Nick Vincent Murphy
Nick Vincent Murphy (born 23 October 1977) is an Irish screenwriter. He is best known for his work on the Sky 1 comedy series Moone Boy (2012), the feature film Hideaways (2011), and the TV drama series The Running Mate (2007).
Personal life
Murphy was born and raised in Kilkenny, Ireland. He was educated at Kilkenny College and then studied English and history at Trinity College Dublin (1996–2000) and was very active in the drama society Players. In 2001 he did a master's in film production at Dublin Institute of Technology where he met Vicki Parks whom he later married. They currently live in London and have one son.
Career
While at university he directed several theatre productions including Arthur Miller's Death Of A Salesman, which was later staged at the Dublin Fringe Festival in 1999, produced by the actor Chris O'Dowd, the first of many collaborations between the pair.
In 2001, he wrote and directed his first short film Waiting Room while studying at Dublin Institute of Technology. That year he also won a National Student Drama Award for Best Film Script for Dead Leg, which he co-wrote with his brother Luke. He worked as a staff writer on the TV3 series The Offside Show (2005), and directed and edited a short documentary, Big Massive Protest (2007). He was a co-writer of the acclaimed TG4 drama series The Running Mate, which won Best Single Drama at the 2008 Irish Film and Television Awards and was also nominated for Best Television Script.
In 2010 his first feature film, Hideaways (2011) was produced in Ireland. The French/Irish/Swedish co-production was directed by Agnès Merlet, produced by Jean Luc Ormières, and featured actors Rachel Hurd-Wood and Harry Treadaway. It premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival before being released in cinemas across France in 2011. It won the Méliès d’Argent award for best European film at the Strasbourg Film Festival.
In 2010 he and Chris O'Dowd co-wrote a short film "Capturing Santa" as part of the Little Crackers series for Sky 1. Based on an incident from O'Dowd's childhood, it was directed by Peter Cattaneo and starred O'Dowd and Sharon Horgan. It has since been screened at film festivals around the world, including the New York International Children's Film Festival 2012 where it won the Grand Prize Short Film and the Audience Award Ages 8-14.
Following interest from Sky, O'Dowd and Murphy developed the short film into a comedy series called Moone Boy about a boy called Martin Moone and his family who live in Boyle, County Roscommon. Inspired by events from O'Dowd's childhood, they co-wrote six episodes which went into production in 2012, directed by Declan Lowney.
Several months before the first series aired, Sky ordered a second series of Moone Boy. O'Dowd and Murphy co-wrote five episodes, with Murphy writing one episode alone. The second series went into production six months after the first season wrapped, and was directed by Ian Fitzgibbon. The first series aired on Sky 1 in September 2012. It went on to win Best Comedy at the International Emmy Awards 2013 and Best Entertainment Programme at the Irish Film and Television Awards. It was nominated for a total of five IFTAs in 2013, including Best Script, and was nominated for two British Comedy Awards.
A third series of Moone Boy went into production in the summer of 2013. O'Dowd and Murphy co-wrote all six episodes, and the series was directed by Chris O'Dowd.
The second series will be aired on Sky 1 in February/March 2014.
In December 2013, it was announced by Macmillan that O'Dowd and Murphy would be writing two children's books based on their award-winning series. The first of the books is due to be published in autumn 2014.