David Wolstencroft (born 16 July 1969) is an American-born British screenwriter and author. He is best known as creator of the

BAFTA The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...

award-winning TV spy drama '' Spooks'' and its spin-off series '' Spooks: Code 9''.

Early life

Wolstencroft was born in Honolulu, United States in 1969 and grew up in Edinburgh, Scotland, studying at

George Watson's College George Watson's College is a co-educational Private schools in the United Kingdom, private day school in Scotland, situated on Colinton Road, in the Merchiston area of Edinburgh. It was first established as a Scottish education in the eighteenth ...

, where he was Head Boy. He then studied at Emmanuel College,

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

, where he graduated with a "starred first" degree in History. While at Cambridge, he was active in the

Footlights The Cambridge Footlights, commonly referred to simply as Footlights, is a student sketch comedy troupe located in Cambridge, England. Footlights was founded in 1883, and is one of Britain's oldest student sketch comedy troupes. The comedy so ...

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 progressed into radio a ...

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 wrote and presented nine series of '' Parsons and Naylor ...

Alexander Armstrong Alexander Henry Fenwick Armstrong (born 2 March 1970) is an English actor, comedian, radio personality, television presenter, singer and farmer. He is the host of the BBC One game show ''Pointless'', and is a weekday morning-show presenter on C ...

and

Ben Miller Bennet Evan Miller (born 24 February 1966) is an English comedian, actor and author. He rose to fame as a member of the comedy duo Armstrong and Miller, with Alexander Armstrong. He is known for roles as Angus Jeremy Bough in the '' Johnny Eng ...

, 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

awards and nominations. More recently, he has written, created and executive produced '' The Escape Artist'' 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 by Jeff Davis that premiered on CBS on September 22, 2005. It follows a group of criminal profilers who work for the FBI as members of its Behavioral ...

'' 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 Dead ...

. Wolstencroft also wrote the screenplay for the film '' Shooting Dogs''. 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. Wolstencroft's debut children's book ''The Magic Hour'', a fantasy adventure, was published in 2023.

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