Frank Charles Spotnitz (born 1960) is an American television writer and producer. He is best known for his work on the series The X-Files (1995–2002) and its spin-off The Lone Gunmen (2001), and as the developer/creator of The Man in the High Castle (2015–2019), Medici (2016–19), Ransom (2017–19), and Leonardo (2021)
Spotnitz is also the chief executive officer and founder of Big Light Productions, a London- and Paris-based production company, which specializes in international television series, including drama, comedy and documentaries. Spotnitz's career includes creating, writing and producing series with networks, cable, streaming and other broadcast platforms around the world.
Sponitz has been nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards for his work on The X-Files, and won a Canadian Screen Award for creating the CTV comedy-drama series The Indian Detective.
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Early life
Born in Camp Zama, Japan. Spotnitz's father is Jewish, though Spotnitz was not raised religiously. Spotnitz's father was a doctor in the US Army. His family moved around until they settled in Phoenix, Arizona. As a child, Spotnitz consumed television shows and films as much as he could, sometimes watching the same film two or three times in a row. Spotnitz attended Camelback High School, where he was inspired to pursue a career in Hollywood.
Spotnitz graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a bachelor's degree in English literature in 1982, where he was a reporter for the Daily Bruin. He later received a MFA in screenwriting from the AFI Conservatory in 1991.
Career
Journalism
Upon graduation from UCLA, Spotnitz was employed as a wire-service reporter for the United Press International in Indianapolis and New York. He also briefly worked for the Associated Press in Paris. Spotnitz freelanced for Entertainment Weekly and Rolling Stone before returning to his passion and studying screenwriting at AFI.
Television
Spotnitz's first television role was on The-X-Files, which he described as being "like a second film school." His writing and producing credits include: counter-terrorism drama series Strike Back (HBO/Cinemax, Sky); action series Transporter: The Series (TNT); ABC's mystery series Night Stalker (ABC), starring Stuart Townsend and Gabrielle Union; Michael Mann's crime series Robbery Homicide Division (CBS); unconventional heroes comedy-drama The Lone Gunmen (Fox); sci-fi drama Harsh Realm (Fox); and crime thriller Millennium (Fox).
Spotnitz served on The X-Files for eight of its nine seasons after joining the show in 1994. He called it "a life-changing experience", graduating from staff writer to executive producer after three seasons. He directed two episodes and wrote or co-wrote more than 40 instalments of the series, including the Emmy-nominated "Memento Mori" with Chris Carter, Vince Gilligan and John Shiban in 1997. He served for four years as executive producer and three years as president of Carter's Ten Thirteen Productions. He was a producer and co-writer of both The X-Files feature films, Fight the Future (1998) and I Want to Believe (2008). Spotnitz shares three Golden Globes for Best Dramatic Series and a Peabody Award for his work on The X-Files. He was also nominated for an Emmy Award for writing and three times for Outstanding Drama Series.
In 2012, Spotnitz created, wrote and executive-produced the international spy drama series Hunted for BBC1 and HBO/Cinemax, starring Melissa George, Adam Rayner, Stephen Dillane and Patrick Malahide. The series follows Sam Hunter, an operative for a private spy agency, Byzantium. After she is betrayed and nearly killed by one of her colleagues, Sam returns to London in an attempt to root out the traitor, while working undercover in the home of a wealthy and dangerous London gangster on an assignment that could cost her life. The series was BAFTA nominated for cinematography and won the ASC Award. It was also nominated for Best Editing by the Royal Television Society.
Spotnitz created, executive-produced and wrote several episodes of The Man in the High Castle, based on the classic alternative history novel by Philip K. Dick, which upon its release became Amazon's most viewed series ever. Starring Alexa Davalos, Rufus Sewell and Joel de la Fuente, the series explores life in a 1962 America after the Allies lost the war and the country is divided between the fascist Japanese in the West and the Nazis in the East. The series won two Emmy Awards, was nominated for two others, and named Best Drama Series at the Roma Fiction Festival. It was also nominated for an ASC Award for Outstanding Cinematography, the USC Scripter Award and Best Drama at Monte Carlo Television Festival's Golden Nymph Awards.
Writing process
Spotnitz adopted the writers' room process from his experience in the US, which he brought to the UK when he founded Big Light Productions. He cards the story scene by scene on a corkboard, with one board for each episode. Spotnitz favours carding in order to better analyse the story and to enable better collaboration. He always asks: why do I care about this story? Why do I care about this character? And aims to draw in the audience early on.
Personal life
Spotnitz lives with his family in London.
Spotnitz said in an interview about his show The Man in the High Castle: "Frank is the closest to me in the TV series, because my father's Jewish, my mother's not. I don't identify as Jewish in a religious way. I'm not a religious person, and yet if you were living in a Nazi state, that would be no defense. Jews don't get to decide if they're Jews. That's really terrifying to me."
Filmography
Books
TV Outside the Box: Trailblazing in the Digital Television Revolution, Neil Landau (2015)
Dalla parte di John Fante, by Giovanna Di Lello and Toni Ricciardi (Rome: Carocci 2020)