Tom Waller

Tom Waller (full name Thomas de Warrenne Waller) was born in Bangkok to a Thai Buddhist mother and Irish Catholic father. He spent his formative years at a Benedictine monastery school in Yorkshire, England, before pursuing a career in film and television. After attending the Northern Film School in Leeds, England in 1995, he embarked on producing and directing his first feature film project Monk Dawson (1998) aka Passion for the Priest (US video title), based on the award-winning novel by Piers Paul Read. The film was theatrically released in 1998 to critical acclaim.

After 5 years in London, Waller returned to his native Thailand in 2002 as a producer of independent feature films, with Butterfly Man (2002), Ghost of Mae Nak (2005), The Elephant King (2006) amongst the acclaimed titles produced through his production company De Warrenne Pictures. In 2008, he produced Thomas Clay's Soi Cowboy (2008) which was selected for the Cannes Film Festival in Un Certain Regard.

After producing assignments in Thailand on foreign films Bitter/Sweet (2009), Creation (2009) and the The Prince & Me: The Elephant Adventure (2010), Waller decided to return to his passion for directing with Sop-mai-ngeap (2011), his Thai language cinematic directorial debut. The film was nominated for 5 Thailand National Film Association awards including Best Picture and Best Director.