Alexander "Alex" Medawar Garland^[2] (born 1970) is an English novelist, screenwriter, film producer and director.

Early life[edit]

Garland was born in London, England, the son of psychoanalyst Caroline (née Medawar) and political cartoonist Nicholas Garland. His maternal grandparents were British Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine, immunologist and zoologist Peter Medawar and author Jean Medawar.^[3] Garland attended the independent University College School, in Hampstead, London. Subsequently, he went to the University of Manchester where he received a BA degree in History of Art in 1992.

Career[edit]

Novels[edit]

Garland's first novel, The Beach, was published in 1996 and drew on his experiences as a backpacker.^[4] The novel was made into a film of the same name in 2000, by Danny Boyle, starring Leonardo DiCaprio. The Tesseract, Garland's second novel, was published in 1998. This was also made into a film of the same name, starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers. His third novel, The Coma, was published in 2004 and was illustrated with woodcuts by his father, Nicholas Garland.

Screenplays and directing[edit]

In 2002, he wrote the screenplay for Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later, starring Cillian Murphy.^[5] He won a Best Screenplay honor at the 2004 Fangoria Chainsaw Awards for his script of the film. In 2005, Garland wrote a script for a film adaptation of Halo; he was paid $1 million. D. B. Weiss and Josh Olson rewrote this during 2006 for a 2008 release, though the film was later cancelled. In 2007, he wrote the screenplay for the film Sunshine – his second screenplay to be directed by Danny Boyle and to star Cillian Murphy. Garland served as an executive producer on 28 Weeks Later, the sequel to 28 Days Later. He wrote the screenplay for the 2010 film Never Let Me Go, based on the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro. He also wrote the script for Dredd, an adaptation of the Judge Dredd comic book series from 2000 AD.

Garland made his directorial debut with Ex Machina, a 2015 feature film based on his own story and screenplay. The film stars Oscar Isaac, Domhnall Gleeson and Alicia Vikander. The film won a Jury Prize at the 2015 Gerardmer Film Festival. The film's lead actress, Alicia Vikander, was nominated for a Best Actress award at the Empire Awards.^[6]

Video games[edit]

Garland is the co-writer on the video game Enslaved: Odyssey to the West for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. For his writing work on the game, he won a 2011 award from the Writer's Guild of Great Britain (along with co-writer Tameem Antoniades). Garland also served as a Story Supervisor on the game DmC: Devil May Cry in 2013.

Personal life[edit]

He is married to the actress Paloma Baeza.

Bibliography (Novels)[edit]

• The Beach (1996)
• The Tesseract (1998)
• The Coma (2004)

Filmography[edit]

• 28 Days Later (screenplay) (2002)
• Sunshine (screenplay) (2007)
• 28 Weeks Later (executive producer) (2007)
• Never Let Me Go (screenplay, executive producer) (2010)
• Dredd (screenplay, producer) (2012)^[7]
• Ex Machina (screenplay, director) (2015)
• Annihilation (screenplay, director) (2017)^[8]

Video games[edit]

• Enslaved: Odyssey to the West (co-writer) (2010)
• DmC: Devil May Cry (story supervisor) (2013)

Awards and nominations[edit]

• 2004: Nominated for Saturn Award by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA: Writing for 28 Days Later
• 2004: Won the Best Screenplay Award at the Fangoria Chainsaw Awards for his screenplay of 28 Days Later
• 2011: Won an award from the Writer's Guild of Great Britain (along with co-writer Tameem Antoniades) for his writing on the video game, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West (2010).
• 2015: Won a Jury Prize for writing/directing Ex Machina at the Gerardmer Film Festival.

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Alex Garland at the Internet Movie Database
• Backpacker Blues: Spike Magazine interview with Alex Garland
• Beach Boy: Salon interview with Alex Garland
• "Alex Garland is writing Judge Dredd"