Stelios Grant Pavlou (born 22 November 1970) is a 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

speculative fiction Speculative fiction is a term that has been used with a variety of (sometimes contradictory) meanings. The broadest interpretation is as a category of fiction encompassing genres with elements that do not exist in reality, recorded history, nat ...

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire ...

. He is known for writing the novel ''

Decipher DECIPHER is a web-based resource and database of genomic variation data from analysis of patient DNA. It documents submicroscopic chromosome abnormalities ( microdeletions and duplications) and pathogenic sequence variants (single nucleotide ...

'' and the screenplay for the film ''

The 51st State ''The 51st State'' (also known as ''Formula 51'') is a 2001 action comedy film directed by Ronny Yu, written by Stel Pavlou, and starring Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Carlyle, Emily Mortimer, Ricky Tomlinson, Sean Pertwee, Rhys Ifans, Stephen ...

''.

Personal life

Pavlou was born in

Kent, England Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces the ...

on 22 November 1970 and went to the Chatham Grammar School for Boys. He attended the

University of Liverpool , mottoeng = These days of peace foster learning , established = 1881 – University College Liverpool1884 – affiliated to the federal Victoria Universityhttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2004/4 University of Manchester Act 200 ...

in American Studies and received a degree in American Studies, which required that he spend a semester in the United States. Pavlou also served in the Cypriot army for one year.

Career

After graduating from the University of Liverpool Pavlou applied to approximately 600 media jobs, but with no success. He wrote the script for the film ''

'' (known as ''Formula 51'' in the US) while he was living in

Rochester, Kent Rochester ( ) is a town in the unitary authority of Medway, in Kent, England. It is at the lowest bridging point of the River Medway, about from London. The town forms a conurbation with neighbouring towns Chatham, Rainham, Strood and Gil ...

and working for a local wine shop. The film was released in 2001 and starred Samuel L. Jackson and

Robert Carlyle Robert Carlyle (born 14 April 1961) is a Scottish actor. His film work includes '' Trainspotting'' (1996), ''The Full Monty'' (1997), ''The World Is Not Enough'' (1999), ''Angela's Ashes'' (1999), '' The Beach'' (2000), ''28 Weeks Later'' (20 ...

. For the British DVD release Pavlou did the audio commentary and included a featurette titled, "Who the Hell is Stel Pavlou." During 2001 Pavlou also published his debut novel, ''Decipher,'' through Simon & Schuster. The novel centers upon Atlantis and received reviews from ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

,'' ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...

'', and ''

Cryptologia ''Cryptologia'' is a journal in cryptography published six times per year since January 1977. Its remit is all aspects of cryptography, with a special emphasis on historical aspects of the subject. The founding editors were Brian J. Winkel, Davi ...

''. He published a second novel, ''Gene'', in 2005 and in 2017, released the first book in his children's fiction series ''Daniel Coldstar''. In 2021, Pavlou hosted a television show on the

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Chan ...

titled "Hunting Atlantis," which has been strongly criticized by professional archaeologists for pseudoscience and contributing to false perceptions of history and archaeology.

Selected works

Novels * 2001 ''Decipher'' and related website ''Atlantipedia'' * 2005 ''Gene'' * 2017 ''Daniel Coldstar: The Relic War'' * 2019 ''Daniel Coldstar: The Betrayer'' Short stories * 2006 "Checkpoint", published in ''Doctor Who Short Trips: The Centenarian'' *2007 "Omegamorphosis", published in '' Short Trips: Destination Prague'' *2007 "You Had Me at Verify User Name and Password", published in '' Short Trips: Snapshots'' Screenplays * 2002 Screenplay for ''The 51st State'' / ''Formula 51'' (including the DVD extra ''Who the hell is Stel Pavlou?)''

References

External links

Official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pavlou, Stel 1970 births Living people Alumni of Liverpool Hope University English people of Greek Cypriot descent 21st-century British novelists British male screenwriters People from Gillingham, Kent British male novelists 21st-century British male writers 21st-century British screenwriters