Biography

Don Coutts is a Scottish filmmaker best known as the director of the 2003 feature film American Cousins and for bringing the world of Katie Morag to the screen. The successful translation of the characters from the books of Mairi Hedderwick has won nine awards - including a US Peabody, 3 BAFTAs, a Royal Television Society Scotland Children's Award, a Scottish BAFTA and a Kidscreen award.

He is also a documentary and music filmmaker who has worked on numerous current affairs and entertainment productions, including the late night discussion programme After Dark. He was recognised for his achievements and contributions at the 2015 Scottish BAFTA Awards where he won the Best Director Award. Don Coutts left school in 1967, and began work with the Simon Community before moving to London. Soon afterwards he was employed by Columbia Pictures as a clerk. Following work in Columbia's laboratories, he got a job in the studio's cutting rooms and worked on several films as an assistant film editor. Subsequently, Coutts was employed by Anglia TV and BBC East as an assistant film editor. At this time Coutts insisted he was the black sheep of the banking family.