Ronan Bennett

Ronan Bennett (born 14 January 1956) is a Northern Irish novelist and screenwriter. He is best known for his work as showrunner, writer and executive producer of the drug and gang-related crime drama television series Top Boy. His other writing credits include the 1997 crime film Face, the 2009 Michael Mann crime biopic Public Enemies and the 2017 BBC historical drama miniseries Gunpowder.

Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, he moved to live in Hackney, East London with his wife and two children. Inspired by witnessing a twelve-year-old boy dealing drugs at his local Tesco supermarket in Hackney, Bennett created and wrote Top Boy, a British crime drama television series focusing on gang culture and drug dealing in a predominately-black council estate in East London. Originally airing for two series on Channel 4, the show was cancelled in 2014 but was revived as an original Netflix series, produced by rap artist Drake.