Figgis is a British director, screenwriter, composer, producer and cinematographer. Until the age of eight, he lived in Nairobi in Kenia, and then returned to England with his family. He showed interest for music from an early age and so later he studied it in London. He was a musician and performer in the experimental theatre group People Show. He played keyboards in Bryan Ferry’s first band and at the age of thirty five he directed a theatre play that went on an international tour. At the same time he wrote and directed his first TV film, war drama The House (1984). Four years later he made his feature-length debut with the modern noir Stormy Monday (1988) starring Sting, Melanie Griffith and Tommy Lee Jonesom. Afterwards he went to the US and directed the thriller Internal Affairs (1990) starring Richard Gere and Andy Garcia, an unsuccessful thriller Liebestraum (1991) and the romantic drama Mr. Jones (1993) again starring Gere. However, this one was not financially successful. He achieved his greatest success with the romantic drama Leaving Las Vegas (1995), which won two Oscar nominations for screenplay and director, while Nicholas Cage won an Oscar for best actor. He encountered another financial failure with his romantic drama One Night Stand (1997). Afterwards he directed the low-budget and partly autobiographical film The Loss of Sexual Innocence (1999). In the end of the decade, he directed the drama Miss Julie (1999). Then he discovered digital video technology and started to research its possibilities. He directed the drama Timecode (2000) in four uninterrupted shots with four cameras making the viewers observe all four stories simultaneously. He returned to Hollywood and a star acting ensemble with the unsuccessful  Cold Creek Manor (2003). Besides feature-length films he directed many short films, documentary and promotional films. He took part in directing several omnibuses with other directors and his last film is the thriller Suspension of Disbelief (2012). Since 2008, he has been a lecturer on seminars at the European Graduate School in Switzerland.