David Nicholls (writer)

David Nicholls (born 30 November 1966) is an English novelist and screenwriter.

Background

Nicholls is the middle of three siblings. He attended Barton Peveril sixth-form college at Eastleigh, Hampshire, from 1983 to 1985 (taking A-levels in drama and theatre studies—like his elder and younger siblings—English, physics and biology), and playing a wide range of roles in college drama productions. He then attended Bristol University in the 1980s (graduating with a BA in Drama and English in 1988) before training as an actor at the Central School of Speech and Drama.

Throughout his twenties, he worked as a professional actor, using the stage name David Holdaway. He played small roles at various theaters, including the West Yorkshire Playhouse and, for a three year period, at the Royal National Theatre.

Writing career

His novels include Starter for Ten (2003) and The Understudy (2005).

As a screenwriter, he adapted his first novel for the film Starter for 10 and contributed scripts to the third series of Cold Feet. For the latter he was nominated for a BAFTA Television Craft award for Best New Writer. He created the original series I Saw You and Rescue Me. Rescue Me lasted for only one six-episode series before being cancelled. Nicholls had written four episodes for the second series before being told of the cancellation. His anger over this lead to him taking a break from screenwriting to concentrate on writing Starter for Ten. He co-wrote the screenplay for Simpatico, and authored the adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing for the BBC's 2005 ShakespeaRe-Told season. More recently, he wrote the screenplay of the film And When Did You Last See Your Father?, an adaptation of the memoir by Blake Morrison.

In 2005 he wrote Aftersun for the Old Vic's 24-Hour Play festival. The 10-minute play starred James Nesbitt, Saffron Burrows, Catherine Tate and Gael Garcia Bernal. Nicholls developed Aftersun into a one-off comedy for BBC One. It starred Peter Capaldi and Sarah Parish and was broadcast in 2006.

He has penned an adaptation of Tess of the D'Urbervilles for the BBC which will air in 2008. He is now working on an adaptation of Far From the Madding Crowd for BBC Films.

References

Further reading

• Nicholls, David "I was a bit of a prat". The Guardian. Retrieved on 2008-07-13.
• Nicholls, David "The invisible man". The Guardian. Retrieved on 2008-07-13.

External links

• David Nicholls at the Internet Movie Database