Kurt Ellis is a novelist and screenwriter.

WGSA Muse Award winner Kurt Ellis is a screenwriter and novelist. Ellis is the author of the gritty Johannesburg-set thrillers BY ANY MEANS (NB Publishing), IN THE MIDST OF WOLVES (Penguin Books, 2022) and his GET SHORTY-esque DEADLY BENEFITS (Penguin Books, 2024). Kurt has written picture books for children’s reading press and the charity Nali’bali. Winner of the Harry Oppenheimer Creative Writing Award, Ellis has an MFA from the University of the Witwatersrand.

Nominated for four 2021 WGSA Muse Awards, Ellis won with his original pilot script RAINBOW’S END. A master at building tension through pacy plotting and nuanced characterisation, Kurt is a writer on BLOOD LEGACY  (Gambit/Netflix) which debuted in the top 10 internationally on the Netflix platform in October 2024; UNGOVERNABLE (Ferguson Films/Netflix); and is attached to adapt Mike Nicol’s best-selling novel PAYBACK (PRH SA), and his own high-octane crime novel IN THE MIDST OF WOLVES and his debut thriller BY ANY MEANS for DG Films.