Sean Gray

Sean Gray
Sean Gray at The 67th Primetime Emmy Awards
Born	15 June 1983
Occupation	screenwriter, director, producer
Nationality	British
Alma mater	Oxford University

Sean Gray (born June 15, 1983) is an Emmy-winning^[1] and Golden Globe-nominated^[2] comedy writer, producer and director.^[3] He is best 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.

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".^[4] 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 won Outstanding Comedy Series at the 67th Primetime Emmy Awards. 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

In 2010, he directed Peter Capaldi in the award-winning short film 'Bistro', which he also wrote and produced.^[14] 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.^[15]

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,^[16] prompting acting spokesman Robert Wood to later issue a statement ^[17] and the State Department to conduct "a complete review of their security procedures".^[18]

External links

• Sean Gray at the Internet Movie Database

Credits

• Veep (Writer, 9 episodes, Co-Executive producer)^[19]
• The Thick of It (Writer, 14 episodes)
• Time Trumpet (Writer)
• Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle (writer, additional material Series 2; Assistant Producer, writer 6 episodes of "Comedy Extra" segments on red button Series 1)
• 'iGod' on BBC Radio 4 (creator, writer 2010-2011)
• 'Bistro' (writer, director, producer)
• Armando Iannucci's Charm Offensive on BBC Radio 4
• In the Loop

References