Steven Knight Biography

After completing his education, Steven Knight did a variety of jobs like working in a shoe shop and a clothes shop. He made commercials for a radio advertising agency in Birmingham and then went to London to work as a copywriter and producer at Capital Radio. Between 1990 and 1997, he collaborated as a writer with Jasper Carrott for a comedy stand-up and sketch show Canned Carrottand the police procedural spoofThe Detectives. He directed a few episodes of the latter too.

He created a board game called PSI (for Psychology, Slander, Intuition), which was not successful, but then in 1998 came Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?, a quiz show he co-created with Mike Whitehill and David Briggs. The show went on to become an enormous worldwide success. He also created two other television shows Show do Milhão (1999) and All About Me (2002).

By this time, Steven Knight had already written a few novels and now began writing screenplays for films. The first movie, for which he wrote screenplay came out in 2001 and was called Gypsy Woman. However, it was the film Dirty Pretty Things in 2002 that really brought him tremendous recognition. The screenplay weaved around asylum seekers and illegal immigrants, won him’ Edgar Award’ for Best Motion Picture Screenplay and ‘London Film Critics Circle Award’ for British Screenwriter of the Year. It was also nominated for the ‘Academy’ and ‘BAFTA’ Awards.

The year 2006 and 2007 saw his two other films hitting the big screen – Amazing Grace and Eastern Promises. The latter once again won him critical appreciation and nominations at award functions.

The year 2013 became quite significant for Steven as he made his film directorial debut with Hummingbird and followed it up with his second directorial venture Locke in the same year. He also wrote the above two movies as well as a third one Closed Circuit. The screenplay of Locke won numerous nominations and an award at ‘British Independent Film Awards’.

In 2013, he also created, wrote and executive produced a period crime drama television series Peaky Blinders. The series won widespread appreciation and won the Best British TV Drama Writing award at ‘British Screenwriters' Awards’ as well as Best Drama Series and Judges' Award at UK’s ‘Royal Television Society Awards’. The series has aired five seasons till 2019 with sixth and seventh planned for future.

He further went on to write more films. In 2014 he wrote the comedy drama, The Hundred-Foot Journey, a fantasy film, Seventh Son, and a biographical drama about chess player Bobby Fischer, Pawn Sacrifice. He later wrote a comedy drama, Burnt (2015), a war thriller, Allied (2016), a biographical drama, Woman Walks Ahead, a crime drama, November Criminals (both in 2017), an action thriller, The Girl in the Spider's Web (2018), and a fantasy mystery thriller, Serenity (2019). The last one, he also produced and directed.

More television work continued along with Peaky Blinders as Steven Knight created, produced and wrote Taboo (2017) and See (2019). Both series have aired one season and have plans for future.

In 2019, he also wrote and executive produced, A Christmas Carol, a miniseries adapted from the 1843 novella by Charles Dickens.

Among the books that he has written are The Movie House (1994) and The Last Words of Will Wolfkin (2010). In future, he aspires to build a brand-new film studio complex in Birmingham.

Steven Knight was born on 5 August 1959, in Marlborough, England, as the seventh child of George and Ida Knight. His father was a blacksmith and few months after he was born, the family moved to Birmingham.

Steven was the first in his family to pursue higher education when he joined the University College, London to do BA Hons in English. A talented writer from a young age, he knew by this time that he wanted to be a writer. In 2019, he was awarded with a UCL Honorary Fellowship to recognise his success.

He is married and has three kids; however, he is an extremely private person and doesn’t share details of his domestic life with the media. His hobbies include fishing.