Clive Barker (born 5 October 1952) is an English playwright, novelist, film director, and visual artist. Barker came to prominence in the mid-1980s with a series of short stories, the Books of Blood, which established him as a leading horror writer. He has since written many novels and other works, and his fiction has been adapted into films, notably the Hellraiser the first instalment of which he also wrote and directed, and Candyman series. Barker also serves as an executive producer on the film Gods and Monsters, which won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.