Simon Blackwell | Creator, Showrunner, Executive Producer | Breeders on FX

Simon Blackwell is an Oscar®-nominated and two-time Emmy®-winning screenwriter and showrunner.

Blackwell co-created the critically lauded FX and Sky comedy Breeders with Martin Freeman and Chris Addison. With Addison, he had previously created the Sky romantic comedy Trying Again.

Season 2 of the equally acclaimed Channel 4 and Sundance sitcom Back, which Blackwell created for David Mitchell and Robert Webb, aired in 2021 to great success.

2019 saw the release of the feature film The Personal History of David Copperfield, which Blackwell co-wrote with long-time collaborator Armando Iannucci. The movie has received exceptional reviews on both sides of the Atlantic, and its script won Blackwell and Iannucci the Best Screenplay at that year’s British Independent Film Awards.

He was a chief writer on all four seasons of Iannucci’s double BAFTA®-winning political sitcom The Thick of It and co-wrote its spin-off film In the Loop, which was nominated for an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2009.

Also with Iannucci, Blackwell co-wrote the pilot episode of the HBO comedy Veep and served as a writer and executive producer for four seasons. For this, he won two Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series and Outstanding Comedy Series. His Veep scripts also earned him two Writers Guild of America Awards. He is an executive producer on Iannucci’s latest HBO project Avenue 5.

Blackwell wrote for Chris Morris’ 2010 black comedy film Four Lions alongside Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain. He had previously collaborated with them on the cult Channel 4 sitcom Peep Show and BBC One’s The Old Guys and has since written with Armstrong on his Emmy-winning HBO drama Succession.