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Toby Roberts ~ Director
Toby Roberts studied Film & Television at the University of California, Los Angeles. Having spent two years learning the ropes of production at Stargate Digital special effects house he moved into screenwriting completing 16 scripts for television broadcast both in the USA and Europe.
Toby then returned to the UK to pursue his interests in directing. His first project was a mockumentary focussing on rural village life in Essex, specifically Wivenhoe, the bohemian town he was brought up in.
Shortly after this Toby was commissioned by Anglia Television to direct Smack Heads, a 30-minute documentary about the changing face of traditional sailing within the Eastern region. Smack Heads led directly to another documentary for Anglia, this time about The Independent's resident pop-poet Martin Newell.
Moving into narrative film, Toby produced the short, Remote, in association with the UK Film Council. He also produced and directed four shorts of his own: Love at the Garden Gate, The One About The Sheep, Chrysanthemum's the Word, (nominated for 22 international film festivals in six countries, winner of two awards) and Back to the Fuchsia (35 international film festivals in eight countries, winner of four awards).
Toby's interests in music have resulted in his filming The Scissor Sisters, Rod Stewart, Bryan Adams and Elton John in concert as well as making promos for hip hop/blues newcomers NuBlues, country/folk singer Adrian Nation, Jazz guitarist Michael Spearman and UK solo artist Tara Chinn.
In addition, Toby worked as first assistant director on a soap-opera shot in Nairobi, Kenya, and as key second assistant director in Morocco on Irwin Winkler's film Home of the Brave starring Samuel L. Jackson, Fifty Cent and Jessica Biel.
Toby currently has in development his debut feature film Four For The Border. He has also been invited to attend the Talent Campus at Berlinale this year and was selected for the Berlin Today Award 2011.