Paul Laverty is an award-winning screenwriter.

Paul has won the best screenplay awards at the Cannes Film Festival, The Venice Film Festival, and the San Sebastian Film Festival. He is best known for his frequent close collaboration with the director Ken Loach.

Alongside their producer Rebecca O'Brien, Paul and Loach have made 14 feature films together. Ten of these films have been in the Official Selection of the Cannes Film Festival. Their films THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY and I, DANIEL BLAKE both won the Palme d'Or in 2006 and 2016 respectively, and THE ANGEL’S SHARE won the Jury prize in 2012. I, DANIEL BLAKE went on to win the BAFTA for Best British Film in that same year. 

Paul wrote his first screenplay CARLA’S SONG (1996) for Loach, which starred Robert Carlyle. Further credits include MY NAME IS JOE (1998), for which Peter Mullan won Best Actor award at 2000 Cannes Film Festival, BREAD AND ROSES (2000), starring Adrien Brody, SWEET SIXTEEN (2002), which won best screenplay award at Cannes Film Festival, LOOKING FOR ERIC (2009), ROUTE IRSH (2010), SORRY I MISSED YOU (2019), and most recently the critically acclaimed THE OLD OAK (2023), which was nominated for Outstanding British Film at the 77th BAFTAS.

Paul has also worked very closely with Spanish film director Iciar Bollain and they have made 3 films together.  TAMBIEN LA LLUVIA [EVEN THE RAIN], won the Panorama Award at the Berlin Festival and was on the short list of 9 for an Oscar for Best Foreign Film. 

Alongside his screenwriting work, Paul studied philosophy in Rome, and then law in Glasgow.  After becoming a qualified lawyer, and practicing in Glasgow, he travelled to Central America and lived there for almost three years, most of that time working for a human rights organization in Nicaragua.