Russell T Davies

Russell T Davies is a Welsh television writer and showrunner who has been openly gay his entire career and has placed queer lives at the center of his most important work. He created Queer as Folk (Channel 4, 1999), the groundbreaking British drama about gay men in Manchester's Canal Street scene, which was frank about gay sex and culture in ways British television had never attempted. He then revived Doctor Who (BBC, 2005), turning it into a global phenomenon while quietly and consistently populating it with LGBTQ+ characters. His miniseries It's a Sin (Channel 4/HBO, 2021) — a five-episode dramatization of the AIDS crisis in London from 1981 to 1991 — was one of the most acclaimed and devastating pieces of queer television ever made, credited with driving record HIV testing across the UK. He returned to Doctor Who in 2023 and cast Ncuti Gatwa as the first Black and openly gay actor to lead the series. Davies received a BAFTA Fellowship in 2023.