Frank Spotnitz

Frank Charles Spotnitz is an American television screenwriter and executive producer, best known for his work on The X-Files and The Man in the High Castle.

Spotnitz is also the chief executive officer and founder of Big Light Productions, a London- and Paris-based production company, which specializes in international television series, including drama, comedy and documentaries.

Spotnitz's career includes creating, writing and producing series with networks, cable, streaming and other broadcast platforms around the world.

Under the Big Light banner, Spotnitz has produced: Amazon's Emmy-winning The Man in the High Castle; Medici: Masters of Florence, and two seasons of Medici: The Magnificent (RAI, Netflix, SFR Play); The Indian Detective (Netflix, CTV); Ransom (CBS, Global, TF1, RTL); season three of Crossing Lines (Tandem Productions / StudioCanal); and season two of Transporter: The Series (TNT, M6, HBO Canada).

Most recently, Spotnitz co-created and executive-produced Leonardo, which is currently in production in Italy.

Born in Camp Zama, Japan.

Spotnitz's father is Jewish, though Spotnitz was not raised religiously.

Spotnitz's father was a doctor in the US Army.

His family moved around until they settled in Phoenix, Arizona.

As a child, Spotnitz consumed television shows and films as much as he could, sometimes watching the same film two or three times in a row.

Spotnitz attended Camelback High School, where he was inspired to pursue a career in Hollywood.

Starring Alexa Davalos, Rufus Sewell and Joel de la Fuente, the series explores life in a 1962 America where the Allies lost the war and the country is divided between the fascist Japanese in the West and the Nazis in the East.

The series won two Emmy Awards, was nominated for two others, and named Best Drama Series at the Roma Fiction Festival.

It was also nominated for an ASC Award for Outstanding Cinematography, the USC Scripter Award and Best Drama at Monte Carlo Television Festival's Golden Nymph Awards.

Spotnitz co-created, executive-produced and co-wrote Medici: Masters of Florence, starring Richard Madden, Dustin Hoffman and Annabel Scholey.

Chronicling the rise of the Medici family during the Italian Renaissance, it shows how the family's ascent from simple merchants to power brokers sparked an economic and cultural revolution, creating powerful enemies in the process.

The Netflix Original Series was produced with Lux Vide Productions for RAI, Italy's largest broadcaster, and SFR in France.

The RAI premiere attracted a record-breaking seven million viewers in Italy, becoming the country's most-watched new series.

Set 20 years later, Medici: The Magnificent starred Daniel Sharman, Bradley James and Sean Bean, and was also co-created, executive-produced and co-written by Spotnitz.

After an attempt on Piero de Medici's life, his son Lorenzo is forced to assume leadership of the family-run bank.

Spotnitz graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a bachelor's degree in English literature in 1982, where he was a reporter for the Daily Bruin.

He later received a MFA in screenwriting from the AFI Conservatory in 1991.

Upon graduation from UCLA, Spotnitz was employed as a wire-service reporter for the United Press International in Indianapolis and New York.

He also briefly worked for the Associated Press in Paris.

Spotnitz freelanced for Entertainment Weekly and Rolling Stone before returning to his passion and studying screenwriting at AFI.

Spotnitz's first television role was on The-X-Files, which he described as being "like a second film school."

His writing and producing credits include: counter-terrorism drama series Strike Back (HBO/Cinemax, Sky); action series Transporter: The Series (TNT); ABC's mystery series Night Stalker (ABC), starring Stuart Townsend and Gabrielle Union; Michael Mann’s crime series Robbery Homicide Division (CBS); unconventional heroes comedy-drama The Lone Gunmen (Fox); sci-fi drama Harsh Realm (Fox); and crime thriller Millennium (Fox).

Spotnitz served on The X-Files for eight of its nine seasons after joining the show in 1994.

He called it "a life-changing experience", graduating from staff writer to executive producer after three seasons.

He directed two episodes and wrote or co-wrote more than 40 instalments of the series, including the Emmy-nominated "Memento Mori" with Chris Carter, Vince Gilligan and John Shiban in 1997.

He served for four years as executive producer and three years as president of Carter's Ten Thirteen Productions.

He was a producer and co-writer of both The X-Files feature films, Fight the Future (1998) and I Want to Believe (2008).

Spotnitz shares three Golden Globes for Best Dramatic Series and a Peabody Award for his work on The X-Files.

He was also nominated for an Emmy Award for writing and three times for Outstanding Drama Series.

In 2012, Spotnitz created, wrote and executive-produced the international spy drama series Hunted for BBC1 and HBO/Cinemax, starring Melissa George, Adam Rayner, Stephen Dillane and Patrick Malahide.

The series follows Sam Hunter, an operative for a private spy agency, Byzantium.

After she is betrayed and nearly killed by one of her colleagues, Sam returns to London in an attempt to root out the traitor, while working undercover in the home of a wealthy and dangerous London gangster on an assignment that could cost her life.

The series was BAFTA nominated for cinematography and won the ASC Award.

It was also nominated for Best Editing by the Royal Television Society.

Spotnitz created, executive-produced and wrote several episodes of The Man in the High Castle, based on the classic alternative history novel by Philip K. Dick, which upon its release became Amazon's most viewed series ever.