Julian Fellowes

Born: August 17 1949
Where: Cairo, Egypt

The Oscar-winning screenwriter, actor and novelist made his directorial debut with the middle-class drama Separate Lies.

However, he is best known for his Academy Award-winning script for Robert Altman's country house thriller Gosford Park.

The son of a diplomat, he was born in Egypt but brought up in England where he attended the Benedictine public school Ampleforth.

He is married to Emma Kitchener-Fellowes, and descendant of Lord Kitchener and Princess Michael of Kent's lady-in-waiting, and is an acknowledged expert in the upper classes.

Fellowes studed at Cambridge's Magdalene College and even represented the university on TV quiz show University Challenge.

In the 1970s he wrote romantic novels under the pseudonym Rebecca Greville before beginning his film career as an actor in Alan Bennett's The Old Crowd.

He made his big screen debut in 1981 in the DH Lawrence biopic Priest of Love and went on to become a familiar face on British TV in series such as Our Friends int he North, Sharp's Regiment and Monarch of the Glen.

On the big screen, he played an MP in Damage, Colonel Dent in Jane Eyre and the Minister of Defence in the 1997 Bond outing Tomorrow Never Dies.

He began his screenwriting career in 1995 with the TV series Little Lord Fauntleroy and in 2001 won an Oscar for Gosford Park - his feature screenwriting debut.

Subsequent screenwriting duties included Piccadilly Jim, Two Brothers and Vanity Fair and he also wrote the critically acclaimed comedy of manners Snobs.

In 2005, he wrote and made his directorial debut with Separate Lies, starring Emily Watson and Tom Wilkinson.