Luke Watson(I)

Luke is an award-winning film and television writer/director. He is currently co-writing and attached to direct the geopolitical thriller series State of War with Hangtime Films; the French/UK police thriller series Intercept with Ego Productions and Submarine; and the Brazilian/US supernatural thriller series Shadows with Intaglio Films and Janeiro Studios. Most recently he was Lead Director on season one of the horror series True Haunting for Netflix and Atomic Monster, and was Lead Director, Writing Consultant, and Executive Producer on season one of the international science-fiction series The Swarm for The Alliance (France Télévisions, ZDF, and RAI), which premiered at the Berlinale, achieved ZDF’s best-ever numbers for a streaming series, and won Best Miniseries at the German Television Awards in 2023. In 2021, he co-created and co-wrote The Drowning, a four-part identity thriller for Channel 5, which became the highest-rated and most-watched drama in the channel’s history.

Luke has directed many prime-time UK TV drama series, working with some of the finest talent in the UK and beyond, both in front of and behind the camera, including Britannia, Ripper Street, Criminal Justice, Spotless, Shameless, and The Village, as well as one-off TV films for the BBC: Random Quest, an adaptation of a John Wyndham science-fiction story, and A View From a Hill, an adaptation of an M. R. James ghost story. The latter started the BBC’s Ghost Story for Christmas series, which has now been running for nearly 20 years. Criminal Justice (2008) won the BAFTA for Best Drama Serial for its first series, as well as the Prix Italia for Best Drama (2009), Best Drama Serial at the Broadcast Awards (2009), and TV Crime Drama of the Year at the ITV Crime Thriller Awards (2009).

Luke studied Film and TV Direction at The Royal College of Art and is represented in the UK by Casarotto Ramsey and in the US by Gersh.