Stephen Frears (born June 20 1941) is a British film director.

He was born in Leicester, England. His initial career was in television, where he contributed to several high-profile series such as the BBC's Play for Today strand. His first film was the 1972 Gumshoe. It was his production of the one-off drama My Beautiful Laundrette for Channel 4 in 1985 that led to his successful film career when the production was released theatrically to cinemas, to great acclaim.

Following this Frears directed another successful British film, the Joe Orton biopic Prick Up Your Ears in 1987, and the following year made his Hollywood debut with Dangerous Liaisons. He has since directed a number of successful films in both Britain and America, including The Hi-Lo Country (1998), High Fidelity (2000) and Dirty Pretty Things (2003).

In recent years he has also occasionally returned to directing for television, perhaps most notably helming The Deal , a dramatised account of the alleged deal between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown to decide which of them should become leader of the Labour Party in 1994, for Channel 4 in 2003.

At the Edinburgh Television Festival in August 2004, Frears revealed that he was currently in pre-production of a second feature starring actor Michael Sheen as Tony Blair, the same part he had played in The Deal. Provisionally titled The Queen and set during the week between the death and funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997, the film is also due to star Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth II. It is projected for a release date sometime in 2005.

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