Writer and director Steven Knight started a freelance writing partnership with Mike Whitehill in 1988, providing material for television and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, which Knight co-created. He has published four novels: The Movie House, Alphabet City, Out of the Blue and the children’s book, The Last Words of Will Wolfkin.
Knight’s first screenplay, Dirty Pretty Things, was directed by Stephen Frears and was selected to open the prestigious London Film Festival. Dirty Pretty Things won four British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs), the 2005 Humanitas Prize for Film and an Oscar® nomination for Best Original Screenplay at the 76th Annual Academy Awards®, among other honors.
He has written a number of high-profile screenplays including Eastern Promises, The Hundred-Foot Journey, Allied, Woman Walks Ahead and Spencer, along with three he also directed: Hummingbird, Locke and Serenity.
Knight is also the creator, executive producer and writer of the BAFTA-winning television series Peaky Blinders, starring Cillian Murphy, Helen McCrory and Paul Anderson, as well as serving the same roles on the FX and BBC series Taboo, starring Tom Hardy.
He adapted the books SAS: Rogue Heroes for BBC One, Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations for FX and the BBC One and All the Light We Cannot See for Netflix, which earned a 2024 Golden Globe® nomination for Best Limited Series, Anthology Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television.
Knight currently has projects in various stages of development and production including season two of SAS: Rogue Heroes, This Town, an original new drama series for the BBC One, co-produced with Kudos, that tells the story of an extended family and four young people who are drawn into the world of ska and two-tone music in the late 70s and early 80s, and he is set to write drama series Ferrari about Enzo Ferrari for Apple TV+, which Stefano Sollima will direct.
Knight was also part of the creative team behind the opening ceremony of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Knight received a CBE in the New Year’s Honours List 2020 for services to Drama, Entertainment and the community of Birmingham. He also has the highest honor from the Royal Television Society’s Midlands Centre – the Baird Medal – in recognition of his career, along with an honorary doctorate from the University of Worcester and an honorary degree of doctor from the Birmingham City University and a University College London Honorary Fellowship. In 2023, the Royal Television Society gave Knight a Fellowship, which recognizes industry luminaries who have made an outstanding, sustained and exceptional contribution to the U.K. television industry.
