & Recreation, American Woman, A Young Doctor's Notebook, Grace & Frankie, The Crazy Ones and New Girl.

Movies

Senior Year is Alex’s first full-length studio film. It’s a high-concept, high school comedy starring Rebel Wilson (Pitch Perfect, JoJo Rabbit), Sam Richardson (Veep), Chris Parnell (30 Rock), Alicia Silverstone (Clueless), Justin Hartley (This is Us), Michael Cimino (Love Victor), Angourie Rice (Mare of Eastown), Mary Holland (Happiest Season), Zoe Chao (Downhill) and Brandon Scott Jones (Ghosts).

The movie was produced by Paramount Players for Netflix and was released worldwide on May 13th 2022, reaching the top spot in over 60 countries including the US, Canada, Mexico, Australia, UK, Brazil, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Greece, Hungary, Sweden, South Africa and Israel. The movie was nominated for a People’s Choice Award for Best Comedy Movie, and was in Netflix’s Top 10 most watched movies worldwide in 2022.

Pilots

A Young Doctor's Notebook

**Netflix / Sky Atlantic**
Alex directed the pilot & entire first series of this time-travelling Gothic period drama starring Jon Hamm (*Mad Men*) and Daniel Radcliffe (*Harry Potter*), adapted from Mikhail Bulgakov's classic novel. The four-part mini-series was set in Russia in 1917 and 1932. It premiered on Sky Arts and is the highest rated show in the history of the channel. The show was nominated for **Best Film** at The Shanghai Film Festival, and won **Best Multichannel Show** at the Broadcast Awards.

1000full-the-increasingly-poor-decisions-of-todd-margaret-poster.jpg — The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret

**Netflix / IFC / Sundance / Channel 4**
Alex directed the pilot and entire first series of this hit show created by David Cross (*Arrested Development*) and starring Will Arnett (*Bojack Horseman, The Lego Batman Movie*), Sharon Horgan (*Pulling, Catastrophe*), Blake Harrison (*The Inbetweeners*) and Spike Jonze.The show went on to shoot 3 additional seasons and has become a cult hit on both sides of the Atlantic.

Not Going Out

**Avalon Television for BBC1**
Alex directed the pilot and first two series of *Not Going Out*, which is the UK's longest running sitcom of all time.
Starring Lee Mack, Miranda Hart, Sally Breton and Time Vine, the show is currently in its 12th season on BBC1 and is shown in more than 120 countries around the world, winning numerous awards, including the Rose D'Or.

Krod Mandoon & the Flaming Sword of Fire

**HatTrick for Comedy Central & BBC2**
Alex directed the pilot and entire first series of this medieval action-comedy starring Kevin Hart (*Jumanji*), Sean Maguire (*Meet the Spartans*), India de Beaufort and Matt Lucas (*Little Britain, Alice in Wonderland)*.
The show was broadcast both sides of the Atlantic and went on to become a cult hit favourite.

American Woman

**Warner Bros for Paramount Television**
In fall 2016 Alex directed the pilot for the 1970's period drama American Woman starring Alicia Silverstone (*Clueless*), Cheyenne Jackson (*30 Rock, American Horror Story*) and Mena Suvari (*American Beauty*). The show was picked up and the 12-part mini- series was produced by Warner Bros for The Paramount Network. It premiered in June 2018. Alex continued to direct and produce 6 further episodes of the show.

-methode-sundaytimes-prod-web-bin-e010259a-9a0d-11e7-a47a-dea170dd3692.jpg — You People

**Objective Productions for BBC1**
In 2017 Alex directed the pilot for the Matt Lucas project *You People* for BBC1.
The sketch based show featured all new characters from Matt Lucas (*Little Britain, Come Fly with Me, Alice in Wonderland)* and co-starred Justin Edwards and Thomas Lennon.

Lead Balloon

**Open Mike for BBC2 / Netflix**
Alex directed the pilot of Lead Balloon, which became one of the BBC's most successful and critically acclaimed comedy-dramas of all time, running for 4 seasons and 28 episodes.
Starring Jack Dee, Raquel Cassidy (*Teachers*), Tony Gardner, Rasmus Hardiker, Antonia Campbell Hughes and Anna Crilly, with guest appearances from Robbie Coltrane (*Cracker, Harry Potter).*

School of Comedy

**Leftbank Pictures for Channel 4**
Alex directed the pilot for this LeftBank Pictures Channel 4 sketch comedy series was turned into a television show after a successful run of review shows at the Edinburgh Festival. Starring Will Poulter (*We're the Millers, Detroit*) and Jack Harries, the show became a big hit for the network. It was produced by Andy Harries (*The Crown*).

Spy

**Disney Studios for ABC**
Starring Rob Corrdry (*Children's Hospital, Ballers*), Paget Brewster (*Criminal Minds*), Mason Cook (*Speechless)* and Nat Faxon (*The Way Way Back, Friends from College*), this action comedy focussed on a hapless father who accidentally ends up working for the FBI director, played by Ken Jeong (*Community, The Hangover*).

Scallywagga

**BBC Studios for BBC3**
Alex directed the pilot of this show which went to win Best TV Comedy at the RTS Awards and became 2 successful BBC series. Originally titled ***Scallywagga*** it is a British comedy sketch show, written by Stuart Kenworthy, who has worked on *Green Wing* and *Smack the Pony*.

100 Questions for Charlotte Payne

**Universal Studios for NBC**
Alex directed the pilot and 6 further episodes of this hybrid comedy starring David Walton *(About a Boy)*, Colette Woolfe *(Eastbound & Down)*, Sophie Winkleman (*Two & A Half Men*) and Chris Moynihan *(A Mighty Wind).*

Screenshot+2021-03-03+at+17.04.59.jpg — Richard Lovely

**20th Century Fox for Fox Network**
In 2018 Alex directed *Richard Lovely*, a comedy about a hugely successful children’s book author who dislikes kids, and has to confront his fears when a foster child is forced upon him.
The show is part live-action, part-animation and stars Thomas Lennon (*Reno 911, Night at the Museum*), Wendie Malik (*Hot in Cleveland*), Andrew Rannells (*Girls*), Asif Ali, Nicole Sun and Nicole Richie (*Grace & Frankie*). The show was written by Billy Finnegan (*Grace & Frankie, Don’t Trust the B***).*

Commercials

Alex has directed a numerous commercial campaigns over the past few years, for PetSmart and Kohls. He directed the launch film commercial for Comic Relief UK, starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost and produced by Richard Curtis (Notting Hill, Four Weddings). He has also shot product integration with Hyundai for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, and Toyota for Suburgatory. He recently directed a series of spots for Kohls starring Hilary Duff.