Tom Petch is a writer, director and producer.

Tom served with the British Army until 1997 leading small teams gathering Intelligence on the Khmer Rouge in the jungles of Cambodia and persuading the Bosnian Serbs to accept peace.

After leaving the military in 1997, he founded the UK’s leading line production company, Salt Film in 2000. He directed his first short film in 2004, and sold his first feature film script in 2006. In 2018, he founded film production company, Dark Wave Film.

His feature debut as director, The Patrol, won the Raindance Film Festival 2013. It was released in 2014 to four star reviews from Peter Bradshaw at the Guardian: ‘Petch's dialogue and the resulting psychological picture are tense and plausible. This is an impressive debut’ and Mark Kermode: ‘A former soldier's award-winning film about disillusioned troops in Afghanistan is impressive’.

He continues to work as head of production at Salt Film, supports veteran charities, most recently campaigning for the rights for Fijian veterans to remain in the UK. He has appeared on Sky, BBC and the Today programme.

He lives by the sea with his wife, four children and pug. When not working he can be found on his surfboard.

His first work of non-fiction published in 2022 by W H Allen - Penguin Books