John S. Baird

US REPRESENTATION: John Garvey & Joe Cohen, CAA

Jon S. Baird was born and raised in Aberdeenshire, but moved to London on the day after his graduation to immerse himself in all aspects of film and television production. Baird began his career as a runner at the BBC and quickly progressed through the ranks to become one of Britain’s brightest up and coming directorial talents.

His first role as director was in 2001 within the BBC’s comedy department, where he directed inserts for topical comedy shows.

In 2004 Baird wrote, directed and produced his first short film, ‘It’s A Casual Life’, which led to him landing a role as an associate producer on the feature film ‘Green Street’ (2006) starring Elijah Wood.

Baird’s directorial debut feature, which he also wrote and produced, was the highly acclaimed ‘Cass’ (2008), a true story about a Jamaican orphan whose violent struggle for identity saw him going from public enemy number one to successful book publisher.

Baird’s second feature ‘Filth’ (2013), which he wrote, directed and produced, was based on the best selling novel by Irvine Welsh and starred James McAvoy. ‘Filth’ won numerous awards and played at several international film festivals. ‘Filth’ is now in the top ten highest grossing UK 18 certificates of all time.

At the end of 2013 Baird wrote a screenplay for Disney, ‘The Immigrant’, based on the life of Steve Banerjee; the Indian immigrant who invented the world famous male dance group, The Chippendales, before becoming one of the FBI’s most wanted fugitives.

In 2014 Baird directed the television comedy drama ‘Babylon’ for Channel 4, which was produced by Danny Boyle and starred Brit Marling and James Nesbitt.

Following on from that, in 2015 Baird adapted the screenplay for the best selling novel ‘Gypsy Boy’, which he is also attached to direct.

In August 2015 he directed an episode of the Martin Scorsese produced HBO show ‘Vinyl’, and in 2016 will direct Stan and Ollie; a feature film about the comedy legends Laurel and Hardy, for BBC Films and The Weinstein Company.