Frank Spotnitz

Showrunner (USA)

Award-win­ning Amer­ic­an writer and pro­du­cer Frank Spot­nitz is the Chief Exec­ut­ive of Big Light Pro­duc­tions Ltd., over­see­ing a diverse slate of tele­vi­sion series.

Most recently, Spot­nitz co-cre­ated and exec­ut­ive pro­duced the drama series Leonardo, star­ring Aidan Turn­er, Fred­die High­more and Mat­ilda De Angel­is, which was a block­buster hit on RAI in Italy and premiered on Amazon UK in April. He is cur­rently writ­ing and pro­du­cing Sea­son 2 of Dev­ils for Sky.

Pre­vi­ously, Spot­nitz cre­ated, exec­ut­ive pro­duced and wrote sev­er­al epis­odes of Amazon’s Emmy award-win­ning The Man in the High Castle, based on the clas­sic Philip K. Dick nov­el.

Oth­er recent cred­its include Medici: Mas­ters of Florence and two sea­sons of Medici: The Mag­ni­fi­cent, both for RAI in Italy and Net­flix; three sea­sons of Ransom for CBS in the US and Glob­al in Canada; and the com­edy-drama series The Indi­an Detect­ive, star­ring Rus­sell Peters, for Canada’s CTV and Net­flix.

Spot­nitz began his career with the sem­in­al Fox TV series The X‑Files, where he served as exec­ut­ive pro­du­cer, wrote or co-wrote more than 40 epis­odes and dir­ec­ted two epis­odes. He also 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 for his work on the show.

Spot­nitz’s oth­er cred­its include Cross­ing Lines (2015), Trans­port­er: The Series (2014); 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).

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.