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Sam Taylor-Johnson

A successful visual artist renowned for being a member of the in-crowd, Sam Taylor-Wood made a mid-career turn into filmmaking, becoming a darkhorse darling of the U.K. indie film scene in the late 2000s. The product of a counter-cultural upbringing, Taylor-Wood came to the fore as a member of the insular fraternity of artists who came to be known as the Young British Artists, or Britart. Making a name for herself with conceptual artwork exploring stark isolation; combining still photos, video and sound; and working with celebrities such as Robert Downey, Jr., Elton John and David Beckham, she earned accolades through the 1990s and 2000s, before essaying into film directing. She won plaudits for her feature-directing debut with the indie film "Nowhere Boy" (2009), a somber family drama about an adolescent John Lennon, and stirred up a minor buzz when Taylor-Wood, at 42, left her husband after beginning a relationship with the film's teenage star. Fueled by the travail of troubled upbringing, Taylor-Wood rode her unique renderings of internal turmoil, even amid lavish settings, to the height of English hipster couture.