Paul Clarkson

Paul Thomas Clarkson is a British screenwriter, creator and Executive Producer working across high-end television, film, animation and videogames. He co-created and Executive Produced the BBC/Netflix horror thriller Red Rose, which became a global Top 10 series on Netflix following its international release.

Paul has extensive experience in major genre writers’ rooms across horror, fantasy and science fiction, as well as numerous development and writers’ rooms across British and international television. He wrote Season 1, Episode 3 of Amazon’s The Wheel of Time and Episode 7 of Mike Flanagan’s Netflix horror series The Haunting of Bly Manor, on which he also served as Co-Producer. His other television work includes See for Apple TV+, where he was a Consulting Producer and wrote an episode, and His Dark Materials for BBC/HBO, where he worked as a script consultant and story room writer.

As co-creator and Executive Producer of Red Rose, Paul worked across the full life of the production, from development and the writers’ room through production, editing and post-production. Produced by Eleven for the BBC and subsequently released internationally by Netflix, the eight-part series combines psychological and supernatural horror with a story rooted in class, friendship and the lives of teenagers in the North of England.

Paul is currently developing Shadows, an original sci-fi horror thriller with Miramax, set at a ski resort in the French Alps, and Before Rubicon, a 2D animated series about Julius Caesar and the Gallic Wars, with Hurl and Gliding Productions.

Alongside his screen work, Paul has worked as a writer and creative contributor on projects for BAFTA-winning videogame studio Larian Studios, creators of Baldur’s Gate 3. He is also developing his own videogame, Ivory Legion, with the University of Greater Manchester. Set during Hannibal’s legendary crossing of the Alps, the game follows an elephant travelling with the Carthaginian army.

Before becoming a writer, Paul had a career in science. He undertook doctoral research in nanotechnology at the University of Cambridge, where his research was published, worked as a nuclear research scientist for Rolls-Royce, and later worked in government as a scientific adviser. His scientific background continues to inform his interest in science fiction, technology and speculative storytelling.