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Born in 1963, Evans studied a History of Art degree at university before taking a one year course in film. He worked as a runner for a commercials company in London before becoming involved within the Welsh television sphere.

Evans has worked on a host of high profile television programmes. In 1989 he co-directed mini-series The Gift with Red Saunders, an adaptation of a Peter Dickinson novel.

Two years later he directed Friday on My Mind and a year on, Thicker Than Water, starring Theresa Russell and Jonathan Pryce, for the Â鶹Éç. In the mid 1990s he worked on the Ruth Rendell Mysteries, directing Master Of The Moor.

Evans' acclaimed film debut film came in the form of House of America, starring Siân Phillips and Steven Mackintosh. He won the BAFTA Cymru Award for Best Director, the Best Directorial Debut and the FIPRESCI Prize for best film at the Stockholm Film Festival.

Resurrection Man followed, as did controversy, in 1998. The screenplay was written by Eoin McNamee and starred Brenda Fricker and Stuart Townsend in a thriller set amidst sectarian violence in Northern Ireland.

In 2000 Evans wrote and directed a feature-length music documentary Beautiful Mistake (Camgymeriad Gwych), which premiered at the Cardiff International Film Festival in November of the same year. The film follows Welsh musicians interacting and playing, including Catatonia, Super Furry Animals and James Dean Bradfield, with the musical score penned by John Cale.

First screened at the Edinburgh Film Festival before its general release in October 2002, psychological horror My Little Eye firmly established Evans as one of Britain's most exciting directors. The claustrophobic Big Brother inspired horror proved a hit with critics and audiences in Edinburgh, and at the box offices after it's wider release.

Another edgy psychological thriller, Trauma, was released in 2004 starring Colin Firth and Mena Suvari, and written by Richard Smith. Also in 2004, Dal: Yma/Nawr (Still: Here/Now), received five Welsh BAFTA nominations and won the Spirit of the Festival Award at the Celtic Film and Television Festival. It starred Siân Phillips, Ioan Gruffudd, Matthew Rhys and Rhys Ifans among other Welsh stars.

Two years later Snow Cake was released, starring Sigourney Weaver and Alan Rickman; Weaver plays an autistic woman and Rickman an ex-convict, in addition to being the person involved in the car accident that killed Weaver's character's daughter.

In 2007 Evans produced In Prison My Whole Life, about former Black Panther and imprisoned political activist Mumia Abu-Jamal. It was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema: Documentary category at the Sundance Film Festival.

In 2009 Evans directed Collision, a five part drama created by Anthony Horowitz, that was broadcast on ITV in November 2009.

His film Patagonia, a road movie about a Welsh couple travelling through the Welsh settlements, was shown at a number of film festivals in 2010. Starring Evans' wife, Nia Roberts, and fellow Welsh actor Matthew Rhys it is due for general release in early 2011.

Evans is currently working on his latest feature Hunky Dory, with rising Welsh actor Aneurin Barnard among the cast.

Selected filmography

• House of America (1996)
• Resurrection Man (1997)
• Beautiful Mistake (2000)
• My Little Eye (2002)
• Trauma (2004 )
• Snow Cake (2006)
• In Prison My Whole Life (2007)
• Collision (2009)
• Patagonia (2010)