Frears has directed numerous movies since the 1980s including "My Beautiful Laundrette", "Dangerous Liaisons", "High Fidelity", "The Queen", "Philomena", and "Florence Foster Jenkins". He has been nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Director: for "The Grifters" and "The Queen". In 2008 "The Daily Telegraph" named him among the 100 most influential people in British culture.