He is a British-Indian television director and film director. Hussein studied English literature at Queens' College in Cambridge. During his years as student there, he directed several plays. Once he graduated in 1960, he joined the BBC Studios to train as a director. After that, he decided to change his name from Habibullah to Hussein. He is best known for directing the first Doctor Who serial, titled An Unearthly Child. Besides, over his artistic career he directed many productions for the BBC Studios such as the television version of A Passage to India (1965), the BBC serial Notorious Woman (1974); the suffragette movement BBC drama Shoulder to Shoulder (1974); and the Thames Television serial Edward and Mrs Simpson (1978). During the 1980s and 1990s, Hussein directed several television movies in the United States. To the present time he has been twice nominated to the Berlin International Film Festival and won once the Primetime Emmy Awards, in 1986, for his movie Copacabana (1985). In sum, Hussein is best known for taking part on the following movies: The Possession of Joel Delaney (1972), Edward And Mrs. Simpson (1978), A Touch of Love (1969), Copacabana (1985).