NOTTING HILL [Filmmakers]

RICHARD CURTIS (Writer/Executive Producer) was born in New Zealand and began writing comedy after leaving Oxford University in 1978. His first job on television was writing for all four series of the BBC’s Not The Nine O’Clock News, which led to the Blackadder series, which won awards both in America and the UK.

Curtis went on to stage two West End comedy revues and write a stage adaptation of Don Quixote for the Actors Touring Company. He followed this with his first film screenplay, The Tall Guy, which was directed by Mel Smith and starred Jeff Goldblum, Emma Thompson (in her film debut) and Rowan Atkinson.

His second film Four Weddings and a Funeral, starring Hugh Grant and Andie MacDowell, was directed by Mike Newell and released in March 1994. The film won a French Cesar, an Australian Academy Award and the BAFTA for Best Film. The screenplay also won the Writers Guild Award and the Evening Standard Comedy and London Critics Awards and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. This was followed with Bean, which was co-written by Robin Driscoll and directed by Mel Smith.

Back on television, Curtis and Atkinson created Mr. Bean, and have continued to work with the popular character.

Curtis has been the recipient of numerous accolades, including the Writers Guild of Great Britain Comedy Lifetime Achievement Award. In addition, he is co-founder and vice-chairman of British Comic Relief, the organization for which he has co-produced six nights of Comic Relief for the BBC since 1987 and has so far raised over $200 million.