Mike Downey

Michael Downey is an Irish-British film producer. He is the co-founder and CEO of Film and Music Entertainment and the Chairman of the European Film Academy. Early years Downey was born in Devon, the son of Brigid Downey (née Flood) and Thomas Downey, who were economic migrants from Kildare, Ireland. The family moved to Taunton, Somerset, where he attended the St Georges Roman Catholic School and Huish's Grammar School aka Richard Huish College. Education and career After gaining a BA in French with Theatre Studies at the University of Warwick, Downey went on to continue post-graduate studies at the University of Paris III: Sorbonne Nouvelle (as a Boursier du Gouvernement Francais/French Government Scholar), and Paris X Nanterre. While working towards his MA and then PhD, he taught at the Lycée Charlemagne and at the theatre school at the Théâtre des Amandiers, under Patrice Chereau. The eighties saw Downey working as a theatre director France, Germany, the former Yugoslavia and the U.K. in theatres as varied an eclectic as The Gate (London), Bac To Bac Theatre (Exeter), Atelje 212 (Belgrade), Studiotheater and Theater Rechts der Isar (Munich) and the UK's National Student Theatre Company.