About Richard Curtis
Richard Whalley Anthony Curtis (born 8 November 1956) is a British screenwriter, producer and director. One of Britain's most successful comedy screenwriters, he is known for romantic comedy-drama films, including Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), Notting Hill (1999), Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), Love Actually (2003), Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004), About Time (2013) and Yesterday (2019), as well as the war drama film War Horse (2011), and for having co-written the sitcoms Blackadder, Mr. Bean and The Vicar of Dibley. His early career saw him write material for the comedy sketch shows Not the Nine O'Clock News and Spitting Image. In 2007, Curtis received the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. He is the co-founder, with Lenny Henry, of the British charity Comic Relief, which has raised over £1 billion. At the 2008 Britannia Awards, he received the BAFTA Humanitarian Award for co-creating Comic Relief and for his contributions to other charitable causes. In 2024, he received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Curtis was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest figures in British comedy in 2003. In 2008, he was ranked number 12 in a list of the "100 most powerful people in British culture" compiled by The Telegraph. In 2012, he was one of the British cultural icons selected by artist Peter Blake to appear in a new version of his most famous artwork—the cover of the Beatles' 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Curtis then won a scholarship to Harrow School, where he joined the editorial team of The Harrovian, the weekly school magazine, and this, he asserts, is "where I learned all the skills that made me a sketch writer. Curtis achieved a first-class Bachelor of Arts in English Language and Literature at Christ Church, Oxford. First with Atkinson and later with Ben Elton, Curtis then wrote the Blackadder series from 1983 to 1989, each series focusing on a different era in British history. Curtis did not approve of fagging at the school, and at 18, when he became head of his house, he banned it.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.