Abi Morgan
Encyclopedia
Abi Morgan is a British playwright and screenwriter known for her works for television, such as Sex Traffic
and The Hour, and the film Brick Lane
. Her feature film The Iron Lady
is due for release in late 2011, and Shame
is to be released in early 2012.
in Newcastle upon Tyne
(now the Northern Stage). Her parents divorced when she was a teenager and her childhood was spent moving around the country while her mother acted in repertory theatre; she told The Scotsman in 2010 that she had attended seven separate schools during her childhood. Her sister is also an actress, and her partner is actor Jacob Krichefski.
After initial ambitions to become an actress herself, she decided to become a writer while reading drama and literature at Exeter University. She then took a postgraduate writing course at the Central School of Speech and Drama
.
, Southampton, and the same year she gained her first television writing credit on the continuing ITV drama series Peak Practice
, following this with a television play My Fragile Heart (2000) and a BBC 2 drama Murder in 2002, starring Julie Walters
.
She continued her work in theatre, writing plays for the Royal Exchange Studio Theatre
Manchester, the Royal Lyceum Theatre
and the Traverse Theatre
, Edinburgh. Her 2001 play Tender for the Hampstead Theatre
gained her a nomination as "most promising playwright" at the 2002 Laurence Olivier Theatre Awards. She was commissioned to write the single drama Sex Traffic
for Channel 4 in 2004, about a teenage girl trafficked from the Balkans to Britain. This drama, directed by David Yates
won the 2005 BAFTA
award for Best Drama Serial. She has since written a number of single dramas for television including Tsunami: The Aftermath (2006), White Girl
, part of White
(2008) and Royal Wedding (2010), which follows the 1981 Royal Wedding
through the perspective of events held in a small Welsh mining village.
Her first continuing drama series is The Hour (2011), set in a BBC newsroom during the
1956 Suez Crisis
, which has already been commissioned for a second series.
She has also written for cinema; her 2007 adaptation
of Monica Ali
's novel Brick Lane was critically acclaimed, but created controversy - some Brick Lane
Bengalis labelled the film "defamatory" and a planned royal film performance was cancelled. Her next film is The Iron Lady
, which stars Meryl Streep
as Margaret Thatcher
. She has also written a screen adaptation of Sebastian Faulks
's novel Birdsong
, and a smaller-budget production called Shame
, co-written with Steve McQueen
.
Sex Traffic
Sex Traffic is a British-Canadian two-part television drama directed by David Yates, written by Abi Morgan and produced by Veronica Castillo and Derek Wax...
and The Hour, and the film Brick Lane
Brick Lane (film)
Brick Lane is an award-winning 2007 British drama film directed by Sarah Gavron and adapted from the novel of the same name by Monica Ali. The screenplay was adapted from the novel by Laura Jones and Abi Morgan, and Tannishtha Chatterjee played the lead role...
. Her feature film The Iron Lady
The Iron Lady (film)
The Iron Lady is an upcoming biographical film about former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, portrayed by Meryl Streep. Thatcher's husband, Denis Thatcher, will be portrayed by Jim Broadbent, and Thatcher's longest-serving cabinet member and eventual deputy, Geoffrey Howe, will be...
is due for release in late 2011, and Shame
Shame (2011 film)
Shame is an erotic drama film co-written and directed by Steve McQueen, starring Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan. Shame was co-produced by Film4 and See-Saw Films...
is to be released in early 2012.
Early life
Morgan is the daughter of actress Pat England and theatre director Gareth Morgan, who was director of the Gulbenkian TheatreNorthern Stage, Newcastle upon Tyne
Northern Stage is a theatre and producing theatre company based in Newcastle upon Tyne. It is adjacent to Newcastle University's city centre campus on King's Walk, opposite the students' union building. It hosts various local, national and international productions in addition to those produced by...
in Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...
(now the Northern Stage). Her parents divorced when she was a teenager and her childhood was spent moving around the country while her mother acted in repertory theatre; she told The Scotsman in 2010 that she had attended seven separate schools during her childhood. Her sister is also an actress, and her partner is actor Jacob Krichefski.
After initial ambitions to become an actress herself, she decided to become a writer while reading drama and literature at Exeter University. She then took a postgraduate writing course at the Central School of Speech and Drama
Central School of Speech and Drama
The Central School of Speech and Drama was founded in London in 1906 by Elsie Fogerty to offer a new form of training in speech and drama for young actors and other students...
.
Writing career
Having not dared to show any of her writing "to anyone for five years", her first professional stage credit was in 1998 with Skinned at the Nuffield TheatreNuffield Theatre
Nuffield Theatre may refer to:* The Nuffield Theatre at the Lancaster University* The Nuffield Theatre at the University of Southampton...
, Southampton, and the same year she gained her first television writing credit on the continuing ITV drama series Peak Practice
Peak Practice
Peak Practice is a British drama series about a GP surgery in Cardale — a small fictional town in the Derbyshire Peak District — and the doctors who worked there. It ran on ITV from 10 May 1993 to 30 January 2002 and was one of their most successful series at the time...
, following this with a television play My Fragile Heart (2000) and a BBC 2 drama Murder in 2002, starring Julie Walters
Julie Walters
Julie Walters, CBE is an English actress and novelist. She came to international prominence in 1983 for Educating Rita, performing in the title role opposite Michael Caine. It was a role she had created on the West End stage and it won her BAFTA and Golden Globe awards for Best Actress...
.
She continued her work in theatre, writing plays for the Royal Exchange Studio Theatre
Royal Exchange, Manchester
The Royal Exchange is a grade II listed Victorian building in Manchester, England. It is located in the city centre on the land bounded by St Ann’s Square, Exchange Street, Market Street, Cross Street and Old Bank Street...
Manchester, the Royal Lyceum Theatre
Royal Lyceum Theatre
The Royal Lyceum Theatre is a 658 seat theatre in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, named after the Theatre Royal Lyceum and English Opera House, the residence at the time of legendary Shakespearean actor Henry Irving. It was built in 1883 by architect C. J. Phipps at a cost of UK£17,000 on behalf...
and the Traverse Theatre
Traverse Theatre
The Traverse Theatre is a theatre in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was founded in 1963.The Traverse Theatre commissions and develops new plays or adaptations from contemporary playwrights. It also presents a large number of productions from visiting companies from across the UK. These include new plays,...
, Edinburgh. Her 2001 play Tender for the Hampstead Theatre
Hampstead Theatre
Hampstead Theatre is a theatre in the vicinity of Swiss Cottage and Belsize Park, in the London Borough of Camden. It specialises in commissioning and producing new writing, supporting and developing the work of new writers. In 2009 it celebrates its 50 year anniversary.The original theatre was...
gained her a nomination as "most promising playwright" at the 2002 Laurence Olivier Theatre Awards. She was commissioned to write the single drama Sex Traffic
Sex Traffic
Sex Traffic is a British-Canadian two-part television drama directed by David Yates, written by Abi Morgan and produced by Veronica Castillo and Derek Wax...
for Channel 4 in 2004, about a teenage girl trafficked from the Balkans to Britain. This drama, directed by David Yates
David Yates
David Yates is an English filmmaker who rose to mainstream prominence directing the final four films in the Harry Potter film series. He helmed the series' fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth installments, all of which became an instant blockbuster success and made him the most commercially...
won the 2005 BAFTA
British Academy Television Awards 2005
The 2005 British Academy Television Awards were held on Sunday 17 April at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London. The ceremony was hosted by Irish comedian and television presenter Graham Norton.-Winners:*Best Actor...
award for Best Drama Serial. She has since written a number of single dramas for television including Tsunami: The Aftermath (2006), White Girl
White Girl
White Girl is a 2008, BAFTA Award-winning BBC film produced by Abi Morgan, made as part of the BBC's White Season and portrays a white family who move from an area of Leeds that has predominantly White British inhabitants to an area of Bradford composed of inhabitants of South Asian heritage.The...
, part of White
White (BBC series)
White was a series of documentaries shown in March 2008 on BBC 2 dealing with issues of race and the changing nature of the white working class in Britain...
(2008) and Royal Wedding (2010), which follows the 1981 Royal Wedding
Wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer
The wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Frances Spencer took place on Wednesday, 29 July 1981 at St Paul's Cathedral, London, United Kingdom. Their marriage was widely billed as a "fairytale wedding" and the "wedding of the century". It was watched by an estimated global TV...
through the perspective of events held in a small Welsh mining village.
Her first continuing drama series is The Hour (2011), set in a BBC newsroom during the
1956 Suez Crisis
Suez Crisis
The Suez Crisis, also referred to as the Tripartite Aggression, Suez War was an offensive war fought by France, the United Kingdom, and Israel against Egypt beginning on 29 October 1956. Less than a day after Israel invaded Egypt, Britain and France issued a joint ultimatum to Egypt and Israel,...
, which has already been commissioned for a second series.
She has also written for cinema; her 2007 adaptation
Brick Lane (film)
Brick Lane is an award-winning 2007 British drama film directed by Sarah Gavron and adapted from the novel of the same name by Monica Ali. The screenplay was adapted from the novel by Laura Jones and Abi Morgan, and Tannishtha Chatterjee played the lead role...
of Monica Ali
Monica Ali
Monica Ali is a British writer of Bangladeshi origin. She is the author of Brick Lane, her debut novel, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 2003...
's novel Brick Lane was critically acclaimed, but created controversy - some Brick Lane
Brick Lane
Brick Lane is a street in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, in the East End of London. It runs from Swanfield Street in the northern part of Bethnal Green, crosses Bethnal Green Road, passes through Spitalfields and is linked to Whitechapel High Street to the south by the short stretch of...
Bengalis labelled the film "defamatory" and a planned royal film performance was cancelled. Her next film is The Iron Lady
The Iron Lady (film)
The Iron Lady is an upcoming biographical film about former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, portrayed by Meryl Streep. Thatcher's husband, Denis Thatcher, will be portrayed by Jim Broadbent, and Thatcher's longest-serving cabinet member and eventual deputy, Geoffrey Howe, will be...
, which stars Meryl Streep
Meryl Streep
Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep is an American actress who has worked in theatre, television and film.Streep made her professional stage debut in 1971's The Playboy of Seville, before her screen debut in the television movie The Deadliest Season in 1977. In that same year, she made her film debut with...
as Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
. She has also written a screen adaptation of Sebastian Faulks
Sebastian Faulks
-Early life:Faulks was born on 20 April 1953 in Donnington, Berkshire to Peter Faulks and Pamela . Edward Faulks, Baron Faulks, is his older brother. He was educated at Elstree School, Reading and went on to Wellington College, Berkshire...
's novel Birdsong
Birdsong (novel)
Birdsong is a 1993 war novel by the English author Sebastian Faulks. Faulks' fourth novel, it tells of a man called Stephen Wraysford at different stages of his life both before and during World War I...
, and a smaller-budget production called Shame
Shame (2011 film)
Shame is an erotic drama film co-written and directed by Steve McQueen, starring Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan. Shame was co-produced by Film4 and See-Saw Films...
, co-written with Steve McQueen
Steve McQueen (artist)
Steve Rodney McQueen CBE is a British artist and filmmaker. He is a winner of the Golden Camera at the Cannes Film Festival, a Turner Prize and BAFTA.-Early years:...
.
Plays
- Skinned (1998)
- Sleeping Around (1998) - co-written with Mark Ravenhill, Stephen Greenhorn and Hilary Fannin
- Fast Food (1999)
- Splendour (2000)
- Tiny Dynamite (2001)
- Tender (2001)
- Monster Mum (2005)
- Fugee (2008)
- Chain Play - Production II - co-written with Neil LaBute, Mike Poulton and Tanya Ronder
- The Night is Darkest Before the Dawn (2009), as part of The Great Game: AfghanistanThe Great Game: AfghanistanThe Great Game: Afghanistan is a British series of short plays on the history of Afghanistan and foreign intervention there, from the First Anglo-Afghan War to the present day. It is organised into three sets of four plays and draws its name from the 19th and 20th century Great Game, a geopolitical...
- Lovesong (2011)
- 27 (2011)
Film screenplays
- Brick LaneBrick Lane (film)Brick Lane is an award-winning 2007 British drama film directed by Sarah Gavron and adapted from the novel of the same name by Monica Ali. The screenplay was adapted from the novel by Laura Jones and Abi Morgan, and Tannishtha Chatterjee played the lead role...
(2007) - The Iron LadyThe Iron Lady (film)The Iron Lady is an upcoming biographical film about former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, portrayed by Meryl Streep. Thatcher's husband, Denis Thatcher, will be portrayed by Jim Broadbent, and Thatcher's longest-serving cabinet member and eventual deputy, Geoffrey Howe, will be...
(2011) - ShameShame (2011 film)Shame is an erotic drama film co-written and directed by Steve McQueen, starring Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan. Shame was co-produced by Film4 and See-Saw Films...
(2011) - Film adaptation of BirdsongBirdsong (novel)Birdsong is a 1993 war novel by the English author Sebastian Faulks. Faulks' fourth novel, it tells of a man called Stephen Wraysford at different stages of his life both before and during World War I...
(2011)
TV screenplays
- My Fragile Heart (2000)
- Murder (2002)
- Sex TrafficSex TrafficSex Traffic is a British-Canadian two-part television drama directed by David Yates, written by Abi Morgan and produced by Veronica Castillo and Derek Wax...
(2004) - Tsunami: The Aftermath (2006)
- White GirlWhite GirlWhite Girl is a 2008, BAFTA Award-winning BBC film produced by Abi Morgan, made as part of the BBC's White Season and portrays a white family who move from an area of Leeds that has predominantly White British inhabitants to an area of Bradford composed of inhabitants of South Asian heritage.The...
, part of WhiteWhite (BBC series)White was a series of documentaries shown in March 2008 on BBC 2 dealing with issues of race and the changing nature of the white working class in Britain...
(2008) - with Hettie Macdonald, won the TV Spielfilm Award at the Cologne ConferenceCologne ConferenceThe Cologne Conference is an international Film and Television Festival that takes place annually in Cologne, Germany. With about 5000 visitors, the Cologne Conference is considered as the best attended festival of its kind worldwide... - Royal Wedding (2010)
- The Hour (2011)
External links
- Theatre credits
- http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2009/apr/09/abi-morgan-taliban-play