Sean Gray

Sean Gray
Born 15 June 1983
Occupation screenwriter, director, producer
Nationality British
Alma mater Oxford University
Genre TV, Film and radio comedy

Sean Gray (born 15 June 1983) is a comedy writer, producer and director. He is known for his work on the HBO series Veep and the BAFTA-winning BBC series The Thick of It and Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle. He is a two-time Emmy-winner[1] and Golden Globe-nominee.[2]

Early life and education

Gray graduated from Oxford University. During his time at Oxford he wrote for and edited the university magazine Isis, and has explained that this "was basically just an excuse to write funny stuff for an audience".[3] Gray started writing comedy sketches as a student and has cited Peter Cook as the comedian who "opened [his] eyes to what comedy could be".

Television and Radio

Gray is a writer and Co-Executive Producer on HBO's Emmy-winning sitcom Veep, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus. The show and Gray won the Outstanding Comedy Series at both the 67th Primetime Emmy Awards and the 68th Primetime Emmy Awards, two Writers Guild Of America Awards and a 2016 Peabody Award.[4] He is a credited writer on 9 episodes of Veep: Catherine, Chung (Season 1); Hostages, Running (Season 2); Some New Beginnings, Alicia (Season 3); Convention, Testimony (Season 4); Thanksgiving (Season 5).[5] Gray previously worked on the original BBC comedy The Thick of It, writing or co-writing 14 episodes of the BAFTA-winning sitcom. For the launch of Series 4, he and fellow The Thick of It writer Ian Martin were interviewed by Kirsty Lang on BBC Radio 4's Front Row and described how the show's seemingly farcical policies have often been mirrored in real life politics.[6] Gray also wrote on this subject for the BBC News website.[7]

Gray started his career in 2006 writing on the Armando Iannucci BBC2 comedy series Time Trumpet.[8] Other credits include Additional Interview Questions for the BAFTA and British Comedy Award-winning series Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle. Gray previously worked as Assistant Producer on Series 1 of Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle, as well as writing for the red button 'Stewart V Armando' interview segments with Iannucci.[9]

He is creator and sole writer of 'iGod' – a Radio 4 Sci-fi comedy series starring David Soul and Simon Day about a man who accidentally causes the end of the world.[10] The show was described by The Guardian newspaper as "very, very funny"[11] and by The Radio Times as "hilarious".[12] He has also written for 3 series of Armando Iannucci's Charm Offensive and David Quantick's 'One'.[13]

Film

Gray's film projects include "a comedy about artificial intelligence" [14] for Armando Iannucci to direct and 'Greed' for director Michael Winterbottom. [15]

He previously directed Peter Capaldi in the award-winning short film 'Bistro', which he also wrote and produced.[16] The film co-stars Alex Macqueen. The film won Soho House's international 'Electric Shorts' competition and Gray was selected as a judge for the 2012 prize alongside Harvey Weinstein, Paul Haggis and Jessica Chastain.[17]

While working on the Oscar-nominated film In The Loop, he and Iannucci reportedly managed to get into the US State Department using their BBC passes,[18] prompting acting spokesman Robert Wood to later issue a statement [19] and the State Department to conduct "a complete review of their security procedures".[20]

Credits

References

  1. ↑ "Nominees/Winners".
  2. ↑ "Veep". www.goldenglobes.com.
  3. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 30 June 2016. Retrieved 21 May 2016.
  4. ↑ "VEEP".
  5. ↑ List of Veep episodes
  6. ↑ "The Thick of It writers: 'We don't have moles', The Thick of It, Cerys Matthews, Lucy Liu in Elementary, Front Row - BBC Radio 4". BBC.
  7. ↑ "When life imitates The Thick Of It". 13 October 2012 – via www.bbc.co.uk.
  8. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 25 November 2015.
  9. ↑ – Stewart V Armando Interviews Archived 3 March 2010 at the Wayback Machine.
  10. ↑ – Agent CV
  11. ↑ Mahoney, Elisabeth (23 December 2010). "Radio review: iGod". the Guardian.
  12. ↑ Guide, British Comedy. "iGod press clippings - British Comedy Guide". British Comedy Guide.
  13. ↑ Guide, British Comedy. "One - Radio 4 Sketch Show - British Comedy Guide". British Comedy Guide.
  14. ↑ "Armando Iannucci Talks 'Death of Stalin' and Telling 'Veep' Team to "Just Assume I'm Dead"".
  15. ↑ "Resume" (PDF). www.casarotto.co.uk.
  16. ↑ Evening Standard Londoner's Diary – Peter Capaldi Gets Shorty Archived 5 October 2011 at the Wayback Machine.
  17. ↑ "Soho House Group Kicks Off Second 'House Shorts' Film Competition".
  18. ↑ "Ministry of offence: Armando Iannucci takes on the White House".
  19. ↑
  20. ↑ "In the Loop Director Armando Iannucci on Sneaking Into the State Department". 24 July 2009.
  21. ↑ "The Hollywood Reporter" 16 April 2011
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