Simon Beaufoy

Born in Keighley, England, preeminent British scriptwriter Simon Beaufoy attended Malsis School in Glusburn and Ermysted's in Skipton, England. Though he harbored dreams of becoming a soldier as a young man, he shifted gears to focus on art in his mid-teens, then decided instead to focus on writing, then moved into scriptwriting. Beaufoy rocketed to fame in the mid- to late '90s, on the basis of his screenplay for the rollicking male-stripper comedy The Full Monty; it won him four BAFTAs (British Academy Awards) and a Best Screenplay Oscar nod, though he lost the latter to Matt Damon and Ben Affleck for Good Will Hunting. Regardless, Monty put Beaufoy on top of his game in the English film industry, and thereafter he turned out a series of popularly and critically acclaimed scripts for features including Among Giants (1998), Blow Dry (2000), Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (2008), and, as arguably his greatest success up through that time, Slumdog Millionaire (2008) -- the Danny Boyle-directed tale of an Indian youth (Dev Patel) who grows up to become a national hero on his country's version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. For that effort, Beaufoy received a Golden Globe for Best Screenplay.