Malcolm Needs

Malcolm Needs was born on 19 December 1957, the fourth of five children. Brought up in Edmonton, North London, he started out in the world of golf, qualifying with the Professional Golfers Association at Lilleshall as a teaching professional but in the 1980s he started writing comedy sketches and was employed as a writer by the BBC before finding stage success with two plays, 'Strip Poker' and 'Pin Money'. Moving into film his debut effort 'Shoreditch' was neither a critical nor a popular success but his next offering 'Charlie' about criminal Charlie Richardson fared much better. He also won an award for his short 'Wrap Up Warm', a protest against the fur trade. In 2008 he set up The Movie Works, of which he is director, to help get small film projects off the ground.