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Julian Fellowes
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Julian Fellowes, actor, writer, director, was born in Cairo, Egypt, and educated at Ampleforth College in Yorkshire and Magdalene College, Cambridge. On leaving university, he studied at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, completing his training in repertory theatre at Northampton and Harrogate before making his West End debut in A Touch of Spring by Sam Taylor at the Comedy Theatre. in London, he has played the Criterion, the Gielgud, the Vaudeville as well as appearing in Futurists by Dusty Hughes at the National Theatre.

On television, he is probably best known for his portrayal of the incorrigible Lord Kilwillie in the popular Sunday night series Monarch of the Glen. Also for the BBC, he was the 2nd Duke of Richmond in Aristocrats. Other credits include Our Friends in the North, For the Greater Good, Dirty Tricks and Sharpe's Regiment. On the big screen, he was seen in Shadowlands with Anthony Hopkins, Damage with Jeremy Irons, Place Vendome with Catherine Deneuve and Tomorrow Never Dies with Pierce Brosnan. As a writer for television, he is responsible for the scripts of Little Lord Fauntleroy (winner of an International EMMY, 1995) and The Prince and the Pauper (nominated for a BAFTA, 1997) which he also produced.

His screenplay debut for the cinema was Gosford Park, directed by Robert Altman. It won the award for Best Screenplay of 2001 from the New York Critics' Circle and the National Film Critics. Julian was named Screenwriter of the Year by ShoWest, the organisation of American Film Distributors, and he won the Writers' Guild Award for Best Original Screenplay as well as an Academy Award (the Oscar) in the same category. In Britain he has been awarded a Medal of Excellence by the Walpole Group. He worked on Vanity Fair for Focus Films starring Reese Witherspoon, as well as adapting Piccadilly Jim by P G Wodehouse for Mission Pictures.

He has directed his own script for the film Separate Lies starring Emily Watson, Tom Wilkinson and Rupert Everett, for which he received the award for Best Directorial Debut of 2005 from the National Board of Review in New York. He was also nominated by the British Film Critics' Circle along with Tom and Emily. He has written a novel, Snobs, published by Weidenfeld in 2004, which entered the bestseller lists on the day of publication and which he is now adapting for the BBC. In 1990 Julian married Emma Kitchener. They have a son called Peregrine, a dachshund called Humbug, a collie called Meg and they divide their time between London and Dorset.

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