David Nicholls

Born in Eastleigh, Hampshire, David Nicholls attended Toynbee Comprehensive School and Barton Peveril Sixth Form College prior to studying English Literature and Drama at the University of Bristol.

Having graduated, and keen to pursue a career as an actor, he applied for and won a scholarship to study at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York. Following his studies there, he returned to London in 1991. There he worked in a number of bars and restaurants before finally earning an Equity card. He worked sporadically as an actor for the next eight years, appearing in plays at the Battersea Arts Centre, the Finborough, West Yorkshire Playhouse, and Birmingham Rep. In between jobs he worked as a bookseller at Waterstones, Notting Hill.

A three-year stint at the Royal National Theatre followed, with Mr. Nicholls understudying and playing small parts in, amongst other plays, Arcadia, Machinal, Inadmissible Evidence, and The Seagull. During this period, he began working as a freelance script reader, before taking a job at BBC Radio Drama as a script reader/researcher. This led to script-editing jobs at London Weekend Television and Tiger Aspect Productions.

He also began to write, developing a screen adaptation of Sam Shepard's play Simpatico with director Matthew Warchus, an old friend from University. He also wrote his first original script, the situation comedy, Waiting, which was later optioned by the BBC.

Simpatico was filmed in 1999, starring Nick Nolte, Jeff Bridges, Sharon Stone, Catherine Keener, and Albert Finney. Mr. Nicholls was now able to write full-time, and his first U.K. television production followed soon afterwards; the hourlong I Saw You, directed by Tom Vaughan and starring Paul Rhys and Fay Ripley, won Best Short Drama at the annual Banff Television festival. He next wrote four episodes of the top-rated series Cold Feet, and his work on the show earned him a BAFTA Award nomination. He was again a BAFTA nominee for the “Much Ado About Nothing” episode of ShakespeaRe-Told, starring Damian Lewis and SarahParish. The latter later then starred in his original teleplay Aftersun, directed by Peter Lydon and also starring Peter Capaldi. His work for television was adapting Thomas Hardy's book Tess of the D’Urbervilles into a miniseries, directed by David Blair and starring Gemma Arterton.

His first novel, Starter for Ten, was featured on the first Richard and Judy Book Club. He has since written the novels The Understudy and One Day.

He adapted Starter for Ten for the screen; Tom Vaughan directed the feature Starter for 10, which starred James McAvoy, Rebecca Hall, and Alice Eve. Mr. Nicholls then adapted Blake Morrison's memoir And When Did You Last See Your Father? for the screen; Anand Tucker directed the feature [And] When Did You Last See Your Father?, which starred Colin Firth, Jim Broadbent, and Juliet Stevenson.

©2011 Focus Features