Biography

Richard Hajdú was born in Szentes, Hungary. Between 2003 and 2008 he read English, American Studies and Film Theory and Film History at the University of Szeged (Hungary). During his years at university he founded and led Theatre 26, a university theatre group and translated (from English to Hungarian) and staged several productions; did voluntary work at the Hungarian Alternative Theatre Centre and helped organise THEALTER International Theatre Festival; was a member of the National Film Students’ Jury participating at major national film festivals; and published a number of scholarly articles on film theory and film history in academic journals one of which won first prize in the National Student Circle’s Competition in 2009. In 2008 he completed a diploma course at the Hungarian Society of Cinematographers’ Crew School in First Assistant Direction and Production Management.

After graduation he relocated to the UK and has been living and making films in London since 2010. In 2011 he graduated from the London Film Academy and was awarded Student of the Year. In 2013 he completed the 53-minute-long Eva and Noah and founded his film production and book publishing company Perseverance Enterprises (Richard Hajdú Studios from 2015). His short film S was nominated for the Grand Prix (Competition Labo) and won Prix du Public (Competition Labo) and Mention Spéciale du Jury Labo at the 2015 Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival. His political mafia thriller mini television series script Black as Mud was invited to participate in pitch meetings organised by the French screenwriters’ association Maison des Scénaristes at the 2016 Cannes International Film Festival and his short film script Crossing, set against the backdrop of the European refugee crisis, to the 2017 Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival.

To date, he has published five of his scripts and dramas on Amazon Kindle. In 2018, he was selected as a participant of BAFTA’s Crew programme and was founding member of the first London-based Hungarian theatre group HubArt. Also in 2018 his transgender rape-and-revenge feature film script Sweet Heart was selected as a Quarter Finalist in the Big Break Screenwriting Competition organised by Final Draft.

Since 2019 he has been leading workshops for directors and actors working in film. Since 2020 he has been representing the works of Róbert Hász, a multi-award winning Hungarian writer. Since 2023 he has regularly been making videos for a charity founded by the Filipino community in London that raises funds to help Filipino children with special educational needs.

In 2023 he held a research seminar on his filmmaking journey for PhD students of the Literatures and Cultures in English Program at the Institute of English and American Studies at the University of Szeged.

In 2023 he completed his first documentary feature Easy Digger about a Hungarian heavy machine operator and blogger and his family who relocated to London and whose story had been turned into a hit theatre play in Hungary. Since 2024 the film has been part of the Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives at the Central European University, a repository of collections related to the history of and the societal and economic changes in East-Central Europe since the end of the Second World War.

In 2024 he completed his short documentary No Fairy Tale about the tribulations of a family in today’s Hungary whose daughter has special educational needs.

As of 2026 he is developing two mini television series: Black as Mud, a political mafia thriller about the fight against the illegal oil trade set in an unnamed East-Central European country in the 1990’s; and Detective Marcell Fábián, adapted from Róbert Hász’s Hungarian period detective thriller novel series.
- IMDb mini biography by: Richard Hajdú