Frank Spotnitz

Award-winning American writer and producer Frank Spotnitz is the Chief Executive of Big Light Productions Ltd., a London-and Paris-based production company he founded in 2013 with a vision to create distinctive and ambitious TV drama series, and has become one of the fastest-growing independent production companies in Europe. Big Light Productions creates and produces a diverse slate of international television series, including drama, comedy and documentaries.

Under the Big Light banner, most recently, Spotnitz co-created and executive produced the drama series Leonardo, starring Aidan Turner, Freddie Highmore and Matilda De Angelis, for RAI, France Télévisions, RTVE and Sony, and is co-produced by Big Light Productions alongside Lux Vide.

Previously, under Spotnitz's stewardship, Big Light has produced a number of high-end drama productions including Amazon's Emmy award-winning The Man in the High Castle, based on the classic Philip K. Dick novel. Spotnitz created, executive produced and wrote several episodes of the acclaimed series, which launched in the UK, US, Germany and Austria in 2015 and quickly became Amazon's most viewed drama series ever. Series also included Medici: Masters of Florence, starring Richard Madden and Dustin Hoffman, two seasons of Medici: The Magnificent, starring Daniel Sharman and Sean Bean, both for RAI in Italy, SFR Play in France and Netflix; Ransom for CBS in the US, Corus's Global in Canada, TF1 in France and RTL in Germany; and the comedy-drama series The Indian Detective, starring international comedian Russell Peters, for Bell Media/CTV and Netflix.

Spotnitz's other credits include: Crossing Lines season 3 (2015) with Tandem/Studio Canal; Transporter: The Series season 2 (2014) for the U.S.'s TNT, Germany's M6 and HBO Canada; Hunted (2012); Strike Back (2011); Samurai Girl (2008); Night Stalker (2005); Michael Mann's Robbery Homicide Division (2002); The Lone Gunmen (2001); Harsh Realm (2000); and Millennium (1997-1999). In 2006, Spotnitz co-wrote and created (with Vince Gilligan) a pilot for Spike TV called A.M.P.E.D. Spotnitz directed two episodes and wrote or co-wrote more than 40 episodes of The X-Files television series. He served as 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 2013 Spotnitz helped establish and began teaching at Serial Eyes, a postgraduate training programme in Berlin to help prepare the next generation of European TV writer-producers. With the writers' room experience at the core of the programme, twelve participants are given the opportunity to learn from industry experts and develop a European model of show-running. Each year one participant is also selected to do a three-month placement with Big Light Productions.

Born in Japan, Spotnitz received a B.A. in English literature from UCLA and an M.F.A. in screenwriting from the American Film Institute. He began his career as a newspaper and magazine writer, working for the Associated Press, United Press International and Entertainment Weekly, among others.