Born in Johannesburg, South Africa Gavin Hood was educated at St. Stithians College and the University of Witwatersrand, where he studied law. He then went on to study screenwriting, acting and directing at UCLA, where he won a Diane Thomas Screenwriting Award for his first feature length screenplay.

Upon graduation, Hood went back to South Africa and worked in television, where he worked three award winning shows, including SABC TV production, The Game.

He then made his film directing debut with the short film, “The Storekeeper”, which went on to win several international awards. Gavin the followed this with feature length film called “A Reasonable Man”, where he starred alongside legendary English Actor, Sir Nigel Hawthorne. It was a critical success, winning Gavin the best actor, best screenwriter and best director awards at the All Africa Films.

Hood then went on to direct Polish language film In Desert and Wilderness, which was a commercial success in Poland. However Hood gained worldwide fame with his next film – Tsotsi. The film, which he directed, won the Oscars for the best foreign language film in the 78th Academy Awards held in Hollywood, California in March of 2006.