Dudi Appleton

David Jeremy Nicholas Appleton (born 1969) is a journalist and film director. His mother is of Israeli origin and his father was to become Chief Crown Prosecutor of Northern Ireland.[1] He was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Appleton attended Rockport School in Holywood, County Down, and then Campbell College in Belfast before attending Jesus College, Oxford, where he read English.

Dudi, as he has been known since a child, attended Central Acting School in London. Though he acted in plays and film, he was more attracted to writing, where he became a travel journalist for The Standard, The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph broadsheets.[2][3]

Working with his Oxford companion Jim Keeble, who had moved into writing books, they began writing film scripts. The first which was filmed was A Sort Of Homecoming (1994) which was a short based and filmed in Strangford Lough in County Down.[2] As they continued to write scripts, Appleton wished to direct a full-length feature. In 1999 they made The Most Fertile Man in Ireland (set in County Donegal in west Ulster), for which he would later win the HBO Comedy award in Colorado for best director, awarded to Appleton by Billy Crystal.[4]

He has since been writing scripts for Disney, Miramax, Warner Brothers and Scott Free and has worked with directors such as Oliver Stone and Sir Ridley Scott developing adaptations and screenplays.[5]