Guy Stuart Ritchie (born 10 September 1968) is an English film director, film producer, screenwriter, and businessman, known for his British gangster films. He left his boarding school at age 15 and got entry-level jobs in the film industry in the mid-1980s. Ritchie eventually went on to direct commercials. In 1995 he directed his first film, The Hard Case, a 20-minute short that impressed investors who backed his first feature film, the crime comedy Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998). He then directed another cockney crime comedy, Snatch (2000).