Rose was born in London, the son of a father who was born Jewish and a mother who had converted to Judaism. His mother was a granddaughter of the Earl Jellicoe.[7] He began making super 8 films when he was 9. By 1975, he won an amateur film competition hosted by BBC which led to the broadcasting of his works. He worked for Jim Henson on the last season of The Muppet Show and then again on The Dark Crystal in 1981. He attended National Film and Television School and graduated in 1982 with a Master's in Filmmaking. After this, he moved on to directing music videos for MTV, one of which was the uncensored version of Frankie Goes To Hollywood's hit "Relax".[8]
Shortly after his production of music videos, he moved on to direct British TV films such as Prospects and then finally in 1988 directed his first major full-length film, Paperhouse. Rose got his big break internationally with 1992's Candyman, which has since been seen as a cult classic. Subsequently, Rose both wrote and directed Immortal Beloved, about the life and loves of Ludwig van Beethoven, as well as a remake of Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina.
^Dee, Jake (2 February 2016). "Dissecting Director Bernard Rose!". JoBlo.com. Retrieved 31 March 2023. Beyond that though, a commonality of Rose's that indeed carries over to his horror movies, is the recurrent casting of longtime genre vets Tony Todd and Danny Huston.