Darrel Bristow-Bovey was born in Durban, South Africa and educated at the University of Cape Town where he studied under J.M. Coetzee and Andre Brink. He is currently building a house on a hillside in the Greek Peloponnese.
He is a screenwriter, represented by Abram Nalibotsky at the Gersh Agency, Beverly Hills. His most recent series was White Lies, starring Natalie Dormer, which screened throughout Africa and in Israel and Greece, on Stan in Australia and on Channel 4 in the UK. He has an upcoming crime series in development with Quizzical Pictures and Acorn in the UK.
Feature films include: In Love (forthcoming, Netflix, 2025); A Jozi Love Story (Netflix, 2024); A Sunday Affair (Netflix, 2023); Inside Story (2010) for Discovery Channel; Nothing for Mahala (2013) and Score (2005). Television credits include The Lab (series 1 and 2), Hard Copy (series 2 and 3), iNumberNumber, Hopeville, Rhythm City and Scandal. He also wrote Baby Farm (Netflix, 2025) and the forthcoming The Secrets of Baba Segi’s Wives (Netflix).
He is a travel writer and a newspaper and magazine columnist and has written five books which have been translated into seven languages: I Moved Your Cheese (2001) and The Naked Bachelor (2002) were books of humour and But I Digress (2003), was a collection of his best columns between 1997 and 2003.
His most recent book, Finding Endurance, was published in the UK, Ireland and the USA in April 2023, and in South Africa in June 2023, was longlisted for the Sunday Times/ Alan Paton Award and remained on the bestseller charts for more than 12 months.
SuperZero (2004) won a Sanlam Prize for Youth Literature and the Percy Fitzpatrick Prize for South African Literature.
One Midlife Crisis and a Speedo (2013), a humorous account of his attempt to swim across the Dardenelles in the wake of Lord Byron, was a best-seller.
In 2017 his play Priest With Balloons won the Scribe Playwriting Competition.
In 2016 he co-wrote The Power Struggle, a one-man showcase for stand-up comic Nik Rabinowitz.
In 2006 he was a finalist for the Caine Prize for African Literature for his short story “A Joburg Story”.