Richard Eyre is one of the country's most respected directors of stage and screen. Richard directed his first production, The Knack, at the Phoenix Theatre, Leicester (1965); Assistant Director, Phoenix Theatre (1967); Associate Director, Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh (1967) and Director of Productions (1970-1972). Productions there included Three Sisters, Uncle Vanya, Trumpets and Drums, The White Devils, The Crucible, Juno and the Paycock, Othello, Macbeth, Henry IV parts 1 & 2, and The Master Builder. Edinburgh Festival: The Changeling, Random Happenings In The Hebrides, Confessions Of A Justified Singer.

Richard became Artistic Director of Nottingham Playhouse between 1973-78. Productions there included: Brassneck (as Producer), The Taming of the Shrew, The Government Inspector, The Plough and the Stars, The Churchill Play, Bendigo, Comedians (later for the National Theatre at The Old Vic and Wyndham's) Bartholemew Fair, The Alchemist, Deeds, Touched, and The Cherry Orchard.

Work in London includes the Ha-ha (Hampstead - own adaptation) The Great Exhibition (Hampstead) Jingo (RSC) Hamlet, Edmond, Kafka's Dick, The Shawl (Royal Court); High Society (Leicester Haymarket and Victoria Palace), The Judas Kiss (Almeida/Broadway) and The Novice (Almeida). Richard’s production of the crucible, starring Liam Neeson and Laura Linney, opened at the Virginia Theatre on Broadway in March 2002.

Mary Poppins, directed by Richard, opened at the Bristol Hippodrome in September 2004 and at the Prince Edward theatre in the West End in December 2004. It opened in New York in November 2006. It was nominated for nine 2006 Lawrence Olivier Awards including Best New Musical and Best Director, and three Evening Standard Award nominations including Best Musical and Best Director. Hedda Gabler, adapted and directed by Richard, opened at the Almeida Theatre in March 2005 and transferred to the West End in May 2005. It received Evening Standard Award nominations for Best Director and Best Actress (Eve Best) and was nominated for six Olivier Awards winning Best Director, Best Revival, Best Actress and Best Set Design.

Richard became an Associate Director of the National Theatre in 1981. Plays include: Guys & Dolls (Olivier, March 1982, SWET and Evening Standard Awards for Best Director); The Beggars Opera (Cottesloe, July 1982); Schweyk in the Second World War (Olivier, September 1982); The Government Inspector (Olivier, January 1985); Futurists (Cottesloe, March 1986, Time Out Award for Best Director); The Changeling (Lyttleton, June 1988); Bartholemew Fair (Olivier, October 1988); Hamlet (Olivier, March 1989); The Vysey Inheritance (Cottesloe, June 1989); Racing Demon (Cottesloe, February 1990); Richard III (Lyttleton, July 1990, followed by a National and International tour); White Chameleon (Cottesloe, February 1991); Napoli Milionaria (Lyttleton, June 1991); Murmuring Judges (Olivier, October 1991); The Night of the Iguana (Lyttleton, February 1992); Richard III (USA tour, Summer 1992); Macbeth (Olivier, April 1993); The David Hare Trilogy - Racing Demon, Murmuring Judges, The Absence Of War (Olivier, October 1993); Johnny On a Spot (Olivier, March 1994); Sweet Bird Of Youth (Lyttleton, June 1994); Skylight (Cottesloe, May 1995); and Le Grande Magia (Lyttleton, July 1995); Racing Demon (Lincoln Centre, New York, October 1990); The Princes Play (Olivier, April 1996); John Gabriel Borkman (Lyttleton, July 1996); Skylight (Wyndham's, February 1996, Royale Theatre Broadway, September 1996, revived London 1997); Guys & Dolls (Olivier, 1996 - 1997); King Lear (Cottesloe, 1997); Amy’s View ( Lyttleton, 1997); The Invention Of Love (RNT, 1997, transferred to The Theatre Royal Haymarket, November 1998); Amy’s View (transferred to the West End in January 1998 and Broadway in 1999); Vincent In Brixton (Cottesloe, 2002, transferred to The West End August 2002, to Broadway in March 2003 and to the Playhouse in July 2003); The Reporter (Cottesloe, 2007, Nicholas Wright’s new play)

Opera work includes: La Traviata (ROH, Covent Garden, November 1994. Revived in Barcelona, 2001) Le Nozze Di Figaro (Festival d’Aix en Provence, 2001, Baden Baden, 2001)

Richard joined the BBC as producer of Play for Today (1978). Productions/Films: Waterloo Sunset, Comedians, The Cherry Orchard, The Imitation Game, Pasmore (own adapation), Country, Past Caring, The Insurance Man (Tokyo World TV Festival Special Prize 1986), "V", Tumbledown (Winner Italia RAI Prize 1988, BAFTA best TV single drama award 1989, Royal Television Society Award for Best Single Drama 1989), Suddenly Last Summer (1993). He directed The Absence Of War (written by David Hare, BBC, May 1995) and King Lear (BBC, April 1998). Changing Stages, a six-part look at the theatre and its evolution both written and presented by Richard was shown in December 2000 on BBC 2. It was shown on PBS in the US in 2001. Richard was appointed a Governor of the BBC in 1995.

Film work includes: The Ploughman's Lunch (1983, Standard Film Award for Best Film); Loose Connections (1984); Laughterhouse (1984, Venice Film Festival Award for Best Film). Richard co-wrote and directed Iris based on John Bailey’s memoirs of Iris Murdoch. Iris premiered in the US in December 2001 and in the UK in January 2002. Richard was awarded a 2001 Special Mention for Excellence in Filmmaking Award from the National Board of Review for Iris. In June 2002, he and Charles Wood won the Humanitas Screenwriting Award for their Iris screenplay. Stage Beauty, directed by Richard, was released in September 2004 and was awarded by the jury of the 11th British Film Festival in Abbeville, France, in January 2005. Notes on a Scandal, with Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett, was released on 2nd February 2007 and has received nominations for two Golden Globes and three BAFTAS. The Other Man with Antonio Banderas and Liam Neesam based on the short story by Bernhard Schlink, release date TBC.

Richard Eyre's first book, Utopia and Other Places was published by Bloomsbury in 1993, with a revised and expanded paperback edition published in October 1994. changing stages, co-written with Nicholas Wright was published by Bloomsbury in November 2000. National Service, his diaries was published by Bloomsbury in October 2003.

He has been awarded honorary degrees by Nottingham Trent University, (November 1992, Doctor of Letters), South Bank University (November, 1994), Surrey University (1998), the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (2000, Doctor of Drama) and Oxford Brookes University (October 2003, Honorary Doctorate). He has been awarded honorary fellowships of Goldsmith's College, London (September 1995), Kings College London (September, 1994) and The Guildhall School of Music and Drama (1996). In 1997, he received The Laurence Olivier Award for outstanding achievement. In 1998, he was made Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Richard Eyre was knighted in 1997.