Fred Lawless is a British playwright from Liverpool who writes mainly for the stage, but also for television and radio.

Fred Lawless was born in Dingle, Liverpool. He attended St Patrick's School in Toxteth before his family moved to Halewood. He later attended Wade Deacon Grammar School, Widnes.

After grammar school he attended Liverpool Catering College and trained as a hotel manager, eventually working in several Liverpool City Centre hotels. Several years later he gave up hotel management and ran a stall at the famous Paddy's Market in Liverpool. While working there he met Jonte Wilkins, and the two of them started the UK's first kissogram company,^[1] Champagne-a-gram, from an office in Aigburth. Shortly after Wilkins left for the US and eventually became the drummer for the British band a Flock of Seagulls.

Lawless continued to run the kissogram business for several years, eventually employing 30 staff. One of the kissogram staff he employed was Mal Young who worked for him as a Tarzan-a-gram. After leaving Champagne-a-gram Young entered the TV industry and eventually became producer of Liverpool-based soap opera Brookside. Many years later Young interviewed Lawless with a view to him joining the writing team at Brookside, but instead he chose to write for EastEnders. In addition to his TV work, he has also written for BBC Radio. Nowadays he works primarily in theatre and wrote the Christmas show at the Royal Court Theatre Liverpool from 2009 until 2016.

Lawless is a director of The Script Vault Ltd,^[2] a script registration service for writers who wish to protect their copyright.

He is a lifelong Everton supporter and season ticket holder.^[3]