Frank Spot­nitz

Showrunner (USA)

Award-win­ning writer and pro­du­cer Frank Spot­nitz foun­ded Big Light Pro­duc­tions, a Lon­don-based pro­duc­tion com­pany, in 2013 with a vis­ion to cre­ate dis­tinct­ive and ambi­tious TV drama series.

As CEO Spot­nitz over­sees the devel­op­ment and pro­duc­tion of the company’s tele­vi­sion slate. 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, RANSOM, THE INDI­AN DETECT­IVE and three sea­sons of MEDICI for Net­flix and Rai, and LEONARDO, which is based on the fam­ous Itali­an artist played by Aidan Turn­er. Co-cre­ated and writ­ten by Spot­nitz, and co-pro­duced by Big Light Pro­duc­tions and Lux Vide, the series premiered on Rai in Italy and Amazon Prime in the UK & Ire­land, and on The CW in the US.

Most recently, Big Light co-pro­duced series 2 of Patrick Demp­sey drama DEV­ILS for Sky, which aired on The CW in the US, and pro­duced scrip­ted pod­cast RADIO­MAN, star­ring Nikolaj Cost­er-Waldau, for Aud­ible UK.

Spot­nitz has over 25 years’ exper­i­ence in tele­vi­sion as a writer and pro­du­cer.  Serving as exec­ut­ive pro­du­cer, he wrote or co-wrote more than 40 epis­odes of THE X‑FILES, and as a pro­du­cer and co-writer of both THE X‑FILES fea­ture films. He shares three Golden Globes for Best Dra­mat­ic Series and a Peabody Award for his work on the sem­in­al sci­ence-fic­tion series, and was Emmy-nom­in­ated both for writ­ing and three times Out­stand­ing Drama Series.

Spotnitz’s oth­er cred­its include HUNTED, STRIKE BACK, NIGHT STALK­ER, ROB­BERY HOM­ICIDE DIVI­SION, THE LONE GUN­MEN, HARSH REALM and MILLENNIUM.

In 2013 Spot­nitz helped estab­lish and began teach­ing at Seri­al Eyes, a post­gradu­ate train­ing pro­gramme in Ber­lin which pre­pares for the next gen­er­a­tion of European TV writer-producers. 

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.