Mark Herman is an English film director and screenwriter notable for writing & directing the 2008 film The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.Mark Herman was educated at Woodleigh School, North Yorkshire. He was late entering the film industry. Aged 27 he was drawing cartoons at art college before becoming involved in drama when he began studying film at Leeds Polytechnic, now the Metropolitan University of Leeds. He then trained as an animator at the National Film School in London.He moved away from animation and continued to study directing. He also wrote lyrics for The Christians.Herman s first feature- length project was Blame It on the Bellboy (1992), a comedy of mistaken identity starring Dudley Moore and Bryan Brown.Next, Herman wrote and directed the critically acclaimed Brassed Off (1996), following the members of a colliery brass band, still struggling to survive a decade after the miners' strike.