Ruud van Hemert (29 October 1938 – 5 July 2012)[1] was a Dutch film director known especially for (dark) comedy.

In the 1970s he helped produce and direct TV shows on VPRO before starting a career as a film director.

[4] A breakthrough was the (stylistically experimental) documentary Oranje Vrijstaat, which had controversial politician Roel van Duijn as a central figure.

His career took off when he cooperated with Wim T. Schippers, Gied Jaspars, and Wim van der Linden on such shows as De Fred Hachéshow (1971), Barend is weer bezig (1972–1973), and Van Oekel's Discohoek (1974),[5] a series of TV shows that are credited with changing Dutch television forever by destroying it as a medium for serious and proper programming.

[5] Variety noted that while the anti-bourgeois mentality of the TV shows he did for the VPRO was maintained in the films, van Hemert himself said he was influenced more strongly by Hollywood cinema.