- Born
- Birth nameWaris Habibullah
- Waris Hussein moved to England at age nine with his parents. He later attended Cambridge University, graduating with honors, and at 21 started as a trainee director at the BBC, where his mother, the late Attia Hussein, worked. In addition to reading news in Hindi, she was also the station's dramatic star--translating William Shakespeare in Urdu and Hindi--as well as an author. Young Hussein, too, was influenced by his mother's artistic abilities and knew very early on that he wanted to be a director. After starting in television with work on Doctor Who (1963) (including directing the very first episode, An Unearthly Child (1963)), Hussein moved on to film, directing such legends as Lord Laurence Olivier, Bette Davis and Dame Joan Plowright.
While considering himself a British filmmaker, Hussein has worked both sides of the Atlantic, as well as India.
- IMDb mini biography by: Mike Konczewski (qv's & corrections by A. Nonymous)
- He was producer John Nathan-Turner's first choice to direct the 20th anniversary special The Five Doctors (1983).
- He was hired to direct The Fan (1981), but left three weeks before filming began due to reported "artistic differences".
- He was the first non-Caucasian director at the BBC in the early 1960s.
- He directed the first Doctor Who (1963) serial when the original director quit.
- [on Doctor Who (2005)] There is an element now, and I know we're living in a different era, of sexuality that has crept in. Why bring in this element when in fact you needn't have it there? The intriguing thing about the original person was that you never quite knew about him and there was a mystery and an unavailability about him. Now we've just had a recent rebirth and another girl has joined us, a companion, she actually snogged him.
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