Paul Laverty

Paul Laverty
Paul Laverty at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival on 15 February 2011
Born	1957 (age 59–60) Calcutta, India
Occupation	Screenwriter, lawyer

Paul Laverty (born 1957) is a Scottish lawyer and scriptwriter.

Paul Laverty was born in Calcutta, India, to an Irish mother and Scottish father. He obtained a Philosophy degree at the Gregorian University in Rome. Thereafter he obtained a law degree at Strathclyde Law School, in Glasgow. During the mid-1980s he travelled to Nicaragua and lived there for almost three years. He worked for a Nicaraguan domestic human rights organisation which provided hard evidence of human rights abuses during the war between the elected Nicaraguan Government (The Sandinistas) and the United States backed "Contras" in which the subject of human rights became highly contested. Every major human rights organisation including Amnesty and Americas Watch accused the US backed contras of systematic abuse against Nicaraguan civilians. He travelled to the war-zones and obtained corroborated eye witness accounts which were passed on to international human rights organisations. He also travelled widely in El Salvador, during its civil war, and Guatemala, too. (His interests in Latin America affairs continued much later with long research trips to Chiapas in Mexico, and along the US-Mexican border concentrating on the city of Juárez.)

After his time in Central America Laverty made contact with director Ken Loach for whom he wrote Carla's Song, his first screenplay, which starred Robert Carlyle. For his acting in My Name is Joe, Peter Mullan won the Best Actor award at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival. Bread and Roses, detailing the experiences of migrant labour, was shot in Los Angeles, and featured Adrien Brody in a leading role. Laverty's next script, Sweet Sixteen won best screenplay award in the 2002 Cannes Film Festival.