Lee Thomas(XIV)
- Producer
- Screenwriter
- Talent Agent
As a storyteller, Lee’s work goes back as long as he can remember to his childhood, and after leaving Art School in the late-70’s his work inevitably took him into the publishing world, working on magazines for ITV and for the partwork publisher Marshall Cavendish. His work with advertising agencies included working for Cliff Richard’s life-long charity Tear Fund where he illustrated the ‘Terry Tearaway’ cartoon strips.
By the late 80’s, Lee’s entrepreneurial spirit saw him found his first contract publishing company and by the end of that decade he’d founded Classic Publications and created the newspaper Auto Classic which he sold a year later to Sir Michael Hesletine’s company Haymarket Publishing. Never easily pigeon-holed, Lee became Group Art Editor there as well as Managing Editor before going fully freelance in the early-90’s.
But it was while he was working for the American tech company Data General in 1994 that he realised the future of publishing lay with the World Wide Web, so the following year he founded Web Productions Ltd as a website designer/editor and would later use that as his vehicle for further writing. Lee also worked for the Irish entrepreneur Norah Casey on a number of medical publications and she subsequently took him with her to work on The Irish Post where he found the inspiration for his first movie script A Rebel’s Heart, soon to be directed by the award-winning director Ronan O’Leary.
However, it was his golfing buddies at Pinewood Studios that eventually drew him into the film world. After further stints as a headline writer and sub-editor on The Independent newspaper in London, it was now time to set up his first film company Soho Films in 2003 and then his current company Soho Film & Media Ltd in 2005, which is still in business to this day. But the publishing world never left his blood, and Lee was invited to be the publisher of British Film Magazine that same year with a memorable launch party at the Cannes Film Festival - an event he has attended almost non-stop since 2001. Lee has also been a full voting member of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) for more than 20 years.
For the last decade or so, Lee has used his creative expertise in the media industry as a producer and talent agent, having bought out the agency Actors International in 2010 and later forming The SFM Agency with offices in London, Los Angeles and Vienna. Having written and published his first novel in 2025, Lee’s focus is now on writing, packaging and helping other screenwriters develop their craft - with the inevitable producing and executive producing opportunities that come with it.
By the late 80’s, Lee’s entrepreneurial spirit saw him found his first contract publishing company and by the end of that decade he’d founded Classic Publications and created the newspaper Auto Classic which he sold a year later to Sir Michael Hesletine’s company Haymarket Publishing. Never easily pigeon-holed, Lee became Group Art Editor there as well as Managing Editor before going fully freelance in the early-90’s.
But it was while he was working for the American tech company Data General in 1994 that he realised the future of publishing lay with the World Wide Web, so the following year he founded Web Productions Ltd as a website designer/editor and would later use that as his vehicle for further writing. Lee also worked for the Irish entrepreneur Norah Casey on a number of medical publications and she subsequently took him with her to work on The Irish Post where he found the inspiration for his first movie script A Rebel’s Heart, soon to be directed by the award-winning director Ronan O’Leary.
However, it was his golfing buddies at Pinewood Studios that eventually drew him into the film world. After further stints as a headline writer and sub-editor on The Independent newspaper in London, it was now time to set up his first film company Soho Films in 2003 and then his current company Soho Film & Media Ltd in 2005, which is still in business to this day. But the publishing world never left his blood, and Lee was invited to be the publisher of British Film Magazine that same year with a memorable launch party at the Cannes Film Festival - an event he has attended almost non-stop since 2001. Lee has also been a full voting member of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) for more than 20 years.
For the last decade or so, Lee has used his creative expertise in the media industry as a producer and talent agent, having bought out the agency Actors International in 2010 and later forming The SFM Agency with offices in London, Los Angeles and Vienna. Having written and published his first novel in 2025, Lee’s focus is now on writing, packaging and helping other screenwriters develop their craft - with the inevitable producing and executive producing opportunities that come with it.
