Paul Viragh

Paul is an actor/writer/director born in London to Hungarian and Canadian parents. His first film Sex&Drugs&Rock’n’Roll which he also exec produced, starring Andy Serkis was critically acclaimed.

Currently he is working with Tom Hardy’s company Hardy Son & Baker developing an international series for FX.

He is working with Justin Chadwick (Bleak House, Other Boleyn Girl, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom) and Me + You productions, developing FABRIC a major family drama series for Sky Studios.

He is also co-directing the documentary MY EXTINCTION for the Wellcome Institute.

He is working with Studiocanal/Tandem & Idris Elba’s company Greendoor on BLOOD RIVER – a returning family crime drama set in Paris and Brazzaville city of the Sapeurs, the “Congo Dandies” in West Africa.

He is developing a 6 episode re-invention of the MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE by Thomas Hardy for Kindle Entertainment.

Paul’s also working on a period drama feature film in development with Greenacre and the BFI.

Films and television credits include –

SEX & DRUGS & ROCK & ROLL was Paul’s first feature about punk icon Ian Dury. It starred Andy Serkis, Naomi Harris, Ray Winstone, and Olivia Williams. Paul wrote and was executive producer. Damian Jones produced and Mat Whitecross directed. This received seven nominations including two BAFTAs, and was screened at the Berlin and Tribeca film festivals. He was nominated for the Writers Guild First Feature Screenplay award.

‘Paul Viragh’s screenplay is smart and funny’ – THE SUNDAY TIMES

‘A barnstorming, passionate performance from Andy Serkis brings 1970s music legend Ian Dury stunningly back to life in this gutsy biopic written by Paul Viragh’– PETER BRADSHAW THE GUARDIAN

‘Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, written by Paul Viragh, reminds us that Dury was a more complex figure than the raucous geezer persona that made him a mainstream star’ – INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY

‘It’s this refusal to sugarcoat Dury’s shortcomings that really impresses: yes, Director Whitecross and screenwriter Paul Viragh ask us to empathise with the self-pitying,
class-obsessed, emotionally and physically crippled hero, but they never expect us to forgive his excesses’ – TIME OUT LONDON

‘It’s always risky turning recent history into myth, but Whitecross and screenwriter Paul Viragh are in possession of the right kind of boldness’ – LONDON EVENING STANDARD

‘Screenwriter Paul Viragh and director Mat Whitecross give the story and character the vivid grudge dynamism while also celebrating Dury’s determination not to give a toss, or not to appear to, about his handicaps’ – FINANCIAL TIMES

‘Paul Viragh’s script and Andy Serkis’s portrayal of the pretentious punk word-monger Ian Dury are note-perfect’ – ESQUIRE

Paul and Mat Whitecross collaborated again on ASHES – a feature thriller starring Ray Winstone, Jim Sturgess and Leslie Manville.

FACE OF AN ANGEL, directed by Michael Winterbottom, starred Cara Delevingne, Kate Beckinsale and Daniel Brühl and premièred at Toronto International Film Festival. It was screened at the London Film Festival before going on general release in the UK, US and internationally in 2016.

ARCADIA – BBC1 TV pilot starring Nick Mohammed.

Other scripts in pre-production –

LONESOME TONIGHT – a blacklist nominated best un-produced feature about Elvis in the Army in Germany for Ecosse Films, with Daniel Barnz attached to direct, out to cast.

SAVING ASHYA is a 3 part true life dramatisation of the Ashya King case with Me + You Productions.

SELF – historical single drama for Greenacre/WalltoWall Media/BBC.

MAVERICKS – a BBC Films commission about a group of disabled people in a wheelchair basketball team, angry at society, who pull off a massive scam during the 2012 Paralympics. Based on true events.

MONSTER – based on true crime TV series for Ecosse/BBC.

LIFE OUT LOUD – a US stand-up comedian battles an emotional crisis while playing gigs in a corporate hotel in Shanghai. Jim Loach attached as director.

Paul has written two radio plays ‘BLINDED BY SCIENCE,’ and ‘CRY HUNGARY’ aired as part of the Radio 4 series in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian Uprising and nominated for the Imerson Best Play Award.

His first feature as writer/director DARK BLUE RISING is an action thriller set in Budapest.

Paul Viragh
is represented by:
Charlotte Knight office@knighthallagency.com
+44 20 3397 2901