Brendan Foley is an Irish writer, film producer and director. He grew up in Belfast, Northern Ireland and has written feature scripts for companies in UK, USA, Canada, South Africa and Thailand. He wrote and produced the 2005 thriller Johnny Was, starring Vinnie Jones, Eriq La Salle and Patrick Bergin. The film won awards including Audience Awards and Best Feature Awards from six film festivals. He wrote, produced and directed The Riddle (2007 film) in 2006, starring Derek Jacobi, Vinnie Jones and Vanessa Redgrave. In September 2007, The Riddle became the world's first feature film to be released as a dvd premiere by a national newspaper. The UK's Mail on Sunday bought UK DVD rights and distributed 2.6 million copies, making the film one of the most widely watched independent films in the UK. In 2006/7 Foley wrote and directed Legend of the bog, a satirical horror film set in rural Ireland, starring Vinnie Jones, Jason Barry (Titanic) and Nora Jane Noone (The Descent). It was released by Lionsgate in USA on DVD in 2009. He then co-created and was a writer on Shelldon, a children's environmental animated series on NBC (2010). He has also written books for US and UK publishers and journalistic work includes feature assignments in 55 countries worldwide, covering people, business and conflict. Journalism ranged from features on bomb disposal in Angola, West Africa to the clean-up operations that followed the Exxon Valdez oil-spill in Alaska. His book Under The Wire, a World War II POW escape drama, which he wrote along with its subject William Ash, which was published by St Martin's Press, New York, and Transworld Publishing, Random House, London, in 2005 in hardback and 2006 in UK paperback, becoming a best-seller, topping Amazon UK's rankings for World War II and Biography at the time of its launch. He is a member of the Writers Guild (GB), a Fellow of the British Association of Communicators in Business, and was made an honorary life member of the National Union of Journalists in June 2006.
