Julian Fellowes

Biography:

Julian Alexander Kitchener-Fellowes, Baron Fellowes of West Stafford DL, is an English actor, writer, producer, film director, novelist, and Conservative peer who was born on August 17, 1949. He has won an Academy Award and two Emmy Awards in addition to being nominated for four BAFTA Awards, a Golden Globe Award, two Olivier Awards, and a Tony Award. Fellowes won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the 2001 murder mystery film Gosford Park. He rose to fame as the creator, writer, and executive producer of the several critically acclaimed ITV television series Downton Abbey (2010–2015) and the HBO series The Gilded Age (2022–present). He has wrote books for theatrical musicals, including Mary Poppins (2004) and School of Rock (2015).

The youngest of four boys, Fellowes was born in Cairo, Egypt, to Peregrine Edward Launcelot Fellowes (1912–1999) and his British wife, Olwen Mary Stuart-Jones. During World War II, his father, an Arabist and diplomat, fought to have Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie reinstated. John Wrightson, the founder of Downton Agricultural College and a trailblazer in agricultural education, was his great-grandfather. Peregrine Forbes Morant Fellowes (1883–1955), an Air Commodore and DSO, was Peregrine’s uncle.