Background
Hirst was born in Bradford, West Yorkshire and grew up in Ilkley.
Hirst was born in Bradford, West Yorkshire and grew up in Ilkley.
He was educated at Bradford Grammar School and attended the London School of Economics. He received a First Class Joint-Honours Degree in English and American Literature from the University of Nottingham and studied Henry James at Trinity College, Oxford.
Hirst originally was going to be an academic, but decided to become a screenwriter after Nicolas Roeg read one of his short stories and asked Hirst to write screenplays for him. Hirst was head writer, creator and executive producer of the Showtime television Drama Series The Tudors which aired from 2007 to 2010. Hirst is one of the co-writers on the screenplay for the James Dalessandro book, 1906.
The story follows a young man who discovers a series of secrets and lies that left San Francisco highly vulnerable to the fires that engulfed it in the aftermath of the historical 1906 earthquake, released in 2012.
Hirst had been chosen to write the movie adaptation of Stuart Hill"s best selling book: The Cry Of The Icemark before it was put on hold and is also set to adapt the Bernard Cornwell"s book Azincourt, which tells the story of King Henry V of England and the Battle of Agincourt. In 2011, he co-produced the series Camelot with Chris Chibnall for Starz.
Hirst produced The Borgias television series for Showtime. The Borgias tells the story of the notorious Borgia family.
lieutenant stars Jeremy Irons as Pope Alexander VI, his first series-regular role.
The show was created by Neil Jordan, with filming beginning in the summer of 2010 and ran for three seasons. Hirst is developing a feature film about Mary Queen of Scots with Working Title Films, to star Saoirse Ronan. Premiering in 2013, Hirst created Vikings, the History Channel"s first foray into serialised drama.
lieutenant stars Gabriel Byrne, Travis Fimmel, Clive Standen, Katheryn Winnick, Jessalyn Gilsig and Gustaf Skarsgard.