Meet Samuel

Writer and director Samuel de Ceccatty won the BBC Comedy Writers Room with his pre-apocalyptic sitcom WHAT IF; was a finalist of the ITV/Red Planet Prize with his comedy crime BLACK COWS GIVE WHITE MILK; and featured on the 2017 BBC Talents Hot List.

Sam comes from a background in graphic design and animation. His work is fundamentally visual, and his passion for storytelling led him to writing and directing. Despite the often serious themes, his work always has a comedic edge, which is why his writing ranges from comedy drama to crime. Sam's objective is to create content that entertains as well as informs and challenges.

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Sam recently completed his début animation, short comedy LILITH & EVE, a feminist re-imagining of the Adam and Eve story, in which Eve accidentally bumps into Lilith, Adam's first wife and equal. Susan Wokoma (ENOLA HOLMES, CHEWING GUM) and Aimee Lou Wood (SEX EDUCATION) voice the title roles. Working with his life-partner, BAFTA-nominated producer Manon Ardisson of Ardimages UK (GOD’S OWN COUNTRY), he is developing an adult comedy animated series based on the short film. The project is dedicated to their daughters, Lilith and Artemis.

Samuel has also written spec comedy pilots which are available: 

• ITV/Red Planet Prize finalist BLACK COWS GIVE WHITE MILK, a comedy crime series in which a broke Welsh farmer hires a former convict to be his new farmhand… and pressures him into robbing local customers. Because as he would say: “crime pays and milk doesn’t”.

• Final Draft Competition Semi-Finalist STICKS AND STONES, a teen comedy drama set in the world of wheelchair basketball in Boston in the 1980s, and the early days of the disability civil rights movements.

• BBC Comedy Writers Room winner WHAT IF, a pre-apocalyptic comedy series about a group of weekend zombie survivalists whose world is torn apart by the arrival of their leader’s new flatmate, an elusive woman miles out of their league.

Samuel has also developed the comedy drama series LIFE GOES ON with Hartswood Films (SHERLOCK, DRACULA), and worked with showrunners Ben Harris (RANSOM, MARCELLA) and Coline Abert (THE RETURNED) researching and developing their respective period crime projects.

Samuel wrote and directed ADRIFT, a dark comedy thriller about a one-night stand gone awry, commissioned by Fuijfilm, which was selected in Oscar- and BAFTA-qualifying festivals including London Short Film Festival, Bolton International Film Festival and Flickerfest. 

His short THE ENERGY WITHIN (2018), starring Paralympian Stef Reid, was supported by BP and released in partnership with the Paralympic Games, reaching over 400,000 viewers on their social media platforms. That same year, Samuel was a Samsung Paralympic Reporter to the South Korean Winter Paralympics.

His previous short films, SAFIYAH FLIES ACROSS THE OCEAN (2015, written by Mei Leng Yew) and DAVE’S WILD LIFE (2013) were financed by Ideastap and went on to screen at festivals internationally:

Nominated for Best Production Design at Underwire, 2013; Alexandria Film Festival, 2014; Euroshorts European Film Festival, 2014; Rainier Independent Film Festival, 2015; San Diego International Kids’ Film Festival, 2015; Cambridge Film Festival, 2015; Seattle International Film Festival; Rainier Independent Film Festival; Best Short Award at NFFTY; Best Short Award at Greenhorn Festival Young Film Festival, 2014; British Library Spring Festival, 2013.

Samuel’s short films were all produced by long-time collaborator and BAFTA-nominated producer Manon Ardisson, and their LGBTQ+ feature film project TREADING WATER, written by Lee Mattinson, was a finalist of Film London’s Microwave scheme, during which they were mentored by Lynne Ramsay and John Yorke.