Hanif Kureishi

Born 1954. British novelist, playwright and screenwriter.

Son of an Englishwoman and a Pakistani. He studied philosophy at King's College in London and worked for the Royal Court Theatre. He started his career as writer of pornographic texts under the pseudonyms Antonia French and Karim.

In 1976 his first play, Soaking the Heat, was staged at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs. Three year later appeared The King and Me produced at the Soho Poly and in 1980 The Mother Country, staged in the Riverside Studios' Plays Umbrella season. In 1981 he wins the George Devine Award for Outskirts and the year later he becomes Writer-in-Residence at the Royal Court. In 1983 Birds of Passage opens at Hampstead Theatre. In 1985 the film My Beautiful Laundrette Kureishi’s first screenplay, is released and nominated for BAFTA Best Screenplay Award. It wins New York Film Critics Best Screenplay Award and an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay. His next film is Sammy and Rosie Get Laid, released in 1988. His first novel The Buddha of Suburbia is published in 1990, and then adapted in 1993 for a 4 part BBC TV mini-series.

He writes and directs the film London Kills Me, released in 1991. His second novel The Black Album appears in 1995 (adapted as a film in 2009), followed two years later by a collection of short stories, Love in a Blue Time. One of his short stories is adapted into his third movie, My Son the Fanatic, released in 1998, same year of publication of his third novel Intimacy. In 1999 the play Sleep with Me is producted at the Royal National Theatre and a second collection of short stories, Midnight All Day is published. His latest novels are: Gabriel’s Gift (2001), The Body (2003) and Something to Tell You (2008). He also wrote the film Venus, which appeared in 2006.