He was executive producer and co-creator of the multi-award-winning Netflix series The Queen's Gambit,[3] a longtime collaborator of Nicolas Roeg, including co-writing his films Don't Look Now and The Witches.
After training in the Scotch whisky industry, he worked as a writer for television both in the UK and the US during the 1970s whilst at the same time as serving as a non-executive director of Macallan-Glenlivet plc.
[6][7][8] He served for several years on the Broadcasting Council of BBC Scotland and in 1986 succeeded Sir Denis Forman as chairman of the Scottish Film Production Fund.
He is also a former chairman of the Writers' Guild of Great Britain, thus perhaps the only person ever to chair a trades union and a Stock Exchange company at the same time.
Scott was co-writer and script consultant on the Norwegian film Kon-Tiki (2012), which was nominated for an Oscar in 2013 in the foreign language category.
The London production of the show ran for three years before it was launched in North America, beginning in Toronto prior to Broadway, where it was nominated for two Tony Awards.