Achmed Abdullah, a pseudonym of Alexander Nicholayevitch Romanoff, was born of a Russian Orthodox father and a Muslim mother. He was raised in Britain and educated at Eton and Oxford. He served in the British Army in France, China and India. He is most noted for his pulp stories of crime, mystery and adventure. He wrote screenplays for some successful films. He was the author of the progressive Siamese drama Chang, an Academy Award nominated film made in 1927. He earned an Academy Award nomination for collaborating on the screenplay to the 1935 film The Lives of a Bengal Lancer.