James Moran
, b. 1972
James Moran (1972- ) is an English screenwriter for television and film. Born in York, he won a scriptwriting competition run by the American-based (NBC/Universal Pictures) Sci Fi Channel for his short film Cheap Rate Gravity (2002), which was his first produced work. Moran then penned the six-part TV drama The School. The serial-killer feature film Severance (2005), and Cockneys vs Zombies (2012), were followed by a thriller – Tower Block (2012) – and some uncredited work on the horror movie The Borderlands (2014). Moran also worked for television, and his debut was in the first series of Doctor Who’s spin-off Torchwood (for which he wrote the episode Sleeper, 2008); and then co-wrote (with Showrunner Russell T Davies) Day Three of the 2009 Children of Earth storyline. Following his involvement in Torchwood, Moran was approached by Davies to pen a Roman history-themed episode for Doctor Who itself, having originally been inspired to include a Pompeii story while watching the BBC/TLC docu-drama Pompeii: The Last Day (2003). Moran struggled with the task, but was assisted by Davies, who insisted on the inclusion of multiple Latin language-based jokes a la the Asterix comic books (Davies’ mother had been a teacher of Latin). Moran decided to utilise the main characters from the Cambridge Latin Course textbooks as his supporting cast. Following-on from Doctor Who, Moran wrote for ITV’s Primeval (2009), BBC One’s Spooks (2008) and Spooks: Code 9 (2008), NBC’s Crusoe (2008), and the CBBC children’s shows The Sparticle Mystery (2015) and Eve (2015). Moran maintains a blog and a Facebook page.
Bio prepared by Richard Scully, University of New England, rscully@une.edu.au
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