Nick Dear (born 11 June 1955 in Portsmouth) has been writing plays for stage, screen and radio for many years. He received a BAFTA for his first screenwriting credit - a TV adaptation of Jane Austen's Persuasion.
Dear graduated with a degree in Comparative European Literature from the University of Essex in 1977.
In 2005, Lunch in Venice appeared at the Shell Connections festival at the National Theatre. His plays Power (2003), and Summerfolk (1999) both premiered at the same venue. Power deals with the intrigue and tension of the court of the young Louis XIV of France. It has been produced at theatres in Portugal, Poland and Hungary, as well as the Finnish National Theatre (Kansallisteatteri). His other plays include Zenobia (1995).
His play The Art of Success premiered at the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1986 in a production starring Penny Downie and Michael Kitchen, and was nominated for an Olivier Award. It features William Hogarth and the political manipulation of art, the corruption of politics and treatment of women. Along the way it snowballed into lurid comedy of sexual manners. At its core it is a debate about the nature of ambition and the lengths to which one will go to succeed. Its historical setting is purely a matter of convenience.