If dictionaries had photographs to go with their definitions, next to the entry for “cult viewing” would be a tiny thumbnail shot of Paul Feig. He has directed episodes of high-school drama Freaks And Geeks (which he created and co-wrote), Arrested Development, Nurse Jackie, The Office and Weeds. On the big screen, he helmed the hugely successful 2011 comedy Bridesmaids and is directing an all-female reboot of Ghostbusters, due out next year. Inevitably, this has ruffled some feathers: Feig has been accused of “ruining people’s childhoods”. “Honestly,” he replied, “the only way I could ruin your childhood is if I got into a time machine and went back and made you an orphan.”

For all his success, Feig, 52, is still something of an unknown. His Hollywood life started with acting (he played the science teacher in Sabrina The Teenage Witch) but things got more interesting with his writing and directing. He based Freaks And Geeks (criminally cancelled during the first series) on his own youth in Michigan, filling the cast with a staggering list of talent – including James Franco, Seth Rogen and Linda Cardellini – and imbuing the freaks and geeks of the title with humanity and pathos.

His work with women is also to be admired; in a field where male directors rarely cast women as leads, Feig actively seeks them. His work with actor Melissa McCarthy, in particular (they’ve worked together on three films so far), is always golden. He’s that rare thing in Hollywood: a man who seems genuinely to want to address the desperate gender imbalance. That alone is mega-crushworthy.

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