Freddie Highmore wrote in the television series Bates Motel.
Bates Motel is a 1987 American made-for-television comedy-drama horror film and a spin-off of the Psycho film series produced by Ken Topolsky , written and directed by Richard Rothstein , and starring Bud Cort , Lori Petty , Moses Gunn , Gregg Henry , Jason Bateman , and Kerrie Keane . Freddie Highmore . For five seasons , Highmore starred as Norman Bates in the A&E drama-thriller series Bates Motel ( 2013 -- 2017 ) , for which he was twice nominated for the Critics ' Choice Television Award for Best Actor in a Drama Series .