Rich Peppiatt

Rich Peppiatt is a British-Irish writer and director. He is best known for films Kneecap and One Rogue Reporter.

Career
After graduating from the University of Warwick, Peppiatt worked as a journalist across a number of national newspapers. He first came to prominence in 2011 when his resignation letter to Daily Star proprietor Richard Desmond, for accusing the paper of Islamophobia and unethical journalism, which went viral when it was leaked to the Guardian newspaper. He became a prominent critic of tabloid behaviour, giving evidence at the Leveson Inquiry into Press Ethics.

One Rogue Reporter
Peppiatt turned his experiences as a journalist and fallout from his resignation into a stand-up comedy show titled One Rogue Reporter which premiered at the 2012 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, described as "hilariously turning the tables on the tabloid power players, testing the public’s right to know to its eye-opening extremity." After Edinburgh the show toured across the UK, finishing with a run at London’s Soho Theatre.

The stage show was transformed into a documentary One Rogue Reporter, starring the likes of Hugh Grant, Steve Coogan and John Bishop. It premiered at Sheffield DocFest in 2014 and was nominated for Best Independent Feature at the National Film Awards UK.

Short films
In 2018 Peppiatt released two short films through his production company Naughty Step titled Backseat Driver and Grounded. Grounded was long-listed for the 2020 Academy Awards.

Television
Peppiatt was the writer and occasional director of five seasons Channel 4’s satirical consumer affairs show Supershoppers. He was writer of season five of Channel 4’s Tricks of the Restaurant Trade.

Kneecap
In 2024 Peppiatt wrote and directed his first narrative feature film Kneecap, about the rise of the Belfast-based hip-hop group Kneecap. The film stars the band members as themselves, as well as Michael Fassbender. The idea for a film was first conceived in 2019 when Peppiatt watched the group perform in Belfast. He went on to shoot the music video for their track “Guilty Conscience”. The film premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, winning the NEXT Audience Award. It is due to be released theatrically worldwide in August 2024.

Personal life
Peppiatt lives in Belfast, Northern Ireland.