Biography

Tony McNamara (born 1967) is an Australian playwright, screenwriter, and television producer. He is also an occasional film director and producer. He is known for his work on the scripts for The Favourite (2018) and Poor Things (2023), two films directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, being nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay with Deborah Davis for the former and the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for the latter. On television, he created the comedy-drama series The Great (2020–2023).

Tony McNamara was born in 1967 in Kilmore, Victoria, Australia, and was educated at Assumption College, Kilmore. Following careers in catering and finance, McNamara settled on a career as a writer following a visit to Rome. He studied writing at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and screenwriting at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School.

After writing various television episodes and stage plays, McNamara made his film debut in 2003, directing The Rage in Placid Lake, adapted from his stage play The Café Latte Kid. Following this, he wrote for various television programmes in Australia, most notably The Secret Life of Us, Love My Way, Tangle and Puberty Blues.

In 2015, McNamara directed his second feature film, the comedy-drama Ashby, starring Mickey Rourke, Sarah Silverman and Emma Roberts. A year later, he returned to television as the creator of the medical drama Doctor Doctor.

In 2018, he received critical acclaim for his work in co-writing the historical comedy-drama film The Favourite with Yorgos Lanthimos, starring Emma Stone. Originally a screenplay by Deborah Davis written 20 years before the film's release, Lanthimos and McNamara worked together to complete the final script.

McNamara created The Great, a series revolving around the life of Catherine the Great, starring Elle Fanning and Nicholas Hoult, which premiered on Hulu on 15 May 2020. It is based on his play about Catherine the Great, which premiered at the Sydney Theatre Company in 2008. McNamara also wrote a film adaptation of the play.

McNamara returned to work with Lanthimos as the writer for the 2023 film Poor Things, with Stone as the lead actress again.

McNamara has a child from a first marriage and married Australian actress Belinda Bromilow in 2009. They have two children.

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