Born: 27th April 1963 (as Stephen Russell Davies)
Episodes Broadcast: 2005-2011, 2023-2024

Stephen Russell Davies was born in Swansea, Wales; he was known by his middle name from an early age. He became a fan of Doctor Who while still a child, and was also an avid comic book reader and cartoonist. Davies began acting in middle school and joined the West Glamorgan Youth Theatre Company when he was fourteen. He later scripted several Welsh-language plays for the group. Davies planned to pursue further studies in graphic art, but was discouraged by his teachers due to his colour blindness. Instead, he went to Oxford University and completed a degree in English in 1984. Nonetheless, Davies' illustrative skills helped him get his first television job, as a graphic artist on the BBC Wales children's series Why Don't You? in 1985. He added the middle initial ‘T’ to his professional name in order to avoid confusion with journalist and radio presenter Russell Davies.

Davies briefly considered moving in front of the camera but, after serving as a presenter on a single episode of Play School in 1987, he concluded that this was not where his interests lay. Instead, his role on Why Don't You? gradually expanded to include writer, director and assistant producer. Around the same time, Davies submitted ideas to the Doctor Who production office, including a script called “Mind Of The Hodiac”. It was favourably received by script editor Andrew Cartmel, but there was no opportunity for its development prior to Doctor Who's cancellation in 1989. Meanwhile, Why Don't You? relocated to Manchester, and Davies went with it. He was soon the script editor of On The Waterfront, and then the producer of Breakfast Serials. Going freelance, Davies moved into family drama with the thrillers Dark Season and Century Falls. He also wrote, script edited and produced Children's Ward.

The success of Queer As Folk made Davies an important player in the television industry

Now keen to focus on adult-oriented television, Davies co-created the soap opera Revelations in 1994 before contributing to shows like Cluedo, Springhill and Touching Evil. In 1996, he wrote the Seventh Doctor novel Damaged Goods for Virgin Publishing's Doctor Who: The New Adventures range. Davies then became the lead writer for another soap opera, The Grand. Following its cancellation, however, he nearly succumbed to an accidental drug overdose. Not only did the ordeal inspire Davies to make lifestyle changes, but it also gave him the drive to develop the groundbreaking drama Queer As Folk, which reflected his own experiences as a gay man. The success of Queer As Folk in the late Nineties made Davies an important player in the television industry. He soon found himself engaged in preliminary discussions with the BBC about reviving Doctor Who, only for these efforts to be scuppered by separate plans for a feature film.

Instead, Davies developed a number of successful shows, including Bob & Rose, The Second Coming starring Christopher Eccleston, and Mine All Mine. With the movie version of Doctor Who going nowhere, the BBC again approached him about relaunching the series through BBC Wales. With Davies at the helm, Doctor Who became a national sensation following the 2005 debut of Rose. Although he brought modern sensibilities and production techniques to the programme, Davies managed to do so without losing sight of the essential magic which had won Doctor Who such a devoted following in the twentieth century. The unanticipated success was partly due to the strong partnership which was forged between Davies and his fellow executive producer, Julie Gardner. Nonetheless, he had to navigate substantial hurdles, not least being the early souring of his relationship with Eccleston, who decided to quit playing the Ninth Doctor after one season. Fortunately, Davies had simultaneously produced the serial Casanova; its star, a relative unknown named David Tennant, was an ideal choice to play the Tenth Doctor.

In a departure from the production structure of years past, Davies was both the executive producer of Doctor Who and its lead writer. He took a scripting credit on thirty-one episodes between 2005 and 2010, and had a hand in many others. Davies also developed two spin-off series -- Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures -- and pulled the plug on a third, Rose Tyler: Earth Defence. He bowed out of Doctor Who alongside Tennant and Gardner with The End Of Time. The all-consuming nature of his job was made plain by Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale, a compilation of exchanges with Doctor Who Magazine's Benjamin Cook which was published by BBC Books in 2008. An expanded edition -- Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale: The Final Chapter -- followed in 2010. Davies' achievements in not only reinvigorating a television classic, but also in helping to establish BBC Wales as a centre for drama production, were recognised in 2008 when he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire.

Davies' first Hollywood project was the fourth and final season of Torchwood

After leaving Doctor Who, Davies relocated to Hollywood; his first project was the fourth and final season of Torchwood, now being co-produced by the BBC and the Starz network. He also wrote for the Eleventh Doctor, Matt Smith, in Death Of The Doctor, a 2010 episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures. However, Davies' Stateside ambitions were set aside when his longtime partner, Andrew Smith, became seriously ill with a brain tumour. They returned to the United Kingdom and were married in 2012. With The Sarah Jane Adventures having come to an abrupt end following the death of its star, Elisabeth Sladen, Davies co-created a replacement in the form of Wizards Vs Aliens. Subsequent projects included Cucumber, Banana, A Very English Scandal and Years And Years. Davies novelised Rose for BBC Books in 2018. Sadly, Smith passed away the same year.

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Davies scripted a coda to The Sarah Jane Adventures called Farewell, Sarah Jane. At the same time, he was readying his next project, It's A Sin. The following year, it was revealed that Davies would be returning to Doctor Who as its showrunner. His first credits came on The Star Beast, the start of a trilogy of specials designed to celebrate the programme's sixtieth anniversary in 2023, with Tennant returning to play a new Fourteenth Doctor. Davies then oversaw the debut of Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor, while also developing the spin-off series The War Between The Land And The Sea.