Alex Garland

Alex Garland (born Alexander Medawar Garland on 26 May 1970 in London) is an English author, screenwriter, and filmmaker whose work has shaped contemporary science‑fiction storytelling. He grew up as the son of political cartoonist Nicholas Garland and psychologist Caroline Medawar, and is the grandson of Nobel‑winning biologist Peter Medawar and writer Jean Medawar, a lineage that imbued him with a deep literary and scientific curiosity. After attending University College School in Hampstead, he earned an art‑history degree from the University of Manchester before launching his writing career with the best‑selling debut novel The Beach in 1996, a cult hit that captured the restless ethos of Generation X and sold nearly 700,000 copies worldwide. Though the novel’s fame made him uncomfortable, it established Garland as a voice of his generation and led to a film adaptation starring Leonardo DiCaprio. He followed this with the experimental novel The Tesseract (1998) and later The Coma (2004), exploring nonlinear narratives and themes of love, violence, and the consequences of seemingly minor actions. Garland transitioned to screenwriting in the early 2000s, penning the breakout horror‑thriller 28 Days Later (2002) and its sequel 28 Years Later, both directed by Danny Boyle, as well as the solar‑powered odyssey Sunshine (2007). His adaptation of Never Let Me Go (2010) and the stylized Dredd (2012) further demonstrated his versatility across genres. In 2014 he made his directorial debut with the minimalist AI thriller Ex Machina, earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay and multiple British Independent Film Awards. Subsequent features such as Annihilation (2018), Men (2022), and the politically charged Civil War (2024) solidified his reputation for blending cerebral concepts with visceral imagery. Garland also created the critically acclaimed FX miniseries Devs (2020), co‑wrote video games like Enslaved: Odyssey to the West (2010), and served as story supervisor on DmC: Devil May Cry (2013). Married to actress Paloma Baeza, he is a father of two and describes himself as an atheist with left‑leaning political views, often reflecting his concerns about polarization in his recent work.