Adamson, Sam: - Sam Adamson is a London-based Australian playwright. His plays include Clocks and Whistles (Bush Theatre, 1996), Grace Note (Old Vic, 1997), Drink, Dance, Laugh and Lie (Bush, 1999), Southwark Fair (National Theatre, 2005), and Some Kind of Bliss (NT, 2006). He has written many adaptations, including A Doll's House (Southwark Playhouse, 2003), The Cherry Orchard and Three Sisters, and All About My Mother (from the Almodóvar film) which premiered at the Old Vic in 2007. His Frank and Ferdinand was programmed as part of 2011's National Theatre Connections Plays for Young People.
Bano, Alia: - Alia Bano studied English at Queen Mary, University of London, and taught A Level and GCSE English in Haringey. She joined the Royal Court's Young Writers' Programme in 2004. Her early work was read at Theatre Royal, Stratford East during the BritAsia Festival in 2005. She was subsequently invited to join Soho Theatre's Core Writing Group, and took part in the Royal Court's Unheard Voices programme in 2008. Her verbatim play Behind the Image, developed with Nina Raine, was presented during the Royal Court Rough Cuts season in 2008. Her work for the stage includes Gap, Hens, Rough Cuts, and Shades.
Blakeman, Helen: - Helen Blakeman is a British playwright and screenwriter from Liverpool. Her first play, Caravan (1997), won the George Devine. In 2008, she wrote the screenplay for the award-winning TV film Dustbin Baby, for which she won the British Academy Children's Award for best writer. Other plays include: Normal (2000) and The Morris (2005).
Clarke, Noel: -
Noel Clarke is the creative mind behind the British film hit Kidulthood and the sequel Adulthood. He has starred in TV programmes such as Doctor Who and was the winner of the 2009 Orange Rising Star BAFTA. Noel is one of the most dynamic and inspired people working in British film today.
Noel lives in West London in the area in which the story of
Kidulthood is set.
The feature film,
4.3.2.1, in which he stars, directs and produces, was released on 2nd June 2010. Bloomsbury published a novelization of this film using the same name,
4.3.2.1 in May 2010.
Davies, Molly: - Molly Davies, born in Norfolk, won the Westminster Prize for her ten-minute play No Fairy Stories (Soho Theatre). For young audiences, she has written Day One (National Youth Theatre), The Best Team Since the A Team (Southwark Playhouse) and My Days (Soho/Company of Angels). She is a graduate of the Royal Court Young Writers Programme and A Miracle was her first full-length play. Molly won the 2015 Harold Pinter Playwriting Award for her play God Bless The Child.
Graham, James: -
James Graham is a multi award-winning playwright and screenwriter.
His play
This House gained critical acclaim, enjoyed a sell-out run at the National Theatre's Olivier in 2013 and its 2017 West End revival was Olivier-nominated. It was chosen by popular vote as the best play of the 2010's by Methuen Drama.
James created theatre history when his two plays
Ink, about the early days of Rupert Murdoch, and
Labour of Love, a romantic political comedy, played in theatres next to each other in the West End in 2017. James won an Olivier award in 2018 for
Labour of Love and
Ink transferred to Broadway in 2019, receiving six Tony award nominations.
James' play
The Vote (Donmar Warehouse) aired in real time on TV in the final 90 minutes of the 2015 polling day and was BAFTA-nominated. His most recent television film,
Brexit: An Uncivil War (Channel 4/HBO) is nominated for a 2019 Emmy Award.
Grose, Carl: - Carl Grose was born in Truro, Cornwall, and is an actor and director, having worked with Kneehigh Theatre for the past fifteen years. He also co-founded the Cornish theatre and film production company, o-region.
Hall, Katori: - Katori Hall is from Memphis, Tennessee. Her play The Mountaintop was first produced to great acclaim at Theatre503, London, in June 2009, and received a transfer to the Trafalgar Studios, London, the following month. It won the Olivier Award for Best New Play in 2010, and opened in Broadway's Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, New York City, in October 2011. Her other plays include Hurt Village (Classical Theatre of Harlem Future Classics Reading Series, BRIC Studio, 2007), Hoodoo Love (Cherry Lane Theatre, New York, 2007), Remembrance (Women's Project/World Financial Center site-specific work, 2007), Saturday Night/Sunday Morning (Classical Theatre of Harlem Future Classics Reading Series, The Schomburg Centre, New York, 2008), WHADDABLOODCLOT!!!, The Hope Well and Pussy Valley. Her numerous awards include the 2007 Fellowship of Southern Writers Bryan Family Award in Drama, a 2006 New York Foundation of the Arts Fellowship in Playwriting and Screenwriting, a residency at the Royal Court Theatre in 2006, and the 2005 Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting award.
Leyshon, Nell: - Nell Leyshon is a novelist and playwright, born in Glastonbury and now based in Dorset. She has written a number of plays for BBC Radios 3 and 4. Her stage plays include Comfort Me with Apples, which won the Evening Standard Most Promising Playwright award in 2005 and an adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's short story Don't Look Now. In 2010, she became the first female playwright to be commissioned to write for Shakespeare's Globe since 1599.
Maxwell, Douglas: - Douglas Maxwell is one of the most popular and produced playwrights in Scotland. His other plays include Our Bad Magnet, If Destroyed True, Promises Promises and The Miracle Man. His Plays for Young People include Decky Does A Bronco, Helmet, Mancub and The Mother Ship. All are published by Oberon Books, now Methuen Drama.
