After abjectly failing at his Scottish grammar school, Jeff Stark stumbled into advertising as Assistant Advertising Manager at Currys. Going on to work as a copywriter in a series of small agencies he was soon spotted by the newly formed Saatchi & Saatchi in 1976 and after six years of award winning work he left to form the Hedger Mitchell Stark agency. Two hugely successful years later he sold the agency to Saatchi & Saatchi and returned there as Creative Director.
Following another three years at Saatchi’s in London and New York, Jeff retired from advertising altogether to fulfil his lifelong ambition of sailing his small yacht around the world. Half way around, in Tonga, he got bored and promptly retired from sailing, returning to London in 1990 to fulfil his other lifelong ambition of directing commercials. Forming Stark Films in 1991 he quickly went on to win awards for work with British Airways, RSPCA, Walls, Impulse and Adidas and established himself as one of the UK’s most respected directors.
His first tentative move outside the advertising arena, the short film ‘Desserts’ starring Ewan McGregor, wasn’t so tentatively received and was selected for the Sundance Film Festival as well as winning a Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.
Jeff Stark has been with Another Film Company since early 2006.