Peter Strickland is a British film director and screenwriter born in 1973 in Reading, Berkshire, to a Greek mother and British father. He is best known for his distinctive films including "Katalin Varga" (2009), "Berberian Sound Studio" (2012), "The Duke of Burgundy" (2014), and "In Fabric" (2018). His first feature film "Katalin Varga," a low-budget rural revenge drama, was self-financed with an inheritance from his uncle and filmed in Romania over 17 days, winning the European Film Award for European Discovery of the Year in 2009. Strickland's work is characterized by psychological horror, meticulous sound design, and explorations of obsession and fetishism. His films often pay homage to giallo horror cinema and feature immersive atmospheric experiences. He lived in Slovakia and Hungary for most of the 2000s and is also a member of The Sonic Catering Band and runs his own record label, Peripheral Conserve. Critics have described him as "a key British film-maker of his generation" for his emergence as a unique voice in contemporary cinema.