Scott McQuaid
- Director
- Writer
- Editor
Scott McQuaid is a British writer and director for stage and screen. He grew up in Essex, England, and spent most of his childhood. making camcorder movies with the kids in his neighbourhood. During his high school years, he would pen and cast his friends for short films that were shot over the weekend.
The first chapter of McQuaid's life circled around martial arts, which came through his love of Hong Kong cinema.
Shortly after graduating high school, he moved to Hong Kong, where he volunteered on film sets as a production assistant and occasionally appeared as an extra. From 1995 to 1998, McQuaid worked on film sets with renowned Hong Kong filmmakers such as Tsui Hark, Herman Yau, and Benny Chan.
McQuaid spent most of his teenage years backpacking around the globe, with a focus on Southeast Asia, studying martial arts while picking up film and TV production work whenever he could. McQuaid would become a renowned martial artist in the Indonesian art of 'Silat', conducting workshops across the world in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, America, and Europe.
He returned to England, where he attended Southend College, and eventually Suffolk University, studying Performing Arts, which introduced him to theatre. This began McQuaid's second chapter, which became focused on stage directing. While studying theatre, he worked as an usher at the Odeon Cinema; watching movie every evening would prove to be a vital part of education in his filmmaking. After completing a Bachelor's degree in Performing Arts, he began writing and directing small skits that he would tour around England.
McQuaid would eventually relocate to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where he took a post as the resident director at the Cempaka Performing Arts Company, directing numerous plays and musicals that won various awards. He also established his own fringe theatre company, Pop Up Theatre, in 2016, where he began writing and directing his own brand of dark comedy plays for the stage, that were performed around Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.
While keeping busy in the theatre industry, McQuaid returned to further education, studying filmmaking, earning an MFA (Master's of Fine Arts), under the guidance of the late American director and producer, Wayne Crawford, who became instrumental in aiding the production of his feature film.
In 2017, he launched his indie movie company, Plastic Monkey Films, and after making a handful of short movies that screened at various film festivals, McQuaid set out to make his first feature film. On a shoestring budget, with an intense 22-day shoot, he wrote and directed the B-movie, 'Space Ninjas'. The movie debuted at the Horror-on-Sea Film Festival in the UK, and was immediately picked up by Amazon Prime, and eventually, Apple TV+.
McQuaid always notes that he wanted to make a B-movie first, much like the directors he grew up admiring. This would give him the freedom to explore filmmaking within the movie's structure of sub-genres, and allow room for mistakes and trial and error in the learning process.
A few years later, McQuaid would go into production on his second feature film, 'The Heartsmith'. However, this once-scheduled 30-day shoot ballooned into an epic 3 years, due to the pandemic hitting in 2020. The constant re-opening and shutting down of the borders would cause a host of problems for the project.
During this stagnant period, McQuaid turned his attention to producing audio plays, as this was the only form of entertainment he could develop while being confined to home. Casting actors from all across the world, he released a successful Sherlock Holmes factual fiction series, along with other comedy and dramatic audio plays that gained a loyal following worldwide on platforms such as Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Audible, Google Podcasts, YouTube, and many more. As the lockdown prolonged, McQuaid would also become an author, penning his first book in 2021, titled 'Scott Forgot The Title', a collection of original one-act comedy plays, available on Amazon.
Once the world was stable again, and life returned to normality, McQuaid went back into production on 'The Heartsmith', and caught up on other delayed projects, such as the original musical, 'Spooks', that he wrote and directed, which earned 13 nominations at Malaysia's prestigious BOH Cameronian Arts Awards; winning 5.
Eventually, at the start of 2025, 'The Heartsmith' premiered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and was made available on Amazon Prime and AppleTV+.
He continues to work in stage and screen, producing original stories, and collaborating with influential figures to create artistic, pop-cultural, genre-defying works.
For the moment, McQuaid's third chapter has yet to be written.
The first chapter of McQuaid's life circled around martial arts, which came through his love of Hong Kong cinema.
Shortly after graduating high school, he moved to Hong Kong, where he volunteered on film sets as a production assistant and occasionally appeared as an extra. From 1995 to 1998, McQuaid worked on film sets with renowned Hong Kong filmmakers such as Tsui Hark, Herman Yau, and Benny Chan.
McQuaid spent most of his teenage years backpacking around the globe, with a focus on Southeast Asia, studying martial arts while picking up film and TV production work whenever he could. McQuaid would become a renowned martial artist in the Indonesian art of 'Silat', conducting workshops across the world in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, America, and Europe.
He returned to England, where he attended Southend College, and eventually Suffolk University, studying Performing Arts, which introduced him to theatre. This began McQuaid's second chapter, which became focused on stage directing. While studying theatre, he worked as an usher at the Odeon Cinema; watching movie every evening would prove to be a vital part of education in his filmmaking. After completing a Bachelor's degree in Performing Arts, he began writing and directing small skits that he would tour around England.
McQuaid would eventually relocate to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where he took a post as the resident director at the Cempaka Performing Arts Company, directing numerous plays and musicals that won various awards. He also established his own fringe theatre company, Pop Up Theatre, in 2016, where he began writing and directing his own brand of dark comedy plays for the stage, that were performed around Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.
While keeping busy in the theatre industry, McQuaid returned to further education, studying filmmaking, earning an MFA (Master's of Fine Arts), under the guidance of the late American director and producer, Wayne Crawford, who became instrumental in aiding the production of his feature film.
In 2017, he launched his indie movie company, Plastic Monkey Films, and after making a handful of short movies that screened at various film festivals, McQuaid set out to make his first feature film. On a shoestring budget, with an intense 22-day shoot, he wrote and directed the B-movie, 'Space Ninjas'. The movie debuted at the Horror-on-Sea Film Festival in the UK, and was immediately picked up by Amazon Prime, and eventually, Apple TV+.
McQuaid always notes that he wanted to make a B-movie first, much like the directors he grew up admiring. This would give him the freedom to explore filmmaking within the movie's structure of sub-genres, and allow room for mistakes and trial and error in the learning process.
A few years later, McQuaid would go into production on his second feature film, 'The Heartsmith'. However, this once-scheduled 30-day shoot ballooned into an epic 3 years, due to the pandemic hitting in 2020. The constant re-opening and shutting down of the borders would cause a host of problems for the project.
During this stagnant period, McQuaid turned his attention to producing audio plays, as this was the only form of entertainment he could develop while being confined to home. Casting actors from all across the world, he released a successful Sherlock Holmes factual fiction series, along with other comedy and dramatic audio plays that gained a loyal following worldwide on platforms such as Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Audible, Google Podcasts, YouTube, and many more. As the lockdown prolonged, McQuaid would also become an author, penning his first book in 2021, titled 'Scott Forgot The Title', a collection of original one-act comedy plays, available on Amazon.
Once the world was stable again, and life returned to normality, McQuaid went back into production on 'The Heartsmith', and caught up on other delayed projects, such as the original musical, 'Spooks', that he wrote and directed, which earned 13 nominations at Malaysia's prestigious BOH Cameronian Arts Awards; winning 5.
Eventually, at the start of 2025, 'The Heartsmith' premiered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and was made available on Amazon Prime and AppleTV+.
He continues to work in stage and screen, producing original stories, and collaborating with influential figures to create artistic, pop-cultural, genre-defying works.
For the moment, McQuaid's third chapter has yet to be written.
