Levi David Addai is a British playwright and screenwriter. He is best known for the award-winning Damilola, Our Loved Boy , [1] the critically acclaimed Youngers and his stage plays 93.2FM and Oxford Street.
Addai was born in South London to Ghanaian parents. [2] He studied at Brunel University. [2]
Addai wrote his first play, 93.2FM, as part of the Royal Court Young Writers Programme. [3] [4] It was performed at Royal Court Theatre in 2005, and then revived in 2006 before touring to Cardiff, Birmingham, Liverpool and Brighton. In a Times review it was said that "There is an enormous generosity in Addai's writing. He shows us the caring, supportive side of community.. this is a memorable and decidedly promising debut." [4]
Addai's second play, House of Agnes, premiered in March 2008 at the Ovalhouse in a co-production with Paines Plough. [5] A review in the Financial Times said "Addai writes his characters' most heartfelt emotions with the clarity and sincerity of a younger Richard Cameron." [5]
Addai's third play, Oxford Street, starring Ashley Walters and Daniel Kaluuya 'premiered at the Royal Court in May 2008, before transferring for a limited run in Elephant and Castle shopping centre. [6] [7] The Times in a review said "All the tawdry dazzle of London's most famous shopping district glitters in the third play by the sharp-eyed young talent Levi David Addai... This is a joyous hymn to our flawed, fabulous city." [7] Oxford Street was nominated for a Writers' Guild award in the "Best Play (Theatre)" category (2008); [8] and was nominated for the "Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre" category of the Olivier Award (2009). [9]
His play for Polka Theatre, I Have A Dream, ran in September 2011. [10] A new play, Blacklands, won the Alfred Fagon Award [11] (2011). [12]
In 2011, Addai wrote a short film, Micah, starring Daniel Kaluuya for the Channel 4 series Coming Up which highlights films made for television by new directors and writers. It was broadcast in August and screened at the Edinburgh Film Festival. The short led to his winning "Best Breakthrough Talent" at the CDN Diversity Awards [13] (2011). [14]
BBC Current Affairs commissioned Levi to write the drama My Murder starring John Boyega, [15] based on a gang-related honey trap murder which premiered on BBC3 on 26 March 2012. [16] My Murder won a Broadcast Awards (2013) in the "Best Single Drama" category; [17] it won "Best Drama" at the Movie Video & Screen Awards (2012); [18] it received a recognition at the 2012 Screen Nation Film and TV Awards for "Diversity in Drama Production"; [19] and was nominated for "Best Single Drama" at the 2013 Royal Television Society awards. [20]
Addai was lead writer, co-creator and associate producer of Youngers , an E4 critically acclaimed drama series, which was first broadcast on Channel 4 on 20 March 2013, and ran for two series. The Guardian in a review said, "Youngers has heart, conviction and a spring in its trainers so pneumatic it's surely only a matter of time before it crunks itself clean through the ceiling tiles". [21] It was nominated for a Screen Nation Film and Television Awards for Diversity in Drama Production (2014), a Broadcast Award for Best Multichannel Programme (2014), [22] and a BBC Radio 1 Teen Award for Best British TV show (2013). [23]
Addai's 90-minute BBC One drama Damilola, Our Loved Boy, [1] starring Babou Ceesay and Wunmi Mosaku, [24] tells the story of Damilola Taylor from the point of view of the Taylor family. It won the Best Single Drama BAFTA TV Award [25] and the Screen Nation Film and Television Award for Diversity in Drama Production. Other wins include the Banff Rockie Best Television Movie Award, [26] the CDN Best Drama Award [27] and the CDN Best Author/Creative Award. It was nominated for a BAFTA TV Award [25] for Best Writer, a Broadcasting Press Guild Award for Best Single Drama, and the Banff Rockie Special Jury Prize. [28] It has won at the inaugural Diversity Awards [29] and at the Movie, Video & Screen Awards. [30] Other nominations include best single drama for the Broadcast Awards 2018 [31] and the RTS Awards 2018. [32]
In 2016, the BBC announced they were producing an adaptation of acclaimed YA novels Noughts and Crosses , to be written by Addai, with Matthew Graham. They had to bow out and Toby Whithouse took over in 2018. [33] Addai's four-part serial Dark Mon£y , [34] starring Babou Ceesay and Jill Halfpenny, was first broadcast between 8 and 16 July 2019 on BBC One and on Netflix in 2022. It deals with the ordeal of a family of a sexual abuse victim.
Carnival Film & Television Limited, trading as Carnival Films, is a British production company based in London, UK, founded in 1978. It has produced television series for all the major UK networks including the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and Sky, as well as international broadcasters including PBS, A&E, HBO and NBC. Productions include single dramas, long-running television dramas, feature films, and stage productions.
World Productions Limited is a British television production company, founded on 20 March 1990 by acclaimed producer Tony Garnett, and owned by ITV plc following a takeover in 2017.
Roy Samuel Williams is a British playwright.
Joseph May is a British-born Canadian actor, who has appeared in television and film. He is best known for his role as Andy Button in the television series Episodes, Paul who was the boyfriend of Sam Colloby, in Casualty, Luke in I Live with Models and for voicing Thomas the Tank Engine in the US dub of the children's television series Thomas & Friends from 2015 to 2021.
Phyllis Logan is a Scottish actress, known for playing Lady Jane Felsham in Lovejoy (1986–1993) and Mrs Hughes in Downton Abbey (2010–2015). She won the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer for the 1983 film Another Time, Another Place. Her other film appearances include Secrets & Lies (1996), Shooting Fish (1997), Downton Abbey (2019) and Misbehaviour (2020).
Terry Johnson is a British dramatist and director working for stage, television and film. Educated at Birmingham University, he worked as an actor from 1971 to 1975, and has been active as a playwright since the early 1980s.
Oluwunmi Mosaku is a Nigerian-born British actress. She is known for her roles as Joy in the BBC Two miniseries Moses Jones (2009) and Holly Lawson in the ITV series Vera (2011–2012). She won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Gloria Taylor in the TV film Damilola, Our Loved Boy (2016). In 2019, she starred in the fifth series of Luther. In 2020, she starred as Ruby Baptiste in HBO's Lovecraft Country, and starting in 2021, starred as Hunter B-15 in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) television series Loki.
Claire Elizabeth Foy is a British actress. She is best known for her portrayal of the young Queen Elizabeth II in the Netflix drama series The Crown (2016–2023), for which she won a Golden Globe and two Primetime Emmy Awards.
George Peck is an English theatre director. He founded the Oxford School of Drama. He was the school's Principal from its inception in 1987 until August 2019.
Jack Thorne FRSL is a British playwright, television writer, screenwriter, and producer.
Founded in 1979, the Banff World Media Festival is an international media event held in the Canadian Rockies at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel in Banff, Alberta, Canada. The festival is dedicated to world television and digital content and its creation and development, and is owned and operated by Brunico Communications.
Thomas Jessop is a British actor. He is the first actor with Down syndrome to star in a primetime BBC drama, the first professional actor with Down syndrome to tour theatres as Hamlet, and the first to become a full voting member of BAFTA. In 2021, he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of the Arts by the University of Winchester and became an Ambassador to Mencap and to the National Down syndrome Policy Group.
Allan Cubitt is a British television, film, and theatre writer, director, and producer and former teacher, best known for his work on Prime Suspect II and The Fall.
Baboucarr Alieu Ceesay is a British actor. He is known for his role in Guerrilla. He also starred as the main antagonist Pilgrim in season 3 of AMC TV series Into the Badlands.
Damilola, Our Loved Boy is a British television film about the events surrounding the 27 November 2000 death of Damilola Taylor. The film aired on BBC One on 7 November 2016, and was written by Levi David Addai, directed by Euros Lyn, and starred Babou Ceesay and Wunmi Mosaku. The film received three nominations at the 2017 British Academy Television Awards, winning Best Single Drama and Best Supporting Actress for Mosaku.
Theresa Ikoko is a British playwright and screenwriter of Nigerian descent. Her play Girls, about three girls abducted by terrorists in northern Nigeria, won the Alfred Fagon Award and other awards.
Dark Money is a 2019 British drama miniseries written by Levi David Addai. The drama deals with the sexual abuse of a minor by a film producer, and the challenges his family faces thereafter when they receive hush money to keep silent. The series was screened in the United States in 2020 by BET+. In 2023, the series was adapted into the Indian Hindi-language series Kafas.
Eugene Khumbanyiwa is a Malawian South Africa-based stage, television, film and voice actor, popularly known for playing the role of Obesandjo in the 2009 Oscar nominated sci-fi hit District 9.
Juliet Gilkes Romero is a writer for stage and screen.