On set · FilmingMother’s PrideA British box-office feature
Founder · AI Innovator · Film · Author
Luke Jewitt
Same drive. Better direction.
Chapter IThe drive
I've always been drivenby something I couldn't name.
I grew up the eldest of three brothers in Essex, on construction sites with my dad from the age of fourteen. Quick, restless, a natural salesman, and never satisfied with what I had.
By my twenties I had a salon, a building business and money coming in. It wasn’t enough. I was living two lives, and the second one paid in cash and risk. In February 2015 armed police came through my door at dawn. In July 2016 a judge gave me ten years.
I served it in some of the hardest jails in the country, including the one the papers called the worst prison in England. I had a front-row seat to the two largest prison riots televised on national TV since Strangeways.
Gangs, spice and violence everywhere. I learned how that system really ran, earned the respect of the wings, and worked my way up a place built to break people.
I walked out on 19 October 2020 with a licence and a plan. Since then I’ve built three clinics, launched tokens that raised millions, built AI companies, and become a leading innovator in AI technology. Last year a psychiatrist finally gave the drive a name.
Same drive. Better direction. The parts the papers never knew are in the book.
Read about the book“These weren’t the cards I was dealt. These were the ones I chose.”
Chapter IIThe sentence
Ten years.The most violentprison in England.
In 2016 I was sentenced to ten years. I chose it, and I paid for it. I served it in HMP Bedford, then HMP Birmingham in the worst years it ever had, then open conditions. Along the way I had a front-row seat to the two largest prison riots televised on national TV since Strangeways. What happened in there is in the book.
Chapter IIIThe turn
Use the time.Don't do it.
I decided early that prison would not be wasted. The drive that put me there became the thing that got me out.
2016
Samaritans Listener
On call through the night for men in crisis.
2017
Debating champion
Winner and best individual, against university teams.
2017
University distinction
A degree-level module in philosophy, completed inside.
2019
The record corrected
The prime minister wrote a whole column about me. The Telegraph had to correct it.
The prime ministertook a swing.
“Ganglord”
“this shaven-skulled ganglord wallowing in his £140-a-day pampering session”What he called me
“Kingpin”
“This man was a kingpin of a sophisticated drugs importation and distribution network.”What he called me
“Nero”
“sprawling like Nero in his whirlpool bath”What he called me
The Daily Telegraph · 19 May 2019 · Boris Johnson
Read the column ↗“Letting drug dealers out of prison to go on spa breaks is criminally stupid”
“The case of convicted criminal Luke Jewitt, allowed out to undergo pamperings and visit aquariums, is an example of a justice system gone wrong.”
The correction the paper had to print
“was pushing huge quantities of cocaine and cannabis on to the streets”
“Mr Jewitt was in fact cleared of charges relating to cannabis.”
The prime minister wrote a whole column about me. It got the facts wrong. I was cleared of the cannabis, and the court found my role significant, not leading. I took it to the press regulator while I was still serving my sentence, and the Telegraph corrected it.
Chapter IVThe build
Grafting sincefourteen.
$50M+
Raised across the projects I've founded and built
1M+
Users served across my platforms
8
Ventures built since 2020
4
Feature films, consultant to on screen
Construction, then beauty, then crypto, then AI. I’ve been building something since I was fourteen. Every venture runs on the same drive that once got me into trouble, pointed somewhere better.
- 1986–2000Finding my feetBorn in Essex, the eldest of three brothers. Quick, restless, a natural salesman.
- From 14GraftingOn construction sites with my dad from the age of fourteen. Labouring, then a trade. Any job, any site, anyone paying.
- My twentiesBuildingMy own construction company, a tanning and beauty salon, a penthouse above it. Money coming in, and a second life paying more.
- 2015–2020InsideArmed police at dawn, then ten years. Two of them in the Green. Listener, debating champion, a distinction in philosophy.
- 2020BeautyOut in October. Retrained, got licensed, built three clinics and a training course.
- 2021–23CryptoHead of product at a London crypto firm, then token launches of my own, one after another. One presale alone raised $16.4M.
- NowAICompanies that put AI to work for real businesses.
- HoldingsInvestmentsA seafront resort site, a hotel outside Ronda, a drinks brand stocked in Harrods, a restaurant group in three countries.
Chapter VOn screen
On set · Mother’s PrideOctober 2024
From the storyto the set.
2026Cinema release
Mother's Pride
On screen as Taylor the Bailiff
Directed by Nick Moorcroft. Starring Martin Clunes, James Buckley, Mark Addy and Gabriella Wilde.
In UK cinemas from 6 March 2026. In the UK box-office top ten for weeks.
Watch it now
2019Cinema release
The Corrupted
Story consultant
Written by Nick Moorcroft, directed by Ron Scalpello. Starring Sam Claflin, Timothy Spall and Hugh Bonneville.
In UK cinemas from 10 May 2019.
Watch it now
Next
What’s coming
- On screen
- Major parts in Nick Moorcroft’s next two films.
- Producing
- I’ve funded film scripts, and a project of my own is in pre-production.
Sam Claflin, on the man behind his character in The Corrupted
“A real man who I was fortunate enough to have a chance to meet. He’s currently serving time in a prison somewhere in the country… It was, for me, an eye-opening meeting… being able to bend his ear about his experiences, and some of the stories he has to share.”
“What became very apparent in talking to this man in prison was that he believes that he made a mistake, and he is reformed.”
Chapter VIThe book
Working title
Crime andpunishment
From organised crime to organised mind.
Written inside on an iPhone, nearly a hundred thousand words. Gangs, a drugs epidemic and the two largest prison riots televised on national TV since Strangeways, in the most violent jail in the country, and how I read that system and worked my way up it. Then the diagnosis, at thirty-nine, that finally explained it all.
I was offered a book deal in 2021. I turned it down. I don’t do things the way the system sets them up, so I waited, finished the story, and I’m publishing it myself.
Be first to read the opening chapter
Same drive.Better direction.
Essex, England© 2026 Luke Jewitt