John Dryden
Client
John Scott Dryden is a Peabody-winning writer, director, showrunner and executive producer, and the creative lead behind BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds’ hit audio drama CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE, starring Kim Cattrall, Ed Harris, Johnny Flynn and Rachel Stirling, with Kelsey Grammer and David Duchovny joining the cast in later series.
The series has become one of BBC Sounds’ standout scripted drama franchises, after a first series that was publicly reported at over 2.5 million plays and went on to win a BBC Audio Drama Award for Outstanding Contribution.
He created and showran PASSENGER LIST, one of the landmark scripted-fiction podcasts of the modern audio boom: a multi-award-winning mystery thriller starring Kelly Marie Tran, Colin Morgan, Rob Benedict and Patti LuPone, which went on to become a novel and was developed for television. He also created the acclaimed historical fantasy epic TUMANBAY, which ran for four seasons and led to a series of bestselling novels.
John has built a reputation for large-scale, cinematic audio drama with major casts — often rooted in history, politics, crime, espionage and high-concept genre storytelling.
Recent work includes directing, executive producing and serving as creative lead on UNDERGROUND ZERO, a major new 9/11 audio drama for iHeart starring Michael Imperioli, Ray Abruzzo and Steve Schirripa, due for release in September 2026; and SAIGON, the recently released Vietnam-set historical drama for iHeart starring Kelly Marie Tran and Rob Benedict. He also collaborated with John Wick creator Derek Kolstad on the Audible Original THE STRANGE CASE, starring Vanessa Kirby, Sofie Gråbøl and David Oyelowo; co-wrote and executive produced the horror series THE SISTERS for Realm, starring Mae Whitman, Helen Baxendale and David Morrissey; and created, wrote and executive produced the globe-trotting BBC spy caper THERE'S SOMETHING I NEED TO TELL YOU.
He executive produced and directed BUZZ, starring John Lithgow, for iHeart; directed and executive produced the social-media thriller TAGGED for Sony; and worked across acclaimed fiction podcast series including MUMBAI CRIME, THE CIPHER, RESTART and LIFEAFTER.
For the BBC, John created the thrillers SEVERED THREADS, A KIDNAPPING, PANDEMIC, and THE RELUCTANT SPY, as well as major literary adaptations including the Sony Award-winning dramatisation of Charles Dickens’ BLEAK HOUSE, Margaret Atwood’s THE HANDMAID'S TALE and Vikram Seth’s A SUITABLE BOY.