Simon Blackwell
| Simon Blackwell | |
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Blackwell at the Cheltenham Literature Festival in 2010
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| Born | 27 May 1966 Battersea, London |
Simon John Blackwell (born 27 May 1966) is a two-time Emmy Award-winning[1] and Golden Globe-nominated[2] comedy writer and producer. He is best known for his work on The Thick of It, In The Loop and Veep, and for his collaborations with Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain on Peep Show, Four Lions and The Old Guys.
Contents
Career
Radio and early television work
Blackwell started his career on BBC Radio in 1997, writing for The News Huddlines, The Way It Is, The Sunday Format and Dead Ringers winning Sony Gold and Silver awards for Dead Ringers[3] and The Sunday Format respectively.
Early television work at this time included The 11 O'Clock Show, Bremner, Bird and Fortune and V Graham Norton.[4]
Over the next decade Blackwell worked on seven series of Have I Got News For You, as well as the International Emmy award-winning The Kumars at No. 42,[5] Alastair McGowan's Big Impression, Dead Ringers, and The Sketch Show, which won the 2003 BAFTA for Best Comedy.
Blackwell also created and wrote the street-talking WWII Pilots for The Armstrong and Miller Show.[6]
With Armando Iannucci
Blackwell first worked with Armando Iannucci in 2003 on the topical Channel 4 show Gash, and has written on every episode of the political sitcom The Thick of It since its first series in 2005. The show won a BAFTA for Best Sitcom in 2006 and again in 2010.
In 2009 Blackwell co-wrote Iannucci's film In The Loop, a spin-off from The Thick of It about the build-up to a war in the Middle East. Awards included Best Screenplay at the Evening Standard Film Awards,[7] and the British Independent Film Awards 2009 and the film was nominated for two BAFTAs and an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.[8]
Other work with Iannucci includes 2004: The Stupid Version and Time Trumpet.
The two collaborated again on the HBO comedy Veep, with Blackwell co-writing the pilot episode and serving as writer and executive producer on the subsequent four seasons, for which he won two Primetime Emmy Awards and was nominated for a further four.[9] He is a two-time Writers Guild of America Award-winner [10] and, as a producer, has also been nominated for the Producers Guild of America Award for Best Episodic Comedy.[11]
He wrote, or co-wrote the Veep episodes: Fundraiser, Frozen Yoghurt, Nicknames, Baseball (Season 1); Signals, The Vic Allen Dinner, Shutdown (Season 2); Special Relationship, Crate, New Hampshire (Season 3); Joint Session, Data, Election Night (Season 4).
With Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong
Blackwell wrote for Chris Morris's 2010 BAFTA award-winning black comedy film Four Lions,[12] alongside Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain. He had previously collaborated with them on the Channel 4 sitcom Peep Show and BBC One's The Old Guys, and with Armstrong as part of the writing team for The Thick of It and In the Loop.
Trying Again
With Chris Addison Blackwell co-created Trying Again, a romantic comedy about life after an affair, shown on the Sky Living channel. The first episode was broadcast on 24 April 2014.
External links
- Simon Blackwell on TwitterLua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 28: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
- Simon Blackwell at the Internet Movie Database
References
- ↑ http://www.emmys.com/awards/nominees-winners/2015/outstanding-comedy-series
- ↑ http://www.goldenglobes.com/tv-show/veep
- ↑ Broadcastnow. "BBC radio boosted by 23 Sony Awards", 4 May 2001.
- ↑ PBJ Management. "PBJ Management, CV, Simon Blackwell". As of sept. 2012.
- ↑ Comedy Guide. "British Comedy Guide, The Kumars at No. 42" As of 2006.
- ↑ Chortle Interview "The Telly Lot Are Never Going To Make Any Sketch Shows" 7 October 2009.
- ↑ BFI industry comment "Evening Standard British Film Awards, UK Film Council Comment" 2010.
- ↑ BBC "The Thick of It's winning trio" 7 June 2010.
- ↑ Official Emmy Site "Simon Blackwell"
- ↑ http://awards.wga.org/wga-awards/nominees-winners
- ↑ http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/2016-pga-nominations-complete-list-856980/item/outstanding-producer-episodic-television-comedy-856974
- ↑ BBC "Sheffield film Four Lion nominated for BAFTA awards". 18 January 2011
