Ben Winston

**Ben Winston** is a British producer and director, who established the production company Fulwell 73 with Gabe Turner, Ben Turner and Leo Pearlman.

He has produced and directed a number of pop culture oriented films, documentaries, concerts and music videos. He is also renowned for producing a number of the annual Brit Awards from 2011 to 2014. More recently he was a co-producer of US Grammy Awards and Tony Awards.

He has collaborated with a number of artists, most notably One Direction, JLS, Robbie Williams, Gary Barlow and James Corden.

## Early Life

Winston was born to a Jewish family, the son of Lord Robert Winston and Lira Helen Feigenbaum (now The Lady Winston). He has two siblings: Joel and Tanya.

## Career

Winston started at Fulwell 73 by co-producing in the *Hands of the Gods* in 2007. Since he has produced and directed shows including *The Michael McIntyre Chat Show* (BBC1) "Robbie Williams: One Night at The Palladium" (BBC1), "This is Justin Bieber" (ITV1), "One Direction: A Year In The Making," and the record breaking 8-hour marathon show "1D Day."

He also notably produced and directed *Gary Barlow: On Her Majesty's Service*. This film was the most watched single documentary of that year, while the song that came from it, "Sing" by Gary Barlow & The Commonwealth Band featuring Military Wives charted at number 1 for three weeks.

In 2014, he was executive producer of *The X Factor* in the UK. For Red Nose Day on BBC1, he directed and co-wrote many memorable Smithy sketches. Ben co-directed the 3D documentary movie, *JLS: Eyes Wide Open* which opened on over 400 screens across the UK. At the time it was the biggest grossing music cinema release of all time in the UK, but was beaten by the next film he produced, the One Direction hit movie *One Direction: This Is Us* for Columbia Pictures, which broke records around the globe.

He has directed many music videos which led to him winning an MTV VMA for his One Direction video "Best Song Ever". He is the first ever director to win two Brit Awards in consecutive years for Best Video of the Year, which he won in 2014 and 2015.

In 2014, he directed *When Corden Met Barlow* which aired on BBC One. The show included a 6-minute 45 second Carpool Karaoke segment in the documentary with singer Gary Barlow of the band Take That. James Cordon explained that "Ben Winston and I always thought there was something very joyful about someone very, very famous singing their songs in an ordinary situation. We just had this idea: Los Angeles, traffic, the carpool lane — maybe this is something we could pull off." Later on *Carpool Karaoke* was included as a regular featured segment on *The Late Late Show with James Corden* and other specials.

## Personal Life

Ben Winston is the son of Robert Winston and Lira Helen Feigenbaum. He is of Jewish origin. He is married to Meredith Winston and they have a daughter Ruby Winston. Ruby’s godfather is singer and actor Harry Styles.

## Awards

### 2016

* Primetime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Interactive Program" — won
* Primetime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Variety Special" — won
* Primetime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Variety Talk Series" — nominated

### 2017

* Primetime Emmy Awards for "Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special" — nominated
* PGA Award for "Outstanding Producer of Live Entertainment & Talk Television" — nominated

## Credits

### One Direction

#### Movies and T.V shows

* *One Direction: A Year in the Making* — director, producer

* *This Is Us* — documentary, producer
* *One Direction: Where We Are - The Concert Film —* documentary, executive producer
* *One Direction: The London Sessions —* documentary, executive producer

#### Music Videos

*Midnight Memories*

* "Best Song Ever" — director
* "Story of My Life" — director
* "Midnight Memories" — director
* "You & I" — director

*Four*

* "Night Changes" — director

*Made in the A.M.*

* "Drag Me Down" — executive producer
* "History" — executive producer

## External Links

* Official Twitter
* Official Instagram