Curtis began his career working at the
Royal Court Theatre. His first job was assistant director for
Caryl Churchill's
Top Girls. He later became assistant director to both
Danny Boyle and
Max Stafford-Clark. Theatre productions Curtis has worked on include the world premiere of
Road,
A Lie of the Mind,
Roots,
Dinner with Friends and
The Rise and Fall of Little Voice. In 1996, Curtis directed episodes of the television comedy series
Tracey Takes On... for
HBO. He also directed the three-part television drama
Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky for
BBC Four in 2005. The serial is an adaptation of
Patrick Hamilton's
20,000 Streets Under the Sky novels. He directed the BBC's adaptation of
Elizabeth Gaskell's
Cranford in 2007. In August 2008, Curtis directed the one-off television drama
A Short Stay in Switzerland for the BBC. The drama, featuring
Julie Walters, was based on the true story of Dr. Anne Turner, who decided to take her own life at a
Dignitas clinic in 2006.
A Short Stay in Switzerland was nominated for Best Single Drama at the
Royal Television Society Awards and the
British Academy Television Awards. In 2004, Curtis approached producer
David Parfitt about making a film based on
The Prince, The Showgirl and Me and
My Week with Marilyn; two diary accounts written by
Colin Clark about his time with
Marilyn Monroe.
Adrian Hodges wrote and adapted the screenplay for the film called
My Week with Marilyn. Curtis and Parfitt went to
BBC Films and the
UK Film Council and they put up the money for development.
My Week with Marilyn was filmed in late 2010 and released in November 2011. In 2015, Curtis directed and executive produced the biographical film
Woman in Gold, starring
Helen Mirren as
Maria Altmann, a Holocaust survivor attempting to recover a portrait of her aunt painted by
Gustav Klimt which was stolen from her family by the Nazis and had eventually become property of the government of Austria, and closely connected to Austrian identity. Curtis' wife
Elizabeth McGovern has a small role as a court judge in the film. Curtis directed the 2019
feature film adaptation of
Garth Stein's
The Art of Racing in the Rain, starring
Milo Ventimiglia and
Amanda Seyfried. In April 2021, it was announced Curtis would direct
Downton Abbey: A New Era, the sequel to the
first film and
television series of the same name. ==Personal life==