Arts Interview: Tess Morris, Screenwriter and 2015 BAFTA Breakthrough Brit

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It's A Question Of Balance ® radio show balances the intellectual with the creative, exploring whether we have more in common than divides us through thought-provoking conversations - out and about with people on the street on different topics, and in the studio with inspiring guests from the arts. Balance is not a compromise. Balance is truth distilled from many places creating cohesive understanding.

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Arts Interview: In-Depth Conversation with Tess Morris

This week as my special guest from the arts I’m pleased to be interviewing Tess Morris, screenwriter of the wonderful 2015 romantic comedy film Man Up, starring Simon Pegg and Lake Bell. Born and raised in Wandsworth, London, Tess studied a TV and Film degree at York University. In 1997, while still attending university, Tess wrote the short film Beer Goggles, which was directed by award-winning Scottish director David Mckenzie. Beer Goggles won the Lloyds Bank/Channel Four Film Challenge and was shown on the Channel 4 network in Britain. After university, Morris became a journalist for teen news publishers where she regularly interviewed the cast of Hollyoaks, a popular British soap opera. Tess became a writer for Hollyoaks, writing 18 episodes over two years and becoming known for her comedic scripts. She also wrote for the primetime UK sitcom My Family and worked as script reader for the British Film Institute and Film4, while continuing to work on her own original scripts.

In 2008, Tess was chosen for the BFI/Skillset Think Shoot Distribute Scheme for emerging talent in the British Film Industry. Her first feature film screenplay, the romantic comedy Man Up, made the 2011 Brit List, was picked up by Big Talk Pictures, co-produced by Studio Canal and BBC Films and released in 2015, directed by Ben Palmer and starring the fabulous Simon Pegg and Lake Bell. Tess has worked extensively as a script editor with ‘Seinfield’ writer Tom Leopold, and she also lectures on comedy and screenwriting for the Arvon Foundation and Royal Holloway University, London. In 2015 Tess was honoured as one of BAFTA’s select Breakthrough Brits, an initiative which supports upcoming British creative talent.

Tess is currently writing an original screenplay called Secret Santa for Big Talk/Studio Canal and Textbook Behaviour for Big Talk/BBC Films. She is also doing a rewrite on a feature for Sony and is currently living in Los Angeles.

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