Pavan Patel is a British-Indian screenwriter for television drama and feature film. Raised in the Middle East and shaped by both British and American education systems, he grew up on a mix of British, American, and Indian film and TV—alongside a love for comics and graphic novels. Pavan gravitates toward commercially leaning projects told through a distinctive lens, often weaving twisty, hooky plots with underrepresented, morally complex characters. His work spans gripping global backdrops and grounded UK settings, and he’s particularly skilled at crafting suspenseful dramas and genre thrillers built on tension, sharp character work, and emotional gut punches.
Pavan’s original pilot script The Empire’s Jewel was shortlisted for the Bisha K Ali Sky & Netflix Screenwriters’ Fellowship (top 12%), and he was selected for the BBC Writers’ Academy 2022/23, where he’s now currently developing a commissioned 60’ original pilot script for BBC Studios. He also joined the BBC Writersroom’s London Voices development programme in 2023, and his feature Camel Boy placed in the top 8% of the Nicholl’s Fellowship.
Previously, Pavan has worked on television commercial productions and is a UCLA Professional Program in Screenwriting graduate with honours.
| Television drama (paid script commission) | |
|---|---|
| Madhouse | Thriller. Dani Madison , top reporter for a major national newspaper and one half of a power couple with her MP husband, is investigating one of the capital’s most elusive people smuggling rings when things take a dramatic turn for the worst. Her woman on the inside Sasha goes missing. In way too deep and in direct conflict with the traffickers, Dani discovers that her husband is also missing and is on the run from the same group – reasons unknown… An ultimatum is given, track down your husband and turn him in, or Sasha will be lost forever. Caught between guilt, love and hunger for the truth – the impossible hunt begins… (1 x 60’ Returning drama pilot script commission as part of the BBC Writers’ Academy) |
| Television drama (spec scripts) | |
|---|---|
| The Empire’s Jewel | Period drama-thriller. At the onset of WW2, a British Detective is sent to India to stop a Network of extreme revolutionists who use deception and spycraft to try to end 200 years of British oppression. But it’s his Indian aid, who is reluctantly embedded in the Network, who could be the most dangerous threat… (1 x 60’ Returning drama spec script) |
| Hastings | Crime-drama. After making an arrest for a high-profile murder case, detective Dan Gupta fears he’s got the wrong person. He must put the pieces together, but when it leads him down a path of deceit, conspiracy, and corruption, what Dan unearths is far more significant than any one murder. (1 x 60’ Returning drama spec script) |
| Television drama (available projects) | |
|---|---|
| Inside | Crime-drama. In the throes of their tumultuous marriage, a police Sergeant and her bank manager husband find themselves entangled in a complex bank heist turned hostage situation. (5×60’ Series pitch) |
| Monsters | Crime-drama/Thriller. A troubled detective deciphers cryptic clues to confront a relentless serial killer targeting the guilty. As online support glorifies their deadly actions, the detective’s obsession blurs the line between justice and vengeance, leading her to sympathise with the killers—transforming her into a reflection of the very monster she hunts. (7×50’ Series pitch) |
| Pluto | Crime-drama. Ensnared in the web of London’s underworld, a conflicted detective grapples with family loyalties and sinister manipulations, evolving from a reluctant outsider to a formidable and dangerous figure amidst the spectre of gang warfare. (6×45’ Series pitch) |
| Peirce | Crime-drama. Detective Gabi Pierce has it all, a loving family, a penthouse that could rival a magazine cover and a career that was really taking off. That is until a brutal home invasion ends with her husband and daughter dead and Gabi in a coma. When she finally wakes up, her world is unrecognisable. Her family is gone, her career is in tatters, her memories fractured. Haunted by the voice of her husband, Gabi peruses a dark quest for revenge. When her former college brings her a case only she can crack with her off the books methods of persuasion, pieces of her memory become clearer, leading her closer to the identities of those on her hit list. (6×45’ Series pitch) |
| Feature Film (spec scripts): | |
|---|---|
| Camel Boy | Middle-eastern-set drama feature. After being sold and trafficked from his small Indian Village to live a desolate and harrowing life of a Camel Jockey in the Middle East, Ali must hatch a plan for him and two others to escape the prison-like farm they are trapped on. Based on true events. |
| Watchtower | Action-thriller feature. When an MI6 special agent and her partner get caught up in a web of conspiracy, they must steal valuable intel to hunt out the mole inside MI6 as well as capture the dangerous arms dealer known as Osborne… |
| Professional training |
|---|
| BBC Writers Academy 2022/23 – full-time lectures from Sept-Dec 2022; followed by pilot script and series bible commission for BBC Studios (2023) |
| UCLA Professional Program in Screenwriting. |