Grant was born in
Salford on 25 September 1955. He met future collaborator
Doug Naylor at
Chetham's Hospital School, which he attended from the age of nine. The pair later studied
Psychology at
Liverpool University for two years, before both dropping out to persue a writing career, while doing shift work. After providing a variety of comedy material on a freelance basis, the pair were hired to a staff writer position for
BBC Radio, working on programs such as the sketch shows
Cliché and
Son of Cliché, the original sitcom
Wrinkles, and the topical show
The News Huddlines. In 1986, the BBC would eventually pick up
Red Dwarf, with a commission from
BBC North West. A first series, after some production delays, would be broadcast in 1988, and was followed by another later that year. Grant and Naylor became producers of the show from its third series in 1989, and in a short period collaborated on two novelisations of
Red Dwarf, travelled for work on an
American spin-off, and worked on four more British series. They would also work together on a new sitcom set in a theatrical agency called
The 10%ers. Grant would create two more television comedies, being ITV's
Dark Ages (1999), and Sky One's
The Strangerers (2000). He would write four solo science fiction novels, starting with a
Red Dwarf novel,
Backwards (1996),
Colony,
Incompetence and
Fat. In the 2010s Grant started a new collaboration with
Andrew Marshall, previously writer on 1990s British sitcom
2point4 Children. Together they would produce, direct and write
The Quanderhorn Xperimentations Grant also began re-engaging with Red Dwarf in the late 10s. He would appear at a Red Dwarf convention in 2018, and then with Paul Jackson and director
Ed Bye provided the
Quarantine Commentaries of the first three series of Red Dwarf during the
2020 coronvirus lockdown. In February, 2021, a short
Red Dwarf script,
Into the Gloop, which was performed live via Zoom as part of the Official Red Dwarf Fan Club's Holly Hop convention. A legal dispute over the
Red Dwarf rights was resolved in 2023., and a prequel spin-off,
Red Dwarf: Titan, to be written by Grant with Marshall, would be announced soon thereafter. This would be formally announced as a novel on 19 February 2026, to be published in July 2026. Grant died suddenly less than a week later on 25 February 2026, at the age of 70. His death was announced the following day. == Filmography ==