Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti

Bhatti speaking at the International Conference on Free Expression and Conscience, London, 23 July 2017.

Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti (born in Watford in ) is a British playwright and screenwriter. 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.

Life 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.

Work Bhatti's first play, Behsharam (Shameless), broke box office records at Soho Theatre and Birmingham Rep when it opened in 2001.

In 2005, Behzti (Birmingham Repertory Theatre) won the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for the best English language play written by a woman.

In 2010, her follow-up to Behzti titled Behud (Beyond Belief) 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.

In June 2014, her first anthology of plays, Plays One, was published by Oberon Books.

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.

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. and her play Choir opened at Chichester Festival Theatre.

Awards 2003 Nominated for the Race in the Media Award by the Commission for Racial Equality in the radio music/entertainment category for North East South West. Asian Women of Achievement awards, nominated twice 2005 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, a US-based award of $10,000 made annually to the best English language play by a woman, for Behzti

Plays Soho Theatre, London 2001 Behzti The Door, Birmingham Rep, Birmingham, UK 2005 Come to Where I'm From, , Listen to the Podcast at Painesplough Soho Theatre, London 2010 Londonee, Mukul and Ghetto Tigers and Lifeguard Productions Two Old Ladies, Leicester Haymarket 2000 Fourteen (2014), Watford Palace Theatre commissioned 'Fourteen' after Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti wrote a short play for 'Come To Where I'm From' in 2010, co-produced by Watford Palace Theatre and Paines Plough Khandan (Family) (2014), A Royal Court Theatre and Birmingham Repertory Theatre Co-production "A Kind of People" (2019). Premiered at the Royal Court Theatre London. "Marriage Material". Adapted from Satnam Sangerha's novel, premiered at the Birmingham Rep and Lyric Hammersmith.

Radio, Films, TV and Teleplays Heart of Darkness (Feb 2013), Stone, The Archers (2012), BBC Radio 4 Everywhere and Nowhere, feature film, 2011 Dead Meat, half-hour film produced by Channel 4 as part of the Dogma TV season Stitched Up, Commissioned Series for BBC1 Honour, single Film for BBC2 The Cleaner, hour-long film for BBC1 Lipstick and Nails, police drama for Great Meadow Productions Pound Shop Boys, originally commissioned by October Films/Film Council/Scottish Screen and developed through PAL Airport 2000, Leicester Haymarket / Riverside Studios An Enemy of the People, 2010, hour-long episode for BBC World Service Fourteen Units a Week, 2010, From Fact to Fiction, BBC Radio 4 Mera Des (My Country), BBC Radio 3 My Lithuanian Lady, BBC World Service Westway, over thirty episodes – 1999-2001 – of the BBC World Service Radio Drama Series Eastenders, BBC 1, nine episodes – 2001–2004