Sally Wainwright

Sally Wainwright (born 1963) is an English television writer, producer, and director. She is known for her television dramas, often set in her native West Yorkshire and featuring strong female characters, such as Scott & Bailey (2011–2016), Last Tango in Halifax (2012–2020), Happy Valley (2014–2023) and Riot Women (2025–).

Wainwright began her career as a scriptwriter on the long-running radio serial drama The Archers, and worked on the television soap operas Emmerdale and Coronation Street in the 1990s. Her first original drama, At Home with the Braithwaites, aired between 2000 and 2003. After two self-described "flops" in the mid-2000s, Wainwright found success with Unforgiven (2009), for which she won the Royal Television Society's Writer of the Year Award. Other work includes historical drama Gentleman Jack (2019–2022), and the comedy-drama series Riot Women. Last Tango in Halifax won the British Academy Television Award for Best Drama Series in 2013, and Happy Valley won the same award in both 2015 and 2017.

Early life and education Sally Wainwright was born in 1963 She has one sister.

She was brought up in Sowerby Bridge, where she attended Triangle Church of England Primary School and Sowerby Bridge High School. She attended the University of York, studying English and Related Literature. She said that when she was 16 years old, she saw a play called Bastard Angel by playwright Barrie Keeffe at the Royal Shakespeare Company, and was impressed by its short sentences and naturalistic approach to dialogue.

Career While at the University of York, Wainwright took an original play called Hanging On to the Edinburgh Festival and in the process found an agent, Meg Davis, for her writing. She was mentored by Kay Mellor, who encouraged her to stop writing for soaps and concentrate instead on original work. She created the TV series At Home with the Braithwaites about a woman who had secretly won the lottery. The programme was nominated for multiple awards.

She wrote the three-part drama series Unforgiven, broadcast in 2009, that went on to win best series and best writer in the RTS Awards.

Wainwright based the plot of her series Last Tango in Halifax on the story of her mother, who was widowed in 2001. Her mother, Dorothy, moved to Oxfordshire to live with her daughter and rediscovered a lost love via Friends Reunited.

Happy Valley, which was shot in Yorkshire's upper Upper Calder Valley and Hebden Bridge, stars Sarah Lancashire, whom Wainwright had in mind as she wrote the role. Wainwright made her directorial debut with episode 4 of the first series. In 2022, it was announced that a third series would debut on 1 January 2023. The final episode was broadcast on 5 February 2023.

Wainwright said in 2014 that her strong yet flawed female characters are "almost real" to her and arrive "fully formed" in her imagination. She has been a director and producer of some of her own television work, partly to ensure the scenery and dialogue reflects Yorkshire.

Wainwright wrote and directed a two-hour drama special for BBC One, To Walk Invisible, which aired in the UK in 2016 and in the US in 2017. Its subject is the Brontë family, particularly the relationship the three sisters, Anne, Emily and Charlotte, had with their brother, Branwell. While working on the drama, Wainwright said "I am thrilled beyond measure that I've been asked by the BBC to bring to life these three fascinating, talented, ingenious Yorkshire women."

In 2019, Wainwright's Gentleman Jack, a drama about the 19th-century Yorkshire landowner, diarist, and open lesbian, Anne Lister, played by Suranne Jones, and Lister's courtship of Ann Walker, played by Sophie Rundle, premiered on both BBC One in the UK and HBO in the US.

Her female-led highwaywoman epic Renegade Nell streamed on Disney+ in March 2024. October 2025 saw the release of her BBC One series Riot Women, about a group of women in Hebden Bridge forming a punk-rock band.

Personal life Wainwright married Ralph "Austin" Sherlaw-Johnson, an antiquarian sheet music dealer, son of the composer, pianist, and music scholar Robert Sherlaw Johnson. They have two sons and separated in 2019 after 29 years' marriage. As of 2023, Wainwright has a Maine Coon cat she says is the largest in the world.

Wainwright has said that she has "decided that [she is] slightly autistic" and that social interaction is quite painful for her.

Recognition and honours

Personal Wainwright won the 2009 Writer of the Year Award given by the RTS in 2009 for Unforgiven, which also won best TV series.

In 2016, Wainwright was made a Fellow of the Royal Television Society.

Wainwright was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2020 Birthday Honours, for services to writing and television.

For works Wainwright has been highly praised by many reviewers, and she is known for featuring "strong female characters" in her work and for the quality of her dialogue.

Her awards and honours include: 2003: Best Short Drama, Banff Festival, for The Wife of Bath's Tale 2009: RTS Awards, Writer of the Year, for Unforgiven 2017: BAFTA TV Craft Awards, Best Drama Writer for 'Happy Valley' 2020: Royal Television Society Awards, Best Drama Series Winner for 'Gentleman Jack' 2020: Freedom of The Borough of Calderdale 2020: Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2020 Birthday Honours, for services to Writing and Television 1994–1995

5 episodes 1999

1 episode 1999–2000

5 episodes 2000–2003

Writer, creator and associate producer 2002

Wrote all 3 episodes; credited as co-producer 2003

1 episode 2005

1 episode |2006

6 episodes as writer, creator and co-producer 2006

6 episodes as writer, creator and associate producer 2007

Television film 2007

6 episodes 2009

3 episodes as writer, creator and executive producer 2011–2016

31 episodes, 19 as writer. Co-creator Diane TaylorBased on an idea by Suranne Jones and Sally Lindsay 2012–2020

24 episodes as writer, creator and executive producer 2013

Pilot episode/Television film 2014–2023

18 episodes as writer, creator and executive producer, 5 as director 2016

Television film 2019–2022

8 episodes as writer, creator and executive producer, 4 as director 2024 Renegade Nell 2025–present Riot Women 6 episodes as writer, creator and co-producer, 3 as director

Other 1986–1988: The Archers (Radio show: BBC Radio 4) − Writer (2 years) 2000: Emily Brontë's Lover (Radio show: BBC Radio 4) − Writer Hanging On (play)