George Kay (writer)

Whilst a teenage student at Wellington College, Berkshire, Kay met director Jim Field Smith, with whom he later founded Idiotlamp Productions.^[4]

Kay began his career in non-scripted entertainment, serving as head of development at Twenty Twenty Television and head of factual at Blast! Films, where he co-created productions such as The Choir,^{[citation needed]} Evacuation,^{[citation needed]} and The Sorcerer's Apprentice.^[5]

Kay became a full-time writer in 2009, after he won the Brit List with his first feature script, Good Luck Anthony Belcher.^[6] He went on to write episodes of The Hour for the BBC, The Tunnel for Sky, My Mad Fat Diary for C4, and two episodes of the first season of Killing Eve.

Kay created his first comedy series, Stag, with Field Smith. They continued their collaborations with the anthology franchise Criminal for Netflix, both produced by their production company Idiotlamp, and Litvinenko, for ITV. Whilst writing the script for Litvinenko, Kay had access to transcripts of Alexander Litvinenko's 18 hours of deathbed interviews with the London Metropolitan Police.^[7] Litvinenko's widow, Marina, and the Metropolitan Police, supported the production of the series.^[8] The show has been sold to over eighty international territories.^[9]

For Netflix, Kay created the hit global series Lupin, based on the Arsène Lupin books, starring Omar Sy. The show debuted to critical acclaim, winning a Critics Choice Award for Best Foreign Language Series and being nominated for Best Drama Award at the International Emmy Awards and Golden Globe Awards.^[10]

Kay subsequently created the series The Long Shadow for ITV, detailing the five-year manhunt for the serial killer Peter Sutcliffe. It was nominated for Best Drama at the 2024 British Academy Television Awards.^[11]