Steven Knight's first screenplay, Dirty Pretty Things, filmed by Stephen Frears, gained him a nomination for the Academy Award® for Best Original Screenplay, and he won the London Film Critics' Circle Award® for Best British Screenwriter. The film opened London Film Festival in 2002 and won the South Bank Award for Best Cinema Film in 2003.

Knight read English literature at University College London and then worked as a copywriter/ producer for a Birminghan advertising agency and then as a copywriter/producer at Capital Radio in London.

He has had three novels published by Viking and Penguin. He co-created "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" and has written several sit-coms and comedy series for BBC1.

His first play, "The President of an Empty Room", was staged at the Royal National Theatre in summer 2005.