---
name: "Graeme Manson"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/graeme-manson"
fi1m_id: "graeme-manson"
imdb_id: "nm0543919"
tmdb_id: 5883
wikidata_id: "Q5975317"
roles: ["Writer","Producer"]
born: "1 January 1950"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 3
average_fi1m_score: 71
average_as: "writer"
average_over: 3
updated: "2026-09-23T11:37:11.055603+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Graeme Manson

## Identity

Graeme Manson

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/graeme-manson
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** graeme-manson
- **IMDb ID:** nm0543919
- **TMDB ID:** 5883
- **Wikidata ID:** Q5975317
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graeme_Manson, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5975317, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0543919/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/5883

Writer and producer. Born 1 January 1950 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

## Details

- **Work:** Writer, Producer
- **Born:** 1 January 1950, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
- **Active:** 1998–present
- **Frequently works with:** [Aubrey Nealon](https://film.one/person/aubrey-nealon.md), [David Frazee](https://film.one/person/david-frazee.md), [Helen Shaver](https://film.one/person/helen-shaver.md), [Renée St. Cyr](https://film.one/person/renee-st-cyr.md), [Vincenzo Natali](https://film.one/person/vincenzo-natali.md)
- **Average Fi1m score:** 71, as writer, over 3 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 1990s 76 (1), 2010s 74 (1), 2020s 63 (1)
- **Fi1m against the critics:** 71 to 66 across 3 titles
- **Score spread:** 0 at 80+, 3 at 60–79, 0 under 60
- **Genres:** Drama 2, Sci-Fi & Fantasy 2, Mystery 1, Science Fiction 1, Thriller 1
- **Screen time:** 2 hours of reviewed films
- **Box office:** $9m across 1 films with figures
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graeme_Manson, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5975317, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0543919/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/5883

## Streaming the US now

- **Pluto TV:** [*Cube*](https://film.one/film/cube.md) (76)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Graeme Manson

> Graeme Manson puts people in boxes, a maze of lethal rooms, a body that turns out to be one of many, and watches what pressure does to them. The premises are his best work; the plots grow faster than he can prune them.

Graeme Manson's people are always somewhere they cannot leave. In *Cube* (1998) a group of strangers wakes inside a maze of lethal rooms and has to work out the rules before the rooms work them out. In *Orphan Black* (2013) Sarah Manning, a thief with a bad boyfriend, steps into a dead detective's shoes and inherits the detective's question: why are there several of us? In *Snowpiercer* (2020) the box is a train. "I don't shy away from claustrophobic stuff, even on television or film, because I find it so visceral and great for tension," he has said, and the work bears him out. The smaller the space he gives them, the better he writes.

The career runs from one small box to a very long one. *Cube*, written with André Bijelic and its director Vincenzo Natali, made his name as a writer of taut, idea-driven genre pieces. Then came a stretch of Canadian television, episodes of *Flashpoint*, *The Bridge* and *Being Erica*, and *Lucky Girl* (2001), a dark television film written with John Fawcett. Fawcett is the collaborator who matters. Together they created *Orphan Black*, which ran for five seasons of ten episodes each from 2013 to 2017, and it remains the fullest thing Manson has done. After it he moved to *Snowpiercer* (2020 to 2024) as co-showrunner, turning Bong Joon-ho's film into several seasons of class struggle aboard a train that never stops.

What he does well is the premise and the pressure it puts on people. Selfishness in a locked maze, a woman discovering she is one of many, a train divided by class: these are good questions, and he asks them straight, with a dark humour that keeps the philosophy from going solemn. What he does less well is stop. In *Cube* the screenplay starts making its people illustrate ideas, and we could feel the film arranging another dispute rather than finding out anything new about the group. In *Orphan Black* the conspiracy grows a new head every year. We were gripped by the first season, properly gripped, the kind where you resent the end credits; somewhere in the fourth we stopped keeping notes and simply watched Tatiana Maslany, whose several performances hold the whole thing up.

That is the pattern, and it is not a fatal one. Manson's premises are strong enough to survive their own plots. The one reservation anyone raises about him is that his later work adapts other people's ideas rather than building his own, and on the evidence of *Cube* and *Orphan Black* his own are the better kind. Give him an empty cell and a group of strangers and he is at his best. Give him a fourth season and he will fill it.

## Biography

Graeme Manson is a Canadian screenwriter and producer from Vancouver, British Columbia. He co-wrote the screenplay for the 1997 film *Cube*.

With John Fawcett, Manson co-created the science fiction series *Orphan Black* (2013–2017), serving as executive producer and writer. The pair had previously collaborated on the 2001 film *Lucky Girl*. He later acted as co-showrunner on the series *Snowpiercer* (2020–2024).

Manson has received three Canadian Screen Awards, a Hugo Award and a Writers Guild of Canada award.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.*

## On Fi1m (3)

- *Snowpiercer* (2020), Fi1m 63, Story, Creator, Teleplay, Executive Producer — [page](https://film.one/tv/snowpiercer-2020.md)
- *Orphan Black* (2013), Fi1m 74, Creator, Writer, Executive Producer — [page](https://film.one/tv/orphan-black.md)
- *Cube* (1998), Fi1m 76, Screenplay — [page](https://film.one/film/cube.md)

## Complete filmography (17)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Orphan Black: Echoes* (2024), series, Original Series Creator
- *Cube* (2021), Original Film Writer
- *Citizen Bio* (2020), Executive Producer
- *Snowpiercer* (2020), series, Executive Producer, Teleplay, Story, Creator — Fi1m 63, [page](https://film.one/tv/snowpiercer-2020.md)
- *Orphan Black* (2013), series, Executive Producer, Writer, Creator — Fi1m 74, [page](https://film.one/tv/orphan-black.md)
- *Endgame* (2011), series, Writer, Consulting Producer
- *The Bridge* (2010), series, Writer
- *Being Erica* (2009), series, Teleplay
- *Flashpoint* (2008), series, Consulting Producer, Writer, Supervising Producer
- *Rent-a-Goalie* (2006), series, Writer, Creative Producer
- *Crazy Canucks* (2004), Writer
- *Lucky Girl* (2001), Teleplay
- *D'Myna Leagues* (2001), series, Writer
- *The City* (1999), series, Writer
- *Rupert's Land* (1998), Writer
- *Cube* (1998), Screenplay — Fi1m 76, [page](https://film.one/film/cube.md)
- *Red Scorpion 2* (1995), as Set Decoration

## Gallery

- ![Graeme Manson](https://film.one/media/person/87353/gallery-62ce39b25b45.jpg) Graeme Manson — Canadian Film Centre, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/Graeme_Manson_2015.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Anna Silk and Graeme Manson (2015)](https://film.one/media/person/87353/gallery-05bf1525ccc0.jpg) Anna Silk and Graeme Manson (2015) — Canadian Film Centre, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a6/Anna_Silk_and_Graeme_Manson.jpg/1280px-Anna_Silk_and_Graeme_Manson.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![From left to right: Roma Khanna, Suzette Couture, Slawko Klymkiw, Graeme Manson, John Fawcett, Norman Jewison and Lynne St. David-Jewison. Photos by: Jesse Gran (2015)](https://film.one/media/person/87353/gallery-c999d9246806.jpg) From left to right: Roma Khanna, Suzette Couture, Slawko Klymkiw, Graeme Manson, John Fawcett, Norman Jewison and Lynne St. David-Jewison. Photos by: Jesse Gran (2015) — Canadian Film Centre from Toronto, Canada, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7c/CFC_in_L.A._-_Honouring_John_Fawcett_and_Graeme_Manson_%2816739472537%29.jpg/1280px-CFC_in_L.A._-_Honouring_John_Fawcett_and_Graeme_Manson_%2816739472537%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![John Fawcett and Graeme Manson give a speech after accepting their award at the event in L.A. Photos by: Jesse Grant (2015)](https://film.one/media/person/87353/gallery-92693f287438.jpg) John Fawcett and Graeme Manson give a speech after accepting their award at the event in L.A. Photos by: Jesse Grant (2015) — Canadian Film Centre from Toronto, Canada, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8c/CFC_in_L.A._-_Honouring_John_Fawcett_and_Graeme_Manson_%2816759371720%29.jpg/1280px-CFC_in_L.A._-_Honouring_John_Fawcett_and_Graeme_Manson_%2816759371720%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Graeme Manson](https://film.one/media/person/87353/gallery-8f79e8ea410d.jpg) Graeme Manson — Image via TMDB
- ![Graeme Manson](https://film.one/media/person/87353/gallery-b5e6c75b73c7.jpg) Graeme Manson — Image via TMDB
- ![Norman Jewison presents John Fawcett and Graeme Manson with the 2015 Award for Creative Excellence. Photos by: Jesse Grant](https://film.one/media/person/87353/gallery-3dfd97b8bdf9.jpg) Norman Jewison presents John Fawcett and Graeme Manson with the 2015 Award for Creative Excellence. Photos by: Jesse Grant — Canadian Film Centre from Toronto, Canada, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1d/CFC_in_L.A._-_Honouring_John_Fawcett_and_Graeme_Manson_%2816759371880%29.jpg/1280px-CFC_in_L.A._-_Honouring_John_Fawcett_and_Graeme_Manson_%2816759371880%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Norman Jewison and Lynne St. David-Jewison with alumni John Fawcett and Graeme Manson. Photos by: Jesse Grant (2015)](https://film.one/media/person/87353/gallery-bd7a76faa181.jpg) Norman Jewison and Lynne St. David-Jewison with alumni John Fawcett and Graeme Manson. Photos by: Jesse Grant (2015) — Canadian Film Centre from Toronto, Canada, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c7/CFC_in_L.A._-_Honouring_John_Fawcett_and_Graeme_Manson_%2816759372880%29.jpg/1280px-CFC_in_L.A._-_Honouring_John_Fawcett_and_Graeme_Manson_%2816759372880%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)

## Awards

### Other awards — 1 won

- Sitges Film Festival Best Screenplay award 1998: Sitges Film Festival Best Screenplay award (won), for *Cube*

*From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.*

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/graeme-manson