A former cinematographer, the British-born screenwriter developed fantasy-genre material for Paramount Pictures in the UK in the early part of his career.

Briggs' draft was cited as an example of strong action writing in Chris Gore's book The 50 Greatest Movies Never Made.

[1][failed verification] Briggs scripted the 2004 film Hellboy, sharing story credit with director Guillermo del Toro.

Briggs contributed an episode, "Heist Society", to the first season of the 2015 rebooted ITV Studios show Thunderbirds Are Go, produced by Weta Workshop and Pukeko Pictures.

Briggs explained the collaboration came from the two-month period he spent in New Zealand working on the still in-development movie Panzer 88 with Weta Workshop and was due to his lifetime love of Gerry Anderson shows.