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Richard Whalley Anthony Curtis (born 8 November 1956) is a British screenwriter, producer and director. One of Britain's most successful comedy screenwriters, he is known for romantic comedy-drama films, including Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), Notting Hill (1999), Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), Love Actually (2003), (2004), About Time (2013), Yesterday (2019) and That Christmas (2024), as well as the war drama film War Horse (2011), and for having co-written the sitcoms Blackadder, Mr. Bean and The Vicar of Dibley. His early career saw him write material for the comedy sketch shows Not the Nine O'Clock News and Spitting Image.
In 2007, Curtis received the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. He is the co-founder, with Sir Lenny Henry, of the British charity Comic Relief, which has raised over £1 billion. At the 2008 Britannia Awards, he received the BAFTA Humanitarian Award for co-creating Comic Relief and for his contributions to other charitable causes. In 2024, he received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Curtis was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest figures in British comedy in 2003. In 2008, he was ranked number 12 in a list of the "100 most powerful people in British culture" compiled by The Telegraph. In 2012, he was one of the British cultural icons selected by artist Sir Peter Blake to appear in a new version of his most famous artwork—the cover of The Beatles' 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Curtis attended Papplewick School in Ascot, Berkshire (as did his younger brother Jamie). For a short period in the 1970s, he lived in Warrington, Cheshire, where he attended Appleton Grammar School (now Bridgewater High School). He lived at Merricourt on Windmill Lane, Appleton, Warrington, during this time. His university friend Rowan Atkinson was an occasional visitor to the house.
He then won a scholarship to Harrow School, where he joined the editorial team of The Harrovian, the weekly school magazine, and this, he asserts, is "where I learned all the skills that made me a sketch writer. I did reviews, comment pieces and funny articles where I'd try to conjure something out of nothing." While at Harrow, Curtis directed a school performance of Joe Orton's play The Erpingham Camp; this controversial choice was given the 'green light' by his classics master, James Morwood. Later, Curtis commented that Morwood's support had helped him understand that it was all right "to push boundaries and to be funny". Curtis did not approve of fagging at the school, and at 18, when he became head of his house, he banned it.
He achieved a first-class Bachelor of Arts in English Language and Literature at Christ Church, Oxford. At the University of Oxford, he met and began working with Rowan Atkinson, after they both joined the scriptwriting team of the Etceteras revue, part of the Experimental Theatre Club. He appeared in the company's "After Eights" at the Oxford Playhouse in May 1976.
First with Atkinson and later with Ben Elton, Curtis then wrote the Blackadder series from 1983 to 1989, each season focusing on a different era in British history. Atkinson played the lead throughout, but Curtis was the only writer who participated in every episode of Blackadder. The pair continued their collaboration with the comedy series Mr. Bean, which ran from 1990 to 1995.
Curtis had by then already begun writing feature films. His first was The Tall Guy (1989), a romantic comedy starring Jeff Goldblum, Emma Thompson and Rowan Atkinson and produced by Working Title films. The TV movie Bernard and the Genie followed in 1991.
In 1994, Curtis created and co-wrote The Vicar of Dibley for comedian Dawn French, which was a great success. In an online poll conducted in 2004 Britain's Best Sitcom, it was voted the third-best sitcom in British history and Blackadder the second-best, making Curtis the only screenwriter to create two shows in the poll's top 10 programmes.
Curtis' next film was also for Working Title, which has remained his artistic home ever since. 1997's Bean brought Mr. Bean to the big screen and was a huge hit around the world. He continued his association with Working Title writing the 1999 romantic comedy Notting Hill, starring Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts, which broke the record set by Four Weddings and a Funeral to become the top-grossing British film. The story of a lonely travel bookstore owner who falls in love with the world's most famous movie star was directed by Roger Michell.
Curtis next co-wrote the screen adaptation of the international bestseller Bridget Jones's Diary for Working Title. Curtis knew the novel's writer Helen Fielding. Indeed, he has credited her with saying that his original script for Four Weddings and a Funeral was too upbeat and needed the addition of the titular funeral.
Two years later, Curtis re-teamed with Working Title to write and direct Love Actually. Curtis has said in interviews that the sprawling, multi-character structure of Love Actually owes a debt to his favourite film, Robert Altman's Nashville. The film featured a "Who's Who" of UK actors, including Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, Bill Nighy, Emma Thompson, Liam Neeson, Andrew Lincoln, Alan Rickman and Keira Knightley, in a loosely connected series of stories about people in and out of love in London in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Its regular festive screening has seen it labelled as being arguably a modern-day Christmas staple.
Curtis followed this in 2004 with work as co-writer on , the sequel to Bridget Jones's Diary. Curtis then wrote the screenplay to The Girl in the Café, a television film directed by David Yates and produced by the BBC and HBO as part of the Make Poverty History campaign's Live 8 efforts in 2005. The film stars Bill Nighy as a civil servant and Kelly Macdonald as a young woman he falls in love with at a fictional G8 summit in Iceland. Macdonald's character pushes him to ask whether the developed countries of the world cannot do more to help the most impoverished. The film was timed to air just before the Gleneagles G8 summit in 2005. It received three Emmy Awards in 2006, including Outstanding Made for Television Movie, Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie for Kelly Macdonald and a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special trophy for Curtis himself. Curtis said of Yates' direction that he made "a much more beautiful film, and a surprising film and a better film than I could possibly have made."
In May 2007, he received the BAFTA Fellowship at the British Academy Television Awards in recognition of his successful career in film and television and his charity efforts. Curtis next co-wrote with Anthony Minghella an adaptation of Alexander McCall Smith's novel, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, which Minghella shot in mid-2007 in Botswana. It premiered on the BBC on 23 March 2008, just days after Minghella's death. The film did not run in the US until early 2009, when HBO aired it as the pilot of a resulting six-episode TV series with the same cast, on which Curtis served as executive producer.
His second film as writer/director, The Boat That Rocked, was released in 2009. The film was set in 1966 in the era of British pirate radio. It followed a group of DJs on a pirate radio station run from a boat in the North Sea. The film starred Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy, Nick Frost, Rhys Ifans, Gemma Arterton and Kenneth Branagh. The film was a commercial and critical disappointment in the UK. Curtis re-edited the film for its US release where it was re-titled Pirate Radio, but also failed to find an audience. He followed that with War Horse, which he rewrote for director Steven Spielberg based on an earlier script by playwright Lee Hall. Curtis was recommended to Spielberg by DreamWorks Studio executive Stacey Snider, who had worked with Curtis during her time at Universal Studios. Curtis's work on the World War I-set Blackadder Goes Forth meant he was already familiar with the period.
Curtis then wrote Mary and Martha, a BBC/HBO television film directed by Phillip Noyce. The film starred Hilary Swank and Brenda Blethyn as two women who bond after they both lose their sons to malaria. The film was broadcast in the UK on 1 March 2013. He next wrote and directed About Time, a romantic comedy/drama about time travel and family love. It starred Rachel McAdams, Domhnall Gleeson, Bill Nighy, Tom Hollander, Margot Robbie, Lydia Wilson and Vanessa Kirby. It was released in the UK on 4 September 2013. Soon after the film came out, Curtis delivered a screenwriting lecture as part of the BAFTA and BFI Screenwriters' Lecture Series. He followed that with Trash, which he adapted from the novel by Andy Mulligan for director Stephen Daldry. With three unknown Brazilian children in the lead roles, the film co-starred Wagner Moura, Rooney Mara and Martin Sheen. It was filmed in 2013 in Rio de Janeiro and released in Brazil on 9 October 2014 and in the UK on 30 January 2015.
He next wrote Roald Dahl's Esio Trot, a BBC television film adaptation of Roald Dahl's classic children's Esio Trot. Receiving acclaim, the film starred Dustin Hoffman and Judi Dench, with James Corden as the narrator, was directed by Dearbhla Walsh and was broadcast on BBC on 1 January 2015. His next film, Yesterday, was adapted from an original screenplay by Jack Barth (who received only "co-story" credit, reportedly at Curtis's insistence). The film, directed by Danny Boyle and starring Lily James and Himesh Patel, follows a young man who discovers that the entire world except for him has no memory of the Beatles, allowing him to become a global pop star by performing their songs as his own. While Barth's original screenplay depicted an obscure musician unable to capitalize on his windfall, Curtis's more conventional script featured an independent musician unable to control his own career once the music industry takes over. It began filming on 21 April 2018 and was released on 28 June 2019.
Curtis helped spearhead the launch of the Robin Hood tax campaign in 2010. The campaign fights for a 0.05% tax levied on each bank trade ranging from shares to foreign exchange and derivatives that could generate $700bn worldwide and be spent on measures to combat domestic and international poverty as well as fight climate change.
In October 2010, a short film created by Curtis titled No Pressure was released by the in Britain to promote climate change politics. The film depicted a series of scenes in which people were asked if they were going to participate in the 10:10 campaign, told there was "no pressure" to do so, but if they did not, they were blown up at the press of a red button. Reaction was mixed, but the video was swiftly removed from the organisation's website.
In March 2011, Curtis apologised following a complaint by the British Stammering Association about 2011 Comic Relief's opening skit, a parody by Lenny Henry of the 2010 film The King's Speech.
He talked the producer of American Idol into doing a show wherein celebrities journeyed into Africa and experienced the level of poverty for themselves. It was called . In 2014, Curtis publicly backed "Hacked Off" and its campaign in support of UK press self-regulation by "safeguarding the press from political interference while also giving vital protection to the vulnerable."
In August 2014, Curtis was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to September's referendum on that issue.
In 2020, Curtis co-founded the climate finance campaign Make My Money Matter. According to Campaign Director David Hayman the campaign "is all about helping people understand the impact of their money and how helping them think that if they are saving for retirement, what kind of retirement is their money saving for? What kind of world is it building?"
In 2021, he joined the Rewriting Extinction campaign to fight the climate and biodiversity crisis through comics. He wrote a comic story in collaboration with War and Peas named "Woke". It was printed in the book The Most Important Comic Book on Earth: Stories to Save the World
| 1983 | Dead on Time | ||
| 1991 | Mr. Bean Takes an Exam | ||
| Mr. Bean Goes to a Première | |||
| 2010 | No Pressure | ||
| 2020 | A Cheeky Nativity Poem | ||
| The Quiz Results Are In! | |||
| The Vicar's First 'Viral' Sermon |
Feature film
| 1989 | The Tall Guy | ||||
| 1994 | Four Weddings and a Funeral | ||||
| 1997 | Bean | ||||
| 1999 | Notting Hill | ||||
| 2001 | Bridget Jones's Diary | ||||
| 2003 | Love Actually | ||||
| More Great Comedy Moments | Direct-to-video | ||||
| 2004 | |||||
| 2006 | Sixty Six | ||||
| 2007 | Mr. Bean's Holiday | ||||
| 2009 | The Boat That Rocked | Also known as Pirate Radio in North America | |||
| 2011 | War Horse | ||||
| 2013 | About Time | ||||
| 2014 | Trash | ||||
| 2018 | Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again | ||||
| 2019 | Yesterday | ||||
| 2020 | Rising Phoenix | Documentary film | |||
| 2023 | Genie | ||||
| 2024 | That Christmas |
Acting roles
| 1983 | Dead on Time | Customer in Cafe | Short film |
| 1989 | The Tall Guy | Man Leaving Bathroom | Uncredited |
| 2003 | Love Actually | Trombone Player | |
| Something Sketchy | Himself | Short film |
| 1979–1982 | Not the Nine O'Clock News | ||||
| 1984–1985 | Spitting Image | ||||
| 1985–present | Comic Relief | ||||
| 1990 | French and Saunders | "Episode #3.7" | |||
| 1990–1995 | Mr. Bean | Also script editor | |||
| 1994–2007 | The Vicar of Dibley | ||||
| 2007 | Casualty | Episode "Sweet Charity" | |||
| 2010 | Doctor Who | Episode "Vincent and the Doctor" | |||
Miniseries
| 1983 | The Black Adder | |||
| 1986 | Blackadder II | |||
| 1987 | Blackadder the Third | |||
| 1989 | Blackadder Goes Forth | |||
| 1997 | Balls to Africa: Sporting Noses on Tour | |||
| 2009 | The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency | |||
| 2019 | Four Weddings and a Funeral |
TV special
| 1989 | A Night of Comic Relief 2 | |||
| 1989 | The Robbie Coltrane Special | |||
| 1992 | Rowan Atkinson Live | |||
| 2015 | Global Citizen Festival | |||
| Red Nose Day | ||||
| 2017 | Comic Relief: Graham Norton's Big Chat Live | |||
| Red Nose Day: Greg Davies' Hot Tub Half Hour | ||||
| The Red Nose Day Special | ||||
| 2019 | The United Nations Association 2019 Global Citizen Awards & 12th Annual West Coast Global Forum | Segment "We The People" | ||
| 2020 | Cinderella: A Comic Relief Pantomime for Christmas |
| 1988 | Blackadder's Christmas Carol | |||
| 1991 | Bernard and the Genie | |||
| 1992 | Comic Relief: Behind the Nose | |||
| 1995 | Oliver 2: Let's Twist Again | |||
| 1999 | Comic Relief: Doctor Who - The Curse of Fatal Death | |||
| Robbie the Reindeer in Hooves of Fire | ||||
| 2002 | Robbie the Reindeer in Legend of the Lost Tribe | |||
| 2005 | The Girl in the Café | |||
| 2007 | The Minister of Divine | |||
| Robbie the Reindeer in Close Encounters of the Herd Kind | ||||
| 2008 | The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency | |||
| 2013 | Comic Relief: Red Nose Day 2013 | |||
| Mary and Martha | ||||
| 2015 | Esio Trot | |||
| 2016 | Red Nose Day | |||
| 2018 | The Red Nose Day Special |
Short film
| 1982 | The Black Adder | |||
| 1984 | Madness the Pilot | |||
| 1988 | ||||
| 1999 | ||||
| 2017 | Red Nose Day Actually | |||
| 2019 | Comic Relief: Mamma Mia! Here We Go Yet Again | |||
| One Red Nose Day and a Wedding | ||||
| 2023 | Baldrick's Bedtime Stories |
Theater play
| 2020 | Dinner with Dylan |
Music video
| 2011 | "Happy Now" | ||
| 2024 | "Under the Tree" |
Organizer
Additional literary material
| 1984–1985 | Spitting Image | |
| 1989 | Hysteria 2! | TV movies |
| 1998 | A Royal Birthday Celebration | |
| 2000 | French & Saunders Live | Direct-to-video |
| 2001 | One Night with Robbie Williams | TV special |
| 2016 | Walliams & Friend | Episode "Miranda Richardson" |
| 2022 | Ticket to Paradise |
| 1990 | British Academy Television Award | Best Comedy (Programme or Series) | Blackadder Goes Forth | |
| 1992 | The Curse of Mr. Bean | |||
| 1995 | Academy Awards | Best Original Screenplay | Four Weddings and a Funeral | |
| 1995 | British Academy Film Award | Best Original Screenplay | ||
| Writers Guild of America Award | Best Original Screenplay | |||
| Golden Globe Award | Best Screenplay | |||
| 1998 | British Academy Television Award | Best Comedy (Programme or Series) | The Vicar of Dibley | |
| 1999 | ||||
| 2002 | British Academy Film Award | Best Adapted Screenplay | Bridget Jones's Diary | |
| Writers Guild of America Award | Best Adapted Screenplay | |||
| 2004 | Golden Globe Award | Best Screenplay | Love Actually | |
| British Academy Film Award | Outstanding British Film | |||
| Discoverer Screenwriting Award | Best Screenplay | |||
| 2005 | Primetime Emmy Award | Outstanding Made for Television Movie | The Girl in the Café | |
| Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special | ||||
| 2007 | British Academy Film Award | BAFTA Fellowship | ||
| 2020 | Global Citizen Prize Award | Global Citizen of the Year | ||
| 2025 | Academy Awards | Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award | ||
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