Philip John

Philip John (born in Newport, Wales) is a director and screenwriter. He is the managing director of his own production company, Orange River Ltd, named after the River Ebbw, which, in the 1960s, was one of the most polluted waterways in Europe.

Early life and education

John played bass with DIY punk band called Reptile Ranch. Along with Spike Reptile, Simon Smith and Andrew Tucker, he founded Z-Block Records, a non profit-making collective releasing records by fellow Cardiff-based DIY bands, including the Young Marble Giants. John also ran a musicians collective at the seminal Grassroots Cafe on Charles Street in Cardiff. John left the music business "following an ill-fated busking-trip to Paris with nine-piece kazoo band performing Motown numbers," and set about equipping himself to work as a film maker.

A graduate of Newport Film School (formerly part of the University of Wales, Newport, now the University of South Wales), John won Best Fiction Film at the BP EXPO student film awards for his first short Surface Tension and the following year won Runner Up Best Screenplay for Dando's Brilliantine in the Fuji Scholarship Awards.

Film

On leaving film school, John made a further three short films under various schemes. Sixteen Ounces was made as part of an in-house BBC Wales scheme. BBC Wales and Sgrin Cymru collaborated on Welsh Rarebits, which produced John's controversial and BAFTA-nominated short film Suckerfish. John's final post graduation short Sister Lulu was made under the Channel 4/Sgrin Cymru's Screen Gems. Both Suckerfish and Sister Lulu went on to win international festival prizes, including selection by NEW DIRECTIONS Y2K who sponsored a trip to New York and Los Angeles for the 'best new UK directors'.

Philip's first movie, a wry coming of age story called Moon Dogs, premiered at the 70th Edinburgh International Film Festival in 2016. Written by Derek Boyle and Raymond Friel, it was produced by Kathy Speirs. The soundtrack was written by Anton Newcombe of The Brian Jonestown Massacre.

Philip is currently developing a slate of movies, including Band on the Run, a bruise black comedy by Dean Cavanagh, and Rear Echelon Motherfuckers, a war drama by Foster Marks.

Television

John's television drama work includes Murphy's Law, Channel 4 feature-length comedy Wedding Belles written by Irvine Welsh and Dean Cavanagh and primetime series like Being Human, for which he gained a BAFTA nomination as Best Director, Ashes To Ashes and Downton Abbey.

In 2009, Philip, with longtime collaborators actor/producer Jonathan Owen and screenwriter Dean Cavanagh, co-produced SVENGALI, a satire on the music industry, released as a series of nine web virals on YouTube and also available as free downloads from iTunes. It stars Jonathan Owen, Roger Evans, Alan Mcgee, Sean Harris and Sally Phillips, Michele Gomez, Ciaran Griffiths, Martin Freeman, Jodie Whittaker, Colin Tiernan, Jordan Long, Paolo Hewitt as well as real life rock legends Boy George, Carl Barat, Maggot and Bonehead. Not to be confused with the film of the same name.

Philip's recent credits include Crossing Lines, Spotless and four episodes of the Starz/Sony series Outlander.