Topher Campbell

Topher Campbell is an artist filmmaker and writer who has created a range of works in broadcasting, film, theatre, television, performance, installation, exhibitions and archive. His works explores sexuality, masculinity, memoir afro-futurism and the city, particularly in relation to feelings sensations emotions and climate change. Campbell is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and a past recipient of the Jerwood Directors Award. He holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Sussex for his work in the arts and Black LGBTQ advocacy.

Early life Campbell was born in Coventry, England, to a Jamaican mother and an unknown African-American Father. Campbell has referred to his parents' relationship as "a love affair between his mother and a handsome stranger". His mother abandoned Campbell after a breakdown at the age of one and he would not reunite with her until he was 13 years old. In his 20's, Campbell was a "club kid" on the scene in London, Paris and New York, and worked as a model.

He was the first member of his family to go to University, attending the University of Sussex and graduating with a bachelor's degree in intellectual history.

Campbell has described himself as "acutely shy throughout [his] 20's and into [his] 30's", which caused him to learn to establish himself as "commanding decisive and clear" in "professional settings". Campbell X's Stud Life, and Ian Poitier's Oh Happy Day. He is a former artistic director of The Red Room Theatre Company and past chair of the Independent Theatre Council UK. In 2000, he co-founded rukus! Federation, a Black LGBTQ Arts collective with the artist Ajamu X. In 2017, he was longlisted for the Spread the Word's inaugural Life Writing Prize for his forthcoming memoir Battyman. He is currently on the board of Marlborough Productions

Theatre Campbell was selected for the prestigious Regional Theatre Young Directors Training Scheme at the age of 24. He was the first Black director to be awarded on the scheme.citation needed] He is a former artistic director of The Red Room Theatre Company and past chair of the Independent Theatre Council UK. This also included a collaboration with the architect Martin Kaltwasser to create the UK's first fully functioning recycled theatre and installation art work, The Jellyfish Theatre. The Jellyfish Theatre was nominated for the AKA What's On Stage Theatre Event of the Year Award, 2011 and the Architects Journal Small Projects Award.

Other work includes Unstated, a multi-media installation and performance, the Poverty Project, and the Red Room Platforms, a series of interactive arts and politics interventions.

Film

Campbell's films have appeared in festivals worldwide. His first film, The Homecoming (1995) about the artist and photographer Ajamu X commissioned by Black Arts Video Project, is a meditation on Black masculinity and sexuality, themes Campbell has continued to explore throughout his work. :282

Fetish (2018) In 2018 Videojam and The Barbican commissioned Campbell to create work for them. The resulting piece, FETISH, was inspired by the works of Jean-Michel Basquiat. In it, Campbell walks naked through the streets of New York City. Describing his process, Campbell stated:FETISH came about because I wanted to express more complex, nuanced and creative notions of my space in the world whilst also honouring the fallen. It's a film that I willed into being as a place for me to reflect on all the different masculinities and femininities inside of me and to offer a vision of humanity and humanness; amongst all the violence and degradation.

Campbell moved into television directing in 2004 after completing the BBC Doctors Directing Course. He went on to direct episode of Doctors for two years. He then directed Eastenders between 2007 and 2010.

Artist

Campbell has pursued an art career alongside his directing work. He created The Book of Politics for Transform Festival in Leeds. His work in theatre has continually experimented with installation. site specific spaces and mixed media experiences. He was awarded the Prospect Cottage Residency in 2022 and invited to screen Fetish at the British School at Rome.

Tate Modern

In 2024, Campbell was invited by Tate Modern to create an installation for the Transformer Rooms. My Rukus! Heart is an exploration of sexuality, the Black Queer Body, memory and an archive of emotion’ there is humour, sex and the preservation of Black queer life.

rukus! Federation In June 2000, Campbell and Ajamu X founded rukus! Federation, a Black Queer arts charity dedicated to presenting the best in work by Black Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (BLGBTQ) artists. The name, which "is a derivative of the word 'raucous and also draws on the name "Rukus [ . . . ] a well-known African-American porn star" was chosen in order to "present [the artists'] politics more playfully". In 2008 it received the London Metropolitan Archives' Archive Landmark Award. Projects related to the archive include the play Mangina Monologues.

In 2024 Topher curated “Making A rukus!” an exhibition for Somerset House. “Making A rukus!” told the story of the origins of rukus! Federation as an arts project culminating in the rukus! Archive

Influences Campbell has cited Derek Jarman, Isaac Julien and James Baldwin as important influences on his work. London Metropolitan Archives Award (2008) Small Projects Award (2010) Nominated for the Urban Intervention Award 2010 Nomination for the AKA Theatre Event of the Year Award