Ruth McCance

Ruth Torring McCance (1969 – 2023) was a Northern Irish screenwriter and executive producer based in Stockholm. She was known for her work on the television series Little Birds.

Biography McCance was born in Belfast to Hazel Gorden and Bert McCance. She grew up working class in Belfast, attending Friends' School, Lisburn. McCance graduated with a degree in film and media studies from the University of Glasgow. Later she worked at BBC Scotland, where her writing was discovered, working as a secretary to Andrea Calderwood. Lynne Ramsay credited McCance for allowing her the opportunity to create her film Ratcatcher. She later became a script editor and producer at Ruby Films.

In the early 2000s, she moved to Copenhagen and London to work for Potboiler Productions. In 2011, she moved to Stockholm working on script rights and production management. The series was commissioned by Sky, and was later nominated for a BAFTA Television Craft Award.

In 2021 at Warp Films, McCance wrote a punk adaptation of Honoré de Balzac’s novel Illusions perdues for television.

McCance died of stomach cancer in December 2023 at age 53. At the time of her death, she had written a pilot script and outlined six episodes of a climate thriller series, "S.O.L.". After her death, Simon Beaufoy came on board to finish writing the series.

Film productions

1999, Ratcatcher 1999, The Darkest Light 2003, It's All About Love 2003, Skagerrak 2007, Son of Rambow