A sometime actor who has built a career working in both Britain and the USA as a director, Michael Hoffman began his career as an undergraduate in student production at Boise University and in semi-professional stage productions in Idaho. In 1979, he attended Oxford University as a Rhodes scholar and eventually switched from stage work to film. In 1982, he wrote and directed "Privileged", a student feature about the woes of upper-class youth which included among its leading players fellow student Hugh Grant. With Rick Stevenson and others, he formed the Oxford Film company which oversaw a summer institute for moviemakers as well as instituted Britain's first national screenwriting competition. Stevenson also produced Hoffman's comedy "Restless Hearts" (1985), about two Scotsmen who rob American tourists. Hoffman gained notice in the USA with "Promised Land" (1988; released on video as "Young Hearts"), a bleak coming-of-age story developed at the Sundance Institute and starring Kiefer Sutherland and Meg Ryan. Hollywood took notice and Hoffman was given the $25 million-budgeted "Soapdish" (1991), a romp about the backstage comic melodrama of a New York daytime drama that featured Sally Field, Kevin Kline, Whoopi Goldberg and Elisabeth Shue. Returning to British material, Hoffman then directed "Restoration" (1995). Based on the Rose Tremain novel, the film traced the rise and fall of the fortunes of a physician (Robert Downey Jr) in the court of King Charles II. He next helmed the genial romantic comedy "One Fine Day" (1996), which paired Michelle Pfeiffer and George Clooney.
An occasional actor, Hoffman appeared at Oxford in the revue "Foley Burgeres", which lampooned a local hamburger bistro. In 1990, he starred as Valmont in a Florida production of "Les Liaisons Dangereuses."