Sam is a writer, actor, and aspiring arms manufacturer living in a paddling pool near Norwich. At night, Sam can be found planting sunflower seeds in government-owned car parks and howling at the moon. He is not on social media and sometimes, when he thinks about the internet too much, his eyes turn to glue and his hair falls out.
Recent Work
Jojo Rabbit (2019)
Hans in Jojo Rabbit. Directed by Taika Waititi and winner of the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Someone emails me every month to ask if I actually killed the rabbit. I did not kill the rabbit. Please stop emailing me.
Extraordinary (2023)
Seb in Extraordinary. Produced by Sid Gentle and streaming on Disney. The series is set in a world in which everyone has a superpower. My superpower is the ability to summon fish, which is probably the worst superpower in the show. But whatever, who cares.
Captain Ralph Kelly in Masters of the Air. Executive produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg. They built a wax replica of my head for a fight scene and then never used it. I asked if I could take it home and they said “no, we want to blow it up.” It was all very distressing.
Masters of the Air (2024)
The French Dispatch (2021)
A cadet in The French Dispatch. Directed by Wes Anderson and starring Tilda Swinton, Bill Murray, Jeffrey Wright, Frances McDormand, Timothée Chalamet, Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, Benicio Del Toro, and Léa Seydoux. The producers were sadly lacking star power, so had to cast me.
Writer of Extinction. This short film was shot days before we really did meet with the government and parliament really did declare a climate emergency. Some call it prophetic, others call it propaganda. Emma Thompson is lovely and made her own dungarees. The sign of a real actor.
Extinction (2019)
This Is Not A Drill (2019)
as Sam Knights. Editor of This Is Not A Drill, published by Penguin Books. Contributors include Vandana Shiva, Caroline Lucas, Clive Lewis, Mohamed Nasheed, and Rowan Williams. For the record, I did not kill the penguin either. Nobody ever emails about that.
Hotel Costiera (2025)
Tancredi in Hotel Costiera. This comedy-action series is set on the beautiful Amalfi Coast and features a cast of cool Americans, stylish Italians, dangerous Frenchmen, and me as a kind of strange, bumbling British clown. It was a lot of fun to film.
Climate Crisis (2019)
I took a show about climate activism to the Edinburgh Fringe. The show was written quickly and captures a very specific moment in time. A few people have told me that this show turned them into activists, which makes me so happy. At the time, I was on trial for organising a protest and having a bit of a breakdown. Hot.
Writing projects…
I also have a couple of writing projects that may or may not be in development at the time of reading. One is called Struggling and another is called Storming Heaven. I sometimes tell people that I am writing a novel, but that is sadly a lie.
Fortnightly blog…
I write a blog that you can subscribe to for free. It is about imagination, revolution, climate change, and anything else that happens to take my fancy. Subscribe and all my dumb thoughts will be delivered straight to your brain.
Previous praise:
“Bracing and necessary” — The Guardian
“A brilliant, burned-out activist” – London Review of Books
“Consistently hilarious, insanely charismatic, and deeply personal” – The Skinny
“Stand back and admire” – The List
“One of the best speakers you’ll ever hear” – The Scotsman
“Daft, confident and genuinely funny” – Three Weeks
“On the top of my list of recommendations” – Broadway Baby
“Pretty extraordinary” – Stephen Fry
