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Joe Scott Penhall (born 1967) is an English-Australian playwright and screenwriter, best known for his award-winning stage play Blue/Orange, the award-winning West End musical Sunny Afternoon and creating the Netflix original series Mindhunter.
Penhall adapted Ian McEwan's novel Enduring Love in 2004 to film starring Rhys Ifans and Daniel Craig. That same year he also wrote the screenplay for BBC2's BAFTA-nominated dramatisation of Jake Arnott's novel The Long Firm (1999), starring Mark Strong.
In 2000 Penhall's play Blue/Orange began its run at the National Theatre, directed by Roger Michell and starring Bill Nighy, Andrew Lincoln and Chiwetel Ejiofor. The play centres on two NHS doctors trying to deal with a sectioned young black schizophrenic patient; it was a huge success, winning Best New Play at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards, Laurence Olivier Awards, and at the Critics' Circle. It transferred to the West End at the Duchess Theatre the following year. Penhall adapted this play in 2005 for TV with a new cast. That same year he wrote and directed The Undertaker, his first short film, starring Rhys Ifans and premiering at the London Film Festival.
Penhall's follow-up play Dumb Show was staged at the Royal Court Theatre in 2004, focusing on tabloid journalism. It was directed by Terry Johnson. Penhall has called this a "small light play" as opposed to the "huge dark play" Blue/Orange.
Landscape With Weapon, about the invention of a weapon of mass destruction, was first performed at the National Theatre in 2007, directed again by Roger Michell and starring Tom Hollander and Julian Rhind-Tutt.
Penhall spent six years working on The Last King of Scotland, even flying to Uganda and meeting Idi Amin's henchmen; however, he requested his name be removed from the film after other writers were brought on board. Penhall adapted Cormac McCarthy's book The Road in 2009 for a film starring Viggo Mortensen; for this he received wide praise, scoring a 74% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and was named by Variety Magazine as one of their Top Ten Screenwriters to watch.
In 2009 Penhall's detective drama Moses Jones, where he also served as executive producer, was shown on the BBC, winning a BAFTA for make-up design and Best Screenplay at the Roma Film Festival in 2009.
In 2011 Penhall returned to the theatre with two plays: Haunted Child, staged at the Royal Court Theatre with Sophie Okonedo, and Birthday, starring Stephen Mangan and directed by long-term collaborator Roger Michell.
Penhall's first stage musical, Sunny Afternoon, with music and lyrics by Ray Davies, premiered at the Hampstead Theatre in May 2014, before transferring to London's West End. The musical won four Laurence Olivier Awards in 2015, including for Best New Musical.
In 2017, Penhall created the Netflix series Mindhunter, directed by David Fincher.
In 2018, Penhall's play Mood Music premiered at The Old Vic, directed by Roger Michell and starring Ben Chaplin.
In 2023, Penhall was revealed to have been attached to write the third Sherlock Holmes film with star Robert Downey Jr. and director Dexter Fletcher before its development hell due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2024, Penhall's play The Constituent premiered at The Old Vic, directed by Matthew Warchus and starring James Corden and Anna Maxwell Martin.
| 1995 | Go Back Out | Writer | |
| 2000 | Some Voices | Writer | |
| 2004 | The Long Firm | Gangster | Uncredited; also writer, 4 episodes |
| Enduring Love | Writer | ||
| 2005 | Blue/Orange | Writer | |
| The Undertaker | Director and writer; short film | ||
| 2009 | Moses Jones | Writer and executive producer, 3 episodes | |
| The Road | Writer | ||
| 2015 | Birthday | Writer | |
| 2017–2019 | Mindhunter | Creator, 19 episodes; writer, 2 episodes; executive producer, 10 episodes | |
| 2018 | King of Thieves | Writer |
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