Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1968 or 1969 (age 56–57) Watford, United Kingdom |
| Alma mater | University of Bristol |
| Occupations | Playwright, screenwriter |
| Awards | Susan Smith Blackburn Prize 2005 Behzti |
Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti (born in Watford in 1968 or 1969) [1] is a British playwright and screenwriter. [2] Her play Behzti (Dishonour) was cancelled by the Birmingham Repertory Theatre after protests against the play turned violent and death threats forced Bhatti to go into hiding. [3]
Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti was born into a working-class Sikh Punjabi family in Watford. She went to the University of Bristol to study Chemistry but graduated with honours in Modern Languages. Before becoming a full-time playwright and screenwriter, she worked in a hospital laundry and a women’s refuge. She has also been a waitress, actor, workshop leader and a carer. [4]
Bhatti's first play, Behsharam (Shameless), broke box office records at Soho Theatre and Birmingham Rep when it opened in 2001. [5]
In 2005, Behzti (Birmingham Repertory Theatre) won the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for the best English language play written by a woman. [6]
In 2010, her follow-up to Behzti titled Behud (Beyond Belief) [7] was co-produced by Soho Theatre and Coventry Belgrade and was shortlisted for the John Whiting Award.
In 2014, Khandan (Family) opened at the Birmingham Rep before transferring to the Royal Court Theatre. [8] [9]
In June 2014, her first anthology of plays, Plays One, was published by Oberon Books. [10]
Bhatti's other credits include Scenes from Lost Mothers (Clean Break); Silence (Donmar Warehouse); 846 (Theatre Royal Stratford East); A Kind of People (Royal Court Downstairs); Elephant (Birmingham Repertory Theatre); Dishoom (Rifco/Watford Palace Theatre); Fourteen (Watford Palace Theatre); the feature film Everywhere And Nowhere; DCI Stone, Radio 4; Londonee (Rich Mix); Dead Meat, Channel 4 and An Enemy Of The People, BBC World Service. [11] [12] [13]
She was a core writer on The Archers from 2012 to 2019, part of the team that created the ‘Helen and Rob’ domestic violence story. [14] She has also written for EastEnders and Hollyoaks.
In 2025, her adaptation of Sathnam Sanghera’s Marriage Material was produced at the Lyric Hammersmith [15] [16] and her play Choir opened at Chichester Festival Theatre. [17] [18] [ needs update ]
