Charlene James

Career Playwriting Her first play, Maybe Father, was short-listed for the Alfred Fagon Award in 2009, and received a reading at the Young Vic theatre in London. She took a post as writer-in-residence at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in 2013, where she focused on writing about teen mental health. She wrote Tweet Tweet for on a commission the Birmingham Youth Rep in 2014. The one-act play addresses issues of teen suicide and the pressures of social media. She was a finalist for the 2016-17 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, also honoring Cuttin' It.

James' play Bricks and Pieces was commissioned and performed in 2016 by Tiata Fahodzi in collaboration with the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. The play examines themes of family, loss, masculinity, as well as communication and its lack, and addresses the challenges of being a gay man from an African family in Britain. She co-wrote the seventh episode, Can You Hear Me?, with showrunner Chris Chibnall. The episode dealt with mental health issues, including examining past trauma for companion Yasmin Khan (Mandip Gill). She would later collaborate with Doctor Who alum Pete McTighe on his supernatural thriller series The Rising for Sky Max.

Plays

Maybe Father, 2009 Bricks and Pieces, 2016 Go Home, [short play, published in The Guardian] 2017 "Reclaim the Night", [monologue] in Snatches: Moments from 100 Years of Women's Lives: Eight Monologues, 2019

Awards and nominations