Steven Knight

Steven Knight at Birmingham City Council House, March 5th 2020

**Steven Knight** is a British screenwriter and film director. Knight wrote the screenplays for the films *Closed Circuit*, *Dirty Pretty Things*, and *Eastern Promises*, and also directed as well as wrote the films *Locke* and *Hummingbird* (a.k.a. *Redemption*).

Knight is also one of three creators of *Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?*, a game show that has been remade and aired in around 160 countries worldwide, and has written for BBC's *Commercial Breakdown*, *The Detectives*, *Peaky Blinders*, *See* and *Taboo*.

## Personal life

Knight attend The Streetly School as teenager(now The Streetly Academy), in Sutton Coldfield in the West Midlands on the outskirts of Birmingham. He then went on to study English at University College London (UCL) where he is an Honorary Fellow. He has three children. He is also an ardent Birmingham City fan.

His first experience of writing was in preparing property descriptions for an Estate Agent.

He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2020 New Year Honours for services to drama, entertainment and the community in Birmingham.

## Screenplays

Knight is best known for screenplays he wrote for the films *Dirty Pretty Things* and *Eastern Promises*. His work on the screenplay for *Dirty Pretty Things* earned him the Edgar Award for *Best Motion Picture Screenplay* and London Film Critics Circle award for *British Screenwriter of the Year*. The screenplay was also nominated for several other awards including the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay and the BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay.

Knight also wrote the screenplay for the 2013 film *Closed Circuit,* which was directed by John Crowley and which starred Eric Bana and Rebecca Hall.

Knight also wrote a draft of a screenplay based on the book *Shutter Island* written by Dennis Lehane, but the draft that was used for the movie of the same name was written by Laeta Kalogridis.

Recent films based on screenplays that Knight has written include *The Hundred-Foot Journey* directed by Lasse Hallström, based on the book of the same name by Richard C. Morais, and starring Helen Mirren, *Seventh Son*, an adventure story starring Jeff Bridges, Julianne Moore, Djimon Hounsou, Kit Harington and Jason Scott Lee, as well as the film *Pawn Sacrifice*, based on U.S. chess champion Bobby Fischer, with Tobey Maguire playing Fischer in the film. He also wrote the screenplay of *World War Z II.*

Knight wrote the script for the 2021 dramedy *Locked Down*, about a couple (Anne Hathaway and Chiwetel Ejiofor) attempting a high-stakes jewellery heist during the COVID-19 pandemic. Knight also wrote the script for the film *Spencer*, starring Kristen Stewart as Diana, Princess of Wales.

## Directing

In addition to his writing, Knight has directed three films: *Hummingbird* (2013), starring Jason Statham, *Locke* (2014), starring Tom Hardy, and *Serenity* (2019) starring Matthew McConaughey, Diane Lane, and Anne Hathaway. *Locke* won a British Independent Film Award in 2013 for Best Screenplay. Knight has directed several episodes of the TV series for which he also frequently wrote, *The Detectives*.

## TV series

Knight also created the TV series *Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?* (along with Mike Whitehill and David Briggs) and also is the creator of the TV series *Show do Milhão* and *All About Me*.

Knight created the television series *Peaky Blinders* and has written for TV series including, BBC's *Commercial Breakdown* (with Jimmy Carr), *The Detectives*, *Comedy Playhouse* (the episode "Wild Oats" in 1993), *Frankie's On...*, *Auntie's Big Bloomers*, Taboo, and *Canned Carrott*.

He also created and co-wrote *A Christmas Carol*, a dark adaptation of the Dickens story for BBC One in the UK and FX in the US, starring Guy Pearce as Scrooge and Andy Serkis as the Ghost of Christmas Past.

## Sources

1. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven\_Knight