# Julian Fellowes
**Julian Fellowes** (born 1949 in Cairo, Egypt) is an English actor, writer, director, producer and Conservative peer, best known as the creator and sole writer of the television series *Downton Abbey* and as the Oscar-winning screenwriter of [Robert Altman](https://www.edgepedia.org/robert-altman)'s film *Gosford Park* (2001). He holds the title Baron Fellowes of West Stafford and sits in the [House of Lords](https://www.edgepedia.org/house-of-lords).[1](https://goldenglobes.com/person/julian-fellowes/) • [2](https://www.hachette.co.uk/contributor/julian-fellowes/) • [3](https://series.unibo.it/article/download/7960/8716)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | 1949, Cairo, Egypt; youngest of four sons of Peregrine Fellowes, a diplomat, and Olwen Fellowes[4](https://www.the-independent.com/news/people/profiles/julian-fellowes-lord-and-master-of-downton-abbey-2126753.html) |
| Education | Ampleforth College; English at Magdalene College, Cambridge; Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, London[2](https://www.hachette.co.uk/contributor/julian-fellowes/) • [4](https://www.the-independent.com/news/people/profiles/julian-fellowes-lord-and-master-of-downton-abbey-2126753.html) |
| Breakthrough | Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for *Gosford Park* (2001); also Writers' Guild of America, New York Film Critics Circle, and National Society of Film Critics screenplay awards[5](https://www.bafta.org/stories/julian-fellowes-screenwriters-lecture/) |
| Emmy record | 12 Primetime Emmy nominations and 2 wins for *Downton Abbey* (Outstanding Miniseries or Movie and Outstanding Writing, 2011)[6](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/julian-fellowes) |
| Peerage | Made a life peer in 2011 by the Cameron government, taking a seat in the House of Lords as Baron Fellowes of West Stafford[3](https://series.unibo.it/article/download/7960/8716) |
| Main works | *Gosford Park* (2001), *Downton Abbey* (2010–2015 plus three films), *Belgravia* (novel 2016; series 2020), *The Gilded Age* (HBO, 2022– )[7](https://apnews.com/article/fff5eb0cecf06a538ecbf19f14812845) • [8](https://press.wbd.com/na/property/gilded-age-0) |
| Family | Married Emma Joy Kitchener, lady-in-waiting to Princess Michael of Kent, in 1990; one son, Peregrine[4](https://www.the-independent.com/news/people/profiles/julian-fellowes-lord-and-master-of-downton-abbey-2126753.html) |
## Early life and acting career
The last of the four sons of Peregrine and Olwen Fellowes, Fellowes spent his childhood in [South Kensington](https://www.edgepedia.org/south-kensington), East Sussex, and Nigeria, to which Shell assigned his father, once a diplomat. His stated ancestors include Rear Admiral Sir Thomas Fellowes, who served with Nelson.[4](https://www.the-independent.com/news/people/profiles/julian-fellowes-lord-and-master-of-downton-abbey-2126753.html) He was sent to the Catholic school Ampleforth, where he planned to become a stockbroker, before joining the Cambridge Footlights while studying English at Magdalene College. After Cambridge he trained at the Webber Douglas drama school in London and emerged in 1973 into the £18-a-week existence of a jobbing young actor.[4](https://www.the-independent.com/news/people/profiles/julian-fellowes-lord-and-master-of-downton-abbey-2126753.html)
**Two decades of character work.** Frustrated by a shortage of work, he spent a brief period in Hollywood, ending it when he caught himself waiting to learn whether he had been cast in a cameo on *Fantasy Island*. Back in Britain he built a career as a character actor, with roles including [Noël Coward](https://www.edgepedia.org/noel-coward) in the television film *Goldeneye: The Secret Life of Ian Fleming* and the laird Kilwillie in the BBC series *Monarch of the Glen*, a role he described as the break he had finally been waiting for.[4](https://www.the-independent.com/news/people/profiles/julian-fellowes-lord-and-master-of-downton-abbey-2126753.html) • [9](https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2002/jan/24/artsfeatures.awardsandprizes) He has said that early in his career he experienced "real prejudice because of his politics", claiming he was once fired from a television show because the lead actor disapproved of his [Conservatism](https://www.edgepedia.org/conservatism).[4](https://www.the-independent.com/news/people/profiles/julian-fellowes-lord-and-master-of-downton-abbey-2126753.html)
## Gosford Park
Fellowes's switch to writing came when director Robert Altman tapped him to write the screenplay for *Gosford Park*, released in 2001. He attributes the launch of his career to Altman, calling his decision to fight for the script his "greatest stroke of luck".[5](https://www.bafta.org/stories/julian-fellowes-screenwriters-lecture/) The screenplay won the [Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay](https://www.edgepedia.org/academy-award-for-best-original-screenplay) and the Writers' Guild of America award, along with screenplay awards from the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Society of Film Critics; the film itself won Best Film at the 2002 BAFTA Awards after nine nominations.[5](https://www.bafta.org/stories/julian-fellowes-screenwriters-lecture/) • [9](https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2002/jan/24/artsfeatures.awardsandprizes) He later set the film deliberately in November 1932, which he described as "the last time when you could do something about the British upper classes without the Nazis".[10](https://time.com/3937975/downton-abbey-nazis/) He made his directorial debut with the film *Separate Lies* in 2005 and also wrote and directed *From Time to Time*.[2](https://www.hachette.co.uk/contributor/julian-fellowes/)
## Downton Abbey
The series was conceived by producer Gareth Neame as a kind of spinoff to *Gosford Park*: after the film's success, in 2007 the idea arose to work with Fellowes on a series set in the same period whose characters and surroundings could develop over time.[7](https://apnews.com/article/fff5eb0cecf06a538ecbf19f14812845) • [11](https://www.serieseries.fr/doc/en/proceedings_serieseries_apa_2013.pdf) [Downton Abbey](https://www.edgepedia.org/downton-abbey), made by Carnival Films for ITV and co-produced with Masterpiece for PBS, tells the upstairs-and-downstairs story of a [Yorkshire](https://www.edgepedia.org/yorkshire) country estate in the years before and after the Great War. Fellowes was its creator, sole writer and executive producer, writing four ten-episode series by himself before others contributed later episodes.[2](https://www.hachette.co.uk/contributor/julian-fellowes/) • [11](https://www.serieseries.fr/doc/en/proceedings_serieseries_apa_2013.pdf)
The show became a substantial international hit, with viewership spanning more than 100 countries. Fellowes attributed part of its success to a deliberate choice of structure: "to treat every character with equal narrative weight. There's never a moment when you feel you're going back to the lesser story, because there isn't one."[5](https://www.bafta.org/stories/julian-fellowes-screenwriters-lecture/) It also combined British period-drama conventions with the faster pacing of American series, which Fellowes adopted because he believed the standard British model too slow.[12](https://www.gla.ac.uk/media/Media_816595_smxx.pdf) In 2011 the series won the Emmy for Outstanding Miniseries or Movie, with Fellowes winning Outstanding Writing for a [Miniseries](https://www.edgepedia.org/miniseries), Movie or Dramatic Special; he accumulated 12 Emmy nominations and two wins across the show's run.[6](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/julian-fellowes)
The show ran six series from 2010 to 2015, followed by a 2019 feature film and, eventually, further feature films. Fellowes has said that by the fifth season he had grown accustomed to writing definitive endings, not knowing a sixth season and the films would follow. The third film, *Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale*, written by Fellowes, opened in theaters on September 12, 2025, and he told the Associated Press: "It's been a huge chunk of my life. And when I die, I think it'll probably be the only job anyone remembers."[7](https://apnews.com/article/fff5eb0cecf06a538ecbf19f14812845) • [13](https://www.focusfeatures.com/article/downton-abbey-3_release-date) Actors' departures shaped the plot at least once: when [Dan Stevens](https://www.edgepedia.org/dan-stevens) left for Hollywood, his character was killed off in the Christmas Day 2012 special episode.[14](https://fbcoverup.com/docs/library/2023-from-2009-The-Pilgrims-%5BSociety%5D-of-Great-Britain-%5Band-United-States%5D-Website-Newsletters-biannual-2009-2023.pdf) Fellowes also chose to end the story before the 1930s, saying he did not want to write about the Nazis.[10](https://time.com/3937975/downton-abbey-nazis/)
## Other work
Fellowes's output beyond *Downton Abbey* spans screen, stage and page. He wrote screenplays for *Vanity Fair* (2004), *The Young Victoria* (2009), *[The Tourist](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-tourist-2010-film)* (2010) and *Romeo & Juliet* (2013), and the television dramas *Titanic* (2012) and *Doctor Thorne* (2016), the latter an adaptation of [Anthony Trollope](https://www.edgepedia.org/anthony-trollope)'s 1858 novel.[2](https://www.hachette.co.uk/contributor/julian-fellowes/) • [15](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/tv/features/julian-fellowes-interview-the-literary-luvvie-brigade-patronise-anthony-trollope-because-he-s-so-popular-a6894326.html)
**Novels and stage.** His first novel, *Snobs*, appeared in 2004, followed by *Past Imperfect* in 2008; reviewers connected both to his preoccupation with class, comparing his voice to Trollope, Waugh, Mitford and Noël Coward.[16](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/snobs-by-julian-fellowes-56160.html) • [17](http://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/nov/02/past-imperfect-julian-fellowes) His 2016 bestselling novel *Belgravia* was adapted as a six-part ITV series in 2020, reuniting him with Carnival Films; he described it as "a complete story, with a beginning, middle and end" driven by a single narrative line, a different structure from *Downton*.[18](https://www.the-independent.com/independentpremium/culture/belgravia-itv-downton-abbey-julian-fellowes-tamsin-greig-harriet-walter-a9387811.html) He also wrote the books for the Tony-nominated stage production of *[Mary Poppins](https://www.edgepedia.org/mary-poppins-musical)* (2004) and for *Half a Sixpence* and *School of Rock: The Musical*, both of which opened in London's West End in November 2016.[2](https://www.hachette.co.uk/contributor/julian-fellowes/) The Netflix football drama *The English Game* appeared in 2020 as well.[18](https://www.the-independent.com/independentpremium/culture/belgravia-itv-downton-abbey-julian-fellowes-tamsin-greig-harriet-walter-a9387811.html)
## The Gilded Age and later work
With *The Gilded Age*, Fellowes applied his upstairs-downstairs formula to 1880s New York high society for HBO, where the series premiered in 2022. He writes it with co-showrunner Sonja Warfield, an unusual arrangement for a writer who typically works alone. The Emmy-nominated series was renewed for a fourth season in July 2025, and its ensemble cast, costume design and Emmy-winning production design have drawn praise.[8](https://press.wbd.com/na/property/gilded-age-0) • [19](https://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2025/06/24/a-voir-ce-soir-mardi-the-gilded-age-saison-3-sur-max-chronique-sulfureuse-de-la-haute-societe-new-yorkaise_6615654_3246.html)
## Politics and peerage
Fellowes has long supported the Conservative Party and was part of a speech-writing team for the Conservative politician [Iain Duncan Smith](https://www.edgepedia.org/iain-duncan-smith). He was made a life peer in 2011 by the Cameron government, taking his seat in the House of Lords as Baron Fellowes of West Stafford. Academic commentary on *Downton Abbey* has connected the series' sympathetic portrayal of the aristocracy to his Conservative politics; he has acknowledged the framing himself, saying, "I've become the go-to-guy for period stuff because I've had success in the field."[3](https://series.unibo.it/article/download/7960/8716) • [20](https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=584284) • [5](https://www.bafta.org/stories/julian-fellowes-screenwriters-lecture/)
## Reception
Critical opinion of Fellowes's work has been mixed. His best-regarded scripts, including *Gosford Park* and the early series of *Downton Abbey*, have been praised as humane; the actor [Hugh Bonneville](https://www.edgepedia.org/hugh-bonneville), star of *Downton*, called him "the most humane of writers", saying "lesser authors judge their characters. Julian doesn't."[4](https://www.the-independent.com/news/people/profiles/julian-fellowes-lord-and-master-of-downton-abbey-2126753.html) Reviewers of his later television, including *Belgravia* and *The Gilded Age*, have been more divided, with some finding the plotting worn out or the stakes thin while others praise the ensemble and the visual craft.[21](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/belgravia-episode-6-review-itv-julian-fellowes-finale-quiz-a9470881.html) • [22](https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/the-gilded-age-season-3-tvs-silliest-show-finally-gets-dramatic/) *Downton Abbey*'s success is credited with paving the way for later historical dramas such as *Bridgerton*, *Dickinson* and *The Great*.[23](https://time.com/6140300/gilded-age-review-hbo/)
## References
1. [Julian Fellowes, Golden Globes profile](https://goldenglobes.com/person/julian-fellowes/)
2. [Julian Fellowes, Hachette UK author page](https://www.hachette.co.uk/contributor/julian-fellowes/)
3. [Helge Ridderstrøm, academic article on Downton Abbey reviews, International Journal of TV Serial Narratives](https://series.unibo.it/article/download/7960/8716)
4. [Julian Fellowes: Lord and master of Downton Abbey, The Independent (2010)](https://www.the-independent.com/news/people/profiles/julian-fellowes-lord-and-master-of-downton-abbey-2126753.html)
5. [Julian Fellowes: Screenwriters' Lecture, BAFTA (2012)](https://www.bafta.org/stories/julian-fellowes-screenwriters-lecture/)
6. [Julian Fellowes, Emmy Awards and Nominations, Television Academy](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/julian-fellowes)
7. [With 'The Grand Finale,' 'Downton Abbey' is really coming to an end, AP News (2025)](https://apnews.com/article/fff5eb0cecf06a538ecbf19f14812845)
8. [The Gilded Age, WBD Pressroom](https://press.wbd.com/na/property/gilded-age-0)
9. [The insider, The Guardian (2002)](https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2002/jan/24/artsfeatures.awardsandprizes)
10. [Downton Abbey Creator: I Didn't Want to End the Show With Nazis, TIME (2015)](https://time.com/3937975/downton-abbey-nazis/)
11. [Serieseries proceedings, Downton Abbey case study (2013)](https://www.serieseries.fr/doc/en/proceedings_serieseries_apa_2013.pdf)
12. [Pressing 'Play' on Historical Drama, University of Glasgow](https://www.gla.ac.uk/media/Media_816595_smxx.pdf)
13. [Downton Abbey 3 Release Date, Focus Features](https://www.focusfeatures.com/article/downton-abbey-3_release-date)
14. [An Evening with Julian Fellowes, The Pilgrims Society newsletter](https://fbcoverup.com/docs/library/2023-from-2009-The-Pilgrims-%5BSociety%5D-of-Great-Britain-%5Band-United-States%5D-Website-Newsletters-biannual-2009-2023.pdf)
15. [Julian Fellowes interview on Doctor Thorne, The Independent (2016)](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/tv/features/julian-fellowes-interview-the-literary-luvvie-brigade-patronise-anthony-trollope-because-he-s-so-popular-a6894326.html)
16. [Snobs by Julian Fellowes, review, The Independent (2004)](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/snobs-by-julian-fellowes-56160.html)
17. [Class is in the eye of the beholder, The Guardian (2008)](http://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/nov/02/past-imperfect-julian-fellowes)
18. [Is Belgravia the new Downton Abbey? The Independent (2020)](https://www.the-independent.com/independentpremium/culture/belgravia-itv-downton-abbey-julian-fellowes-tamsin-greig-harriet-walter-a9387811.html)
19. [The Gilded Age, saison 3, Le Monde (2025)](https://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2025/06/24/a-voir-ce-soir-mardi-the-gilded-age-saison-3-sur-max-chronique-sulfureuse-de-la-haute-societe-new-yorkaise_6615654_3246.html)
20. [CEEOL article on Downton Abbey and conservative ideas](https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=584284)
21. [Belgravia episode 6 review, The Independent (2020)](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/belgravia-episode-6-review-itv-julian-fellowes-finale-quiz-a9470881.html)
22. [TV's Silliest Show 'The Gilded Age' Is Finally Getting Dramatic, The Daily Beast (2025)](https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/the-gilded-age-season-3-tvs-silliest-show-finally-gets-dramatic/)
23. [The Gilded Age Brings Downton Abbey to New York, TIME (2022)](https://time.com/6140300/gilded-age-review-hbo/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Theater and dance › Playwrights and dramatists › Anglophone playwrights › Modern and contemporary British dramatists*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 12, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license