Kwame Kwei-Armah is British playwright and director. In 2018, he was appointed Artistic Director of London’s the Young Vic, where he has directed Twelfth Night, Tree, Changing Destiny, The Collaboration and Beneatha’s Place. He was Artistic Director of Baltimore Center Stage (2011-18) and Artistic Director of the Festival of Black Arts and Culture, Senegal (2010), where he wrote and directed the opening ceremony at Senghor stadium.

For MTC he directed The Collaboration on Broadway at the Friedman Theatre. His other directorial work includes Jazz, Marley, Amadeus, Dance of the Holy Ghosts, The Mountaintop (Baltimore Center Stage), Comedy of Errors, Much Ado About Nothing, Detroit’67 (Public Theater, New York); The Liquid Plain (Signature Theatre, New York and Oregon Shakespeare Festival); Porgy and Bess (Baltimore Symphony Orchestra), One Love (Birmingham Repertory Theatre) and the Olivier-nominated One Night in Miami (Donmar Warehouse).

As a playwright, Kwame was the first African Caribbean to have a play produced in London’s West End (Elmina’s Kitchen). Kwei-Armah’s playwright credits also include: Beneatha’s Place (Baltimore Center Stage); Elmina’s Kitchen, Fix Up, Statement of Regret (National Theatre); Let There Be Love and Seize the Day (Tricycle Theatre).

Kwame was Chancellor of the University of the Arts, London (2010-2015), is Patron of Ballet Black and The Black Cultural Archives, Chair of Warwick Arts Centre Advisory Board and a Trustee of the Tate and the Black Equity Organisation in the UK. Kwame was awarded an OBE for Services to Drama in 2011, and in 2020 listed as one of 100 Great Black Britons