David Wolstencroft (born 16 July 1969), is an American-born British

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

and

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

. He is best known as creator of the BAFTA award-winning TV spy drama '' Spooks'' and its spin-off series, '' Spooks: Code 9''.

Early life

Wolstencroft was born in

Honolulu, Hawaii Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island o ...

, United States in 1969 and grew up in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

, Scotland, studying at

George Watson's College George Watson's College is a co-educational Independent school (United Kingdom), independent day school in Scotland, situated on Colinton Road, in the Merchiston area of Edinburgh. It was first established as a Scottish education in the eight ...

, later going on to read history at Emmanuel College,

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

. While at Cambridge, he was active in the

Footlights Cambridge University Footlights Dramatic Club, commonly referred to simply as the Footlights, is an amateur theatrical club in Cambridge, England, founded in 1883 and run by the students of Cambridge University. History Footlights' inaugural ...

where he collaborated with Mark Evans,

Sue Perkins Susan Elizabeth Perkins (born 22 September 1969) is an English actress, broadcaster, comedian, presenter and writer. Originally coming to prominence through her comedy partnership with Mel Giedroyc in ''Mel and Sue'', she has since become best ...

Andy Parsons Andrew John Parsons (born 30 November 1966) is an English comedian and writer. He regularly appeared on ''Mock the Week'' from Series 3 to Series 14. With comedy partner Henry Naylor, he has written and presented nine series of ''Parsons and Na ...

Alexander Armstrong Alexander Henry Fenwick Armstrong (born 2 March 1970) is an English actor, comedian, radio personality, television presenter and singer. He is the host of the BBC One game show ''Pointless'', as well as the morning show on Classic FM. He is ...

and

Ben Miller Bennet Evan Miller (born 24 February 1966) is an English actor, comedian, and author. He rose to fame as one half of the comedy duo Armstrong and Miller. Miller is also known for playing the lead role of DI Richard Poole in the first two serie ...

, and had served as Footlight's vice-president and revue director.

Career

Wolstencroft won the

Royal Television Society The Royal Television Society (RTS) is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present, and future. It is the oldest television society in the world. It currently has fourteen r ...

's ''Network Newcomer'' award after producing his first drama, '' Psychos'', for Channel 4 in 1999. He then began working on '' Spooks''. The pilot episode was watched by over 9 million people (a 41% share) and the series won a number of BAFTA awards and nominations. More recently, he has written, created and executive produced ''

The Escape Artist ''The Escape Artist'' is a 1982 film starring Griffin O'Neal and Raúl Juliá. It was based on a book by David Wagoner, and was the directorial debut of Caleb Deschanel. It was the final film of Joan Hackett, Desi Arnaz, and Gabriel Dell, and t ...

'' for BBC One and ''Versailles'' for Canal+ with fellow Spooks scribe and ex-''

Criminal Minds ''Criminal Minds'' is an American police procedural crime drama television series created and produced by Jeff Davis (writer), Jeff Davis. The series premiered on CBS on September 22, 2005, and originally concluded on February 19, 2020; it was r ...

'' producer and writer

Simon Mirren Simon Mirren is a British television writer and producer. He is a nephew of the actress Helen Mirren. Career Simon Mirren began his career writing for British series like medical drama ''Casualty'', spy thriller '' Spooks'' and '' Waking the Dea ...

. Wolstencroft also wrote the screenplay for the film ''

Shooting Dogs ''Shooting Dogs'', released in the United States as ''Beyond the Gates'', is a 2005 film, directed by Michael Caton-Jones and starring John Hurt, Hugh Dancy and Clare-Hope Ashitey. It is based on the experiences of BBC news producer David Belto ...

''.IMDb: ''David Wolstencroft''
Relinked 2016-06-02 He is also the author of two espionage thriller novels: '' Good News, Bad News'' and ''

Contact Zero Contact may refer to: Interaction Physical interaction * Contact (geology), a common geological feature * Contact lens or contact, a lens placed on the eye * Contact sport, a sport in which players make contact with other players or objects * C ...

'', which was nominated for the Ian Fleming Silver Dagger.

References

External links

* * 1969 births Living people People educated at George Watson's College Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge British thriller writers British spy fiction writers British television writers British male screenwriters Scottish thriller writers Scottish novelists British male television writers {{UK-novelist-stub