Paul began his career in 1992 as a wide-eyed youth writing for video game magazines. Side steps saw him move to trade magazines and websites before falling into television work in 2003, where with the brief exception of a period stacking supermarket shelves, he has stayed ever since. He has written over 300 episodes of Emmerdale – including its only ever live episode – plus two feature-length spin-offs, and is the most commissioned writer in his time on the show, winning Best Episode and Best Scene multiple times from various awards.
He wrote the screenplay for 2014 movie Bait, described by the Guardian as, “An impressively vicious thriller,” who also said, “What’s especially laudable is the dimensionality writer Paul Roundell distributes among the characters.” Mike-77134 on the internet, on the other hand, found it “frankly stupid.”
Other (un-broadcasted) work includes ‘Grounded’ for ITV2, with producer Kathleen Beedles and ‘Mirror Mirror’ for BBC, with producer Phil Collinson. He is currently developing comedy drama ‘Headless’ and co-developing youth-oriented action adventure series ‘Creeps’. Paul has recently completed the feature screenplay Dennis Mackintosh for Mitchell-Brunt Films, and ‘Virus Diaries,’ a feature-length, single camera near-monologue about one family’s struggles during Covid lockdown.
When time permits he continues to work on his novel, ‘Significant/Other’ about our fascination with fame, and has almost by accident started work on a children’s book, based on his experiences with his own children, but with less swearing
