David Jeremy Nicholas Appleton (born 1969 in Belfast, Northern Ireland) is a journalist and film director. His mother is of Israeli origin and his father was to become Chief Crown Prosecutor of Northern Ireland.[1]
Appleton attended Rockport Prep School in Holywood, County Down and then Campbell College in Belfast before attending Jesus College, Oxford, where he read English.
Dudi, as he has been known since a child, attended Central Acting School in London. Though he acted in plays and film, he was more attracted to writing, where he became a travel journalist for The Standard, The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph broadsheets.Teletraph article http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/promotions/article-917623-jumbos-and-trunk-roads.do]
Working with his Oxford companion Jim Keeble, who had moved into writing books, they began writing film scripts. The first which was filmed was A Sort Of Homecoming (1994) which was a short based and filmed in Strangford Lough in County Down.{{*Teletraph article }} As they continued to write scripts, Appleton wished to direct a full length feature. In 1999 they made The Most Fertile Man in Ireland, for which he would later win the HBO Comedy award in Colorado for best director, awarded to Appleton by Billy Crystal.[1]
He has since been writing scripts for Disney, Miramax, Warner Brothers and Scott Free and has worked with directors such as Oliver Stone and Ridley Scott developing adaptations and screenplays.[2]
