Toby Wagstaff is a writer, editor, and script consultant whose work bridges the realms of storytelling, entertainment, and conversational AI. Originally from the United Kingdom, he holds a first-class degree in Philosophy and Modern Languages (Italian) from the University of Oxford. Now based in New York, Toby continues to build a career defined by creativity, insight, and a lifelong fascination with language and human connection.
During his time at Oxford, Toby spent a year in Rome at the Università degli Studi Roma Tre, where he studied cinema and art history. Immersed in Italy’s cultural richness, he directed a student production of The Importance of Being Earnest and volunteered as a teaching assistant, nurturing both leadership and artistic sensibility. He also taught English privately and discovered a love for photography, capturing the texture and rhythm of Roman life through his lens.
After graduating, Toby began his professional journey in London’s film industry, where he worked in script development and production coordination at Studio 8 Productions and Peace Arch Films. He gained practical experience on the BBC drama "Monarch of the Glen," where he assisted with post-production tasks such as editing, sound design, and color grading, which deepened his understanding of cinematic storytelling.
In 2004, Toby joined the production team of Shadows in the Sun, starring Harvey Keitel and Joshua Jackson. Filmed across Tuscany and London, the project provided him with his first substantial on-set experience as assistant to the producers and translator. It even doubled as the lead actor on screen. Later that year, he relocated to the US to become Creative Executive at Fierce Entertainment. There, he helped shape the company’s first in-house feature, War, starring Jet Li and Jason Statham, and contributed to its growing development slate.
Toby Wagstaff later transitioned fully into screenwriting, with his debut spec script Arena optioned by Summit Entertainment in 2008. Since then, he has written and sold numerous screenplays, including The Day I Die and Break My Bones, and completed assignments such as the adaptation of Shrapnel and rewrites for romantic comedies for television, solidifying his reputation as a thoughtful and imaginative storyteller.