Steven Knight

Early life and education

Steven Knight was born in 1959 to George and Ida Knight in Birmingham, where he grew up in the West Midlands region of England. He was the youngest of seven children, five of them boys. His father was a blacksmith.

He attended The Streetly School as a teenager, in Streetly, Sutton Coldfield, in the West Midlands. He then went on to study English at University College London.

Career

After completing university, Knight returned to Birmingham and began writing radio commercials, before moving back to London, where he worked for Capital Radio. He first wrote television comedy, then novels, and then moved on to screenplays.

Screenplays

Before he created TV's Peaky Blinders, Knight was best known for screenplays he wrote for the films Dirty Pretty Things and Eastern Promises. His work on the screenplay for Dirty Pretty Things earned him the Edgar Award for Best Motion Picture Screenplay and London Film Critics Circle award for British Screenwriter of the Year. The screenplay was also nominated for several other awards including the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay and the BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay.

Knight wrote the screenplay for the 2013 film Closed Circuit, which was directed by John Crowley and which starred Eric Bana and Rebecca Hall.

Knight wrote a draft of a screenplay based on the book Shutter Island written by Dennis Lehane, but the draft that was used for the movie of the same name was written by Laeta Kalogridis.

Recent films based on screenplays that Knight has written include The Hundred-Foot Journey directed by Lasse Hallström, based on the book of the same name by Richard C. Morais and starring Helen Mirren; Seventh Son, an adventure story starring Jeff Bridges, Julianne Moore, Djimon Hounsou, Kit Harington and Jason Scott Lee, as well as the film Pawn Sacrifice, based on U.S. chess champion Bobby Fischer, with Tobey Maguire playing Fischer in the film. He also wrote the screenplay of World War Z II.

Knight wrote the script for the 2021 dramedy Locked Down, about a couple (Anne Hathaway and Chiwetel Ejiofor) attempting a high-stakes jewellery heist during the COVID-19 pandemic. Knight later wrote the script for the film Spencer, starring Kristen Stewart as Diana, Princess of Wales. Knight would subsequently reunite with Spencer director Pablo Larraín on the film Maria, starring Angelina Jolie as Maria Callas.

In March 2023, it was reported that Knight would write the screenplay for an upcoming Star Wars film directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, replacing Damon Lindelof and Justin Britt-Gibson. The film is set to be a continuation to the Star Wars sequel trilogy, focusing on Rey Skywalker's attempts to bring back the Jedi Order. However, by October 2024, Knight departed from the film.

It was also announced in March 2023 that Knight would be writing the screenplay for a remake of the Alfred Hitchcock film Vertigo for Paramount Pictures, with Robert Downey Jr. eyed for the lead role.

In July 2025, it was announced that he will write the screenplay of the next James Bond film, to be directed by Denis Villeneuve. Deadline reported that Knight landed the job after he met with Villeneuve, with various other writers in the running. He said, "It has always been on my bucket list and it's fantastic to be invited to do it, I can't wait to get started. I'm hoping that, being a Bond fan for so many years, it will be imbued into me and I will be able to produce something that's the same but different, and better, stronger and bolder."

Knight's writing sometimes involves "groups of men who are probably not the easiest people to fit into conventional society."

Directing

In addition to his writing, Knight has directed three films: Hummingbird (2013), starring Jason Statham, Locke (2013), starring Tom Hardy, and Serenity (2019) starring Matthew McConaughey, Diane Lane, and Anne Hathaway. Locke won a British Independent Film Award in 2013 for Best Screenplay. Knight has directed several episodes of the TV series for which he also frequently wrote, The Detectives.

In 2022, Knight was the co-director of the Opening Ceremony for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, which took place on 28 July 2022.

TV series

Knight also co-created the TV series game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (along with Mike Whitehill and David Briggs) and also is the creator of the TV series Show do Milhão and All About Me.

Knight created the television series Peaky Blinders and has written for TV series including BBC's Commercial Breakdown (with comedian Jasper Carrott), Comedy Playhouse (the episode "Wild Oats" in 1993), Frankie's On..., Auntie's Big Bloomers, Taboo, and Canned Carrott.

He created and wrote A Christmas Carol, a dark adaptation of the Dickens story for BBC One in the UK and FX in the US, starring Guy Pearce as Scrooge and Andy Serkis as the Ghost of Christmas Past, as well as an adaptation of Dickens' Great Expectations starring Olivia Colman as Miss Havisham. It was notable for its ending, which steered markedly from that of Dickens's original.

Studios

As of 2024, Knight has been involved in establishing a new television and film studio complex, called Digbeth Loc., in Digbeth, central Birmingham, opening in 2025. The complex would be a home for the band UB40, as well as providing filming facilities for a new Peaky Blinders film, and the BBC drama series This Town.

Awards and honours

Knight was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2020 New Year Honours for services to drama, entertainment and the community in Birmingham.

Personal life and media appearances

As of August 2024, Knight lives in Gloucestershire and is married with seven children.

Knight is a lifelong supporter of Birmingham City FC, and in 2025 was the executive producer on the documentary Built in Birmingham: Brady & the Blues following Tom Brady and Tom Wagner's takeover of the club and it’s transformation.

Knight was a guest on Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio 4 on 11 August 2024, selecting George Michael, Bulgarian folk music, and Harry Lauder (the latter a reference to his support of Birmingham City F.C.), among others. He spoke about a variety of topics, including chess, Charles Dickens, Diana, Princess of Wales, and the origins of the SAS.

Filmography