Mike Lee Thomas
About
Mike Lee Thomas is a filmmaker and photographer from Teesside, in the North of England. He works across film and photography, with a practice rooted in people, landscape and the ways places shape those who inhabit them.
His films are slow and observational, and concerned with the dignity of their subjects. That work has brought a nomination at the Cannes Young Director Award, taken him around the world with the BBC, and marked the retirement of Rafael Nadal. He has directed commercials and campaigns for Kia, Hyundai, Tommy Hilfiger, Superdry, New Balance, ZEISS, Honor, Callaway and Leaps by Bayer.
In 2023 he founded Arena, a DIY gallery and exhibition space in Newcastle created to champion artists from the North East and give their work a platform outside of London. The Dawdler, built around a North East composer diagnosed with MS who could no longer perform, ran as an exhibition, film, book and live performance.
He is developing a long-form photographic study of Teesside, documenting the communities and landscapes shaped by its industrial past.
