Kae Tempest

Kae Tempest (born 1985), formerly Kate Tempest, is an English spoken word performer, poet, recording artist, novelist, and playwright. he has released seven studio albums and many singles, as well as many collections of poetry, several plays, two novels, and one work of non-fiction. He has performed around the world, on tours and at festivals. Tempest came out as non-binary in 2020, then as a trans man in 2025.

Tempest attended the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology in Croydon, and began to perform under the moniker "Excentral Tempest". From 2008 until around 2011, he performed as a rapper along with two musicians in the band Sound of Rum. In 2013, he won the Ted Hughes Award for his work Brand New Ancients, and was named a Next Generation poet in 2014 by the Poetry Book Society. Tempest's albums Everybody Down (2014) and Let Them Eat Chaos (2016) were nominated for the Mercury Music Prize, and the poetry book titled Let Them Eat Chaos was nominated for the Costa Book of the Year in the Poetry category. His debut novel The Bricks That Built the Houses (2016) was a Sunday Times best-seller and won the 2017 Books Are My Bag Readers' Award for Breakthrough Author. He was nominated as Best Female Solo Performer at the 2018 Brit Awards. Tempest released his fifth studio album Self Titled in 2025, and his second novel, Having Spent Life Seeking, was published on 30 April 2026.

Early life and education Kae Tempest was born in 1985 in South-east London, and grew up in Brockley, South East London. He was one of five children, with a father who was a labourer studying to be a criminal lawyer,

Career Tempest first performed under the moniker "Excentral Tempest". In 2008, Tempest formed the band Sound of Rum, speaking his poetry to the music of guitarist Archie Marsh and drummer Ferry Lawrenson. His first single, " first single, Slow Slow", was released on 28 February 2011, and an album, Balance, on the Sunday Best label on 9 May 2011.

In March 2012 aged 26, he launched the theatrical spoken word piece Brand New Ancients at the Battersea Arts Centre, to great critical acclaim. The piece, performed to an orchestral backing, and the Offie for Best Production That Defies Traditional Categories.

His first play, Wasted, was published in 2013. The play, centred on three school friends who meet on the anniversary of their friend Tony's death a decade earlier, was staged in 2017 at Fortnight Theatre by Durham University students, and again in 2022 later by Why Not? Productions, at the Princess Royal Centre for Performing Arts in Guernsey.

In 2014, Tempest released the album Everybody Down (Big Dada, Ninja Tune), which was produced by Dan Carey and was nominated for the 2014 Mercury Prize.

In October 2014, Tempest published his first poetry collection for Picador, Hold Your Own. The collection was a commercial and critical success and its release coincided with Tempest being named a Next Generation Poet. It debuted at no. 28 on the UK Albums Chart, and was also released in book format (Picador). The album was also nominated for the Mercury Prize, this time in 2017.

Tempest was appointed as guest director of the 2017 Brighton Festival,

His song "People's Faces" was used for the Facebook commercial "We're Never Lost If We Can Find Each Other", created by the agency Droga5, and released on 9 April 2020. In October 2020, Tempest published his first work of non-fiction, a book-length essay, about people's "need to combat alienation through creativity" and live art. In it, Tempest wrote that he was inspired by Carl Jung's The Red Book, particularly his theory of that each person has an everyday ego as well as a "wild, inner spirit of the depths".

Paradise, Tempest's modern adaptation of Sophocles' Greek classic, Philoctetes, premiered at the National Theatre from 4 August to 11 September 2021. The all-female cast, featuring Lesley Sharp, was directed by Ian Rickson and performed in the Olivier Theatre.

On 4 July 2025, Tempest released his fifth studio album Self Titled through Island Records. The album features collaborations with Neil Tennant, Tawiah, Connie Constance, and Young Fathers. The album was the first to be released after his medical transition, so the first to showcase his deeper, more masculine voice.

His second novel, Having Spent Life Seeking, was published on 30 April 2026.

Touring and festivals

Since the release of Everybody Down in 2014, Tempest increased touring as a musician, playing at festivals and headlining shows with his live band, which in 2018 consisted of Kwake Bass on drums, Dan Carey on synths, and Clare Uchima on keyboards.

Tempest has toured extensively, including in Europe, Australia, and the US.

He has also performed at The Big Chill, Latitude, Shambala, and Glastonbury Festivals. Samuel Beckett, James Joyce, W B Yeats, William Blake, W H Auden, and Wu-Tang Clan.

Recognition and awards Critical reception Tempest has received wide critical acclaim for his written and live work.

Lyn Gardner, writing in The Guardian, commented of Brand New Ancients in 2012: "Suddenly it feels as if we are not in a theatre but a church... gathered around a hearth, hearing the age-old stories that help us make sense of our lives. We're given the sense that what we are watching is something sacred". In 2013, Sam Wolfson wrote in the same newspaper: "[He is] one of the brightest talents around. [His] spoken-word performances have the metre and craft of traditional poetry, the kinetic agitation of hip-hop and the intimacy of a whispered heart-to-heart... Tempest deals bravely with poverty, class and consumerism. [He does] so in a way that not only avoids the pitfalls of sounding trite, but manages to be beautiful too, drawing on ancient mythology and sermonic cadence to tell stories of the everyday".

A performance of Brand New Ancients prompted Charles Isherwood to write in The New York Times: "As gorgeous streams of words flow out, [he conjures] a story so vivid it's as if you had a state-of-the-art Blu-ray player stuffed into your brain, projecting image after image that sears itself into your consciousness" The society selects, once every ten years, 20 poets who are "expected to dominate the poetry landscape of the coming decade". Also in 2014, Everybody Down was nominated for the Mercury Prize,

Let Them Eat Chaos was nominated for the 2017 Mercury Music Prize. His accompanying poetry book Let Them Eat Chaos was nominated for the Costa Book of the Year in the Poetry Category in 2016.

At the 2018 Brit Awards, he was nominated as Best Female Solo Performer.

Personal life In August 2020, Tempest came out as non-binary, using they/them pronouns, and changed his name to Kae. In a 2023 BBC documentary, Tempest documented his experiences having top surgery and beginning to take testosterone, and also opened up about his mental health struggles as a touring musician. In 2025, Tempest came out as a trans man and began using he/him pronouns.

Tempest later said that he had experienced panic attacks on stage for many years before his transition, but had rediscovered the joy of performing live since transitioning. In December 2019, along with 42 other leading cultural figures, he signed a letter endorsing the Labour Party under Corbyn's leadership in the 2019 general election. The letter stated that "Labour's election manifesto under Jeremy Corbyn's leadership offers a transformative plan that prioritises the needs of people and the planet over private profit and the vested interests of a few."

In 2024, he participated in an event at the Roundhouse theatre in support of Medical Aid for Palestinians.

Publications Poetry collections 2012: Everything Speaks in its Own Way 2013: Brand New Ancients 2014: Hold Your Own 2015: What Day is Bin Collection? 2016: Let Them Eat Chaos 2016: Pictures on a Screen 2018: Running Upon The Wires 2023: Divisible By Itself and One

Spoken word performance 2012: Brand New Ancients – Ted Hughes Award 2013

2023: "Geronimo Blues" (Speakers Corner Quartet with Kae Tempest) 2026: "Flags" (Damon Albarn, Grian Chatten & Kae Tempest) 2026: "Irish Goodbye" (Kneecap featuring Kae Tempest)