Brian Welsh (filmmaker)

Brian Welsh
A man looking forward holding a microphone
Welsh in 2019
Born1981 (age 44–45)
Falkirk, Scotland
Education
Occupations
  • Director
  • writer
Years active2009–present

Brian Welsh (born 1981) is a Scottish film and television director and screenwriter. His film, Beats (2019), received generally positive reviews. He has also directed the Black Mirror episode "The Entire History of You" (2011), and several BBC television series, including What It Feels Like for a Girl.

Early and personal life

Welsh was born in Falkirk, Scotland in 1981, and moved to Aberdeen when he was 10.[1] As of May 2019, he divided his time between Cornwall, England, and Aberdeen, Scotland.[1]

Career

Welsh studied filmmaking at the Cleveland College of Art and Design, where he became interested in film editing. He worked as an editor in Glasgow following his graduation, and then enrolled in the National Film and Television School. In his last year, Welsh was given a small budget and directed a film, Kin. Following that, he worked on another low budget film, In Our Name (2010).[1] The film is about a female soldier returning to Britain after tour in Iraq, and struggling to re-adapt to society.[2] In 2011, he directed the Black Mirror episode "The Entire History of You".[3]

In 2015, it was announced that Welsh would direct a Winston Churchill biopic, Churchill (2017), starring Brian Cox.[2] However, he was later replaced by Jonathan Teplitzky.[4] The same year, he directed Glasgow Girls, a television series based on the Glasgow Girls, a group of female activists raising awareness of the treatment of asylum seekers in Scotland.[5] The series won the "Television Drama" category at the 2015 British Academy Scotland Awards.[6]

In 2019, Welsh directed Beats, a coming-of-age adaptation of a stage play that received generally positive reviews.[7][8] The film was adapted from the stage play Beats by Kieran Hurley, which Welsh first saw in 2012 and described as personally resonant with his own teenage experiences in Aberdeen at the end of the rave era.[9] Wendy Ide for The Guardian called the movie "the liveliest work to date" of Welsh's filmography.[8] The film was the final one shown at the 2019 Glasgow Film Festival.[7]

In 2025, Welsh was the lead director of the BBC television adaptation of What It Feels Like for a Girl, based on the memoir by Paris Lees.[10][11] The series follows a transgender girl growing up in the East Midlands club culture during the early 2000s.[11] Welsh is scheduled to direct The Return Of Stanley Atwell, a thriller starring Nicholas Galitzine and Ella Purnell.[12]

Filmography

Film

Year Title Director Writer Ref.
2009 Kin Yes Yes [1]
2010 In Our Name Yes Yes [13]
2016 The Rack Pack Yes No [14]
2019 Beats Yes Yes [15]
TBA The Return of Stanley Atwell Yes Yes [16]

Television

Year Title Director Writer Ref.
2011 "The Entire History of You" (Black Mirror) Yes No [3]
2013 Mayday Yes No [17]
The Escape Artist Yes No [18]
2015 Glasgow Girls Yes Yes [19]
2025 What It Feels Like for a Girl Yes No [20]

Awards and nominations

Awards and nominations received by Brian Welsh
Award Year Category Nominated work Result Ref.
BAFTA Scotland 2015 Television Drama Glasgow Girls Won [21]
2019 Director – Fiction Beats Nominated [22]
Broadcast Awards 2015 Best Original Programme Glasgow Girls Won [23]
Rose d'Or 2025 Best Drama What It Feels Like for a Girl Nominated [24]
Royal Television Society Craft & Design Awards 2025 Director – Scripted What It Feels Like for a Girl Nominated [25]
Royal Television Society Scotland Awards 2016 Television Director of the Year The Rack Pack Nominated [26]
Writers' Guild Awards 2020 Best Screenplay[a] Beats Nominated [27]

Notes

  1. ↑ With Kieran Hurley

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Jamieson, Teddy (27 May 2019). "'Underground raves were a political experience'". The Herald. p. 8. Retrieved 23 March 2026.
  2. 1 2 Child, Ben (5 November 2015). "Brian Cox to play Winston Churchill in D-Day landings drama". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 March 2026.
  3. 1 2 Lodge, Guy (31 January 2019). "Rotterdam Film Review: 'Beats'". Variety. Archived from the original on 29 April 2025. Retrieved 23 March 2026.
  4. ↑ Wiseman, Andreas (12 February 2016). "Churchill biopic to be directed by Jonathan Teplitzky; adds cast". Screen Daily. Retrieved 24 March 2026.
  5. ↑ "Original Glasgow Girl Amal Azzudin on bringing the story to television". BBC. Archived from the original on 19 August 2025. Retrieved 24 March 2026.
  6. ↑ "Filmmakers celebrate Scottish Bafta wins". BBC News. 16 November 2015. Archived from the original on 19 December 2024. Retrieved 24 March 2026.
  7. 1 2 Miller, Phil (8 January 2019). "Beats adaptation to close film festival". The Herald. p. 10. Retrieved 23 March 2026.
  8. 1 2 Ide, Wendy (19 May 2019). "Beats review – raving against the dying of the light". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 March 2026.
  9. ↑ Verma, Rahul (17 May 2019). "Beats: The story of rave gets its time on the silver screen". BBC Culture. Retrieved 24 March 2026.
  10. ↑ "BBC announces cast for What It Feels Like For A Girl". BBC. 20 March 2025. Archived from the original on 25 March 2025. Retrieved 24 March 2026.
  11. 1 2 Molander, Joe (17 December 2025). "What It Feels Like for a Girl director Brian Welsh on art, raves and adapting Paris Lees's memoir". Royal Television Society. Retrieved 24 March 2026.
  12. ↑ D'Alessandro, Anthony (19 March 2026). "Ella Purnell Boards Nicholas Galitzine Thriller 'The Return Of Stanley Atwell'". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on 20 March 2026. Retrieved 23 March 2026.
  13. ↑ Reynolds, Simon (14 October 2010). "LFF 2010: 'In Our Name'". Digital Spy. Archived from the original on 14 December 2024. Retrieved 23 March 2026.
  14. ↑ "The Rack Pack". BBC. Retrieved 23 March 2026.
  15. ↑ Young, Neil (5 February 2019). "'Beats': Film Review - Rotterdam 2019". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on 17 December 2024. Retrieved 23 March 2026.
  16. ↑ Wiseman, Andreas (1 May 2025). "Nicholas Galitzine & Marisa Abela To Star In "Punky & Raunchy" Thriller 'The Return Of Stanley Atwell', Based On An Original Story By Steven Soderbergh; Protagonist Launching For Cannes Market". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on 27 August 2025. Retrieved 6 May 2026.
  17. ↑ "Mayday". BBC. Retrieved 24 March 2026.
  18. ↑ "The Escape Artist: Brian Welsh". BBC. Retrieved 23 March 2026.
  19. ↑ "Glasgow Girls". BBC. Retrieved 23 March 2026.
  20. ↑ "What It Feels Like For A Girl's cast and creative team discuss the wild and anarchic drama series". BBC. 4 June 2025. Retrieved 23 March 2026.
  21. ↑ "British Academy Scotland Awards 2015 Winners Announced". BAFTA. 15 November 2015. Retrieved 23 March 2026.
  22. ↑ "British Academy Scotland Awards in 2019: Nominations Announced". BAFTA. 25 September 2019. Archived from the original on 8 December 2025. Retrieved 23 March 2026.
  23. ↑ "Best Original Programme: Glasgow Girls". Broadcast. 5 February 2015. Retrieved 23 March 2026.
  24. ↑ "Adolescence to receive the Golden Rose – as the 2025 Rose d'Or Finalists Announced". Rose d'Or. 17 November 2025. Retrieved 24 March 2026.
  25. ↑ Tangcay, Jazz (13 November 2025). "'Andor,' 'Adolescence' and 'The Last of Us' Among Shows Nominated for Royal Television Society Craft and Design Awards". Variety. Retrieved 23 March 2026.
  26. ↑ "RTS Scotland Awards 2016". Royal Television Society Scotland. Archived from the original on 5 December 2024. Retrieved 23 March 2026.
  27. ↑ "Writers' Guild Awards 2020". Writers' Guild of Great Britain. 4 December 2019. Retrieved 24 March 2026.
This page is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.