Jamie Joseph Campbell (also known as Fifi la True) is a British drag queen and media personality who is the inspiration behind the musical ''

Everybody's Talking About Jamie ''Everybody's Talking About Jamie'' is a coming-of-age stage musical with music by Dan Gillespie Sells and book and lyrics by Tom MacRae. The musical is inspired by the 2011 British television documentary ''Jamie: Drag Queen at 16'' directed b ...

'' and its

film adaptation A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dial ...

Early life

Campbell was born in

Bishop Auckland Bishop Auckland () is a market town and civil parish at the confluence of the River Wear and the River Gaunless in County Durham, northern England. It is northwest of Darlington and southwest of Durham. Much of the town's early history surro ...

, County Durham. He was raised by his mother Margaret. His parents divorced when he was 7 years old. He came out as gay at the age of 14. Campbell attended St John's Catholic School from 2005 to 2011 and studied his A-Levels at Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College.

Documentary

In 2011 Campbell contacted a number of film production companies, proposing to capture the story of his journey to high school prom in drag. Director, Jenny Popplewell, alongside Firecracker Films produced ''Jamie: Drag Queen at 16'' for BBC Three as a part of their Extraordinary Me series.

Musical

Director Jonathan Butterell saw the documentary by chance and decided to turn it into a musical. He worked with writer

Tom MacRae Tom MacRae (born 6 August 1977) is an English television writer, author, playwright, lyricist, television producer, and screenwriter. He is best known as the creator of the television series ''Threesome'' and the book writer and lyricist of the ...

and composer

Dan Gillespie Sells Daniel Giles Gillespie Sells (; born 20 September 1978) is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist, best known as being the lead vocalist and frontman for the rock group The Feeling. Biography Sells and his brother James were co-parented ...

for the score. '' Everybody’s Talking About Jamie'' premiered at the Crucible Theatre in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

in February 2017. West End Producer

Nica Burns Lounica Maureen Patricia "Nica" Burns OBE (born August 1954) is a London theatre producer and co-owner with her business partner Max Weitzenhoffer of the Nimax Theatres group, comprising six West End theatres: the Palace, Lyric, Apollo, Ga ...

saw the show and brought it to the Apollo Theatre in November 2017 where it ran until September 2021. Alongside the West End production, there have been two UK tours and international productions in the USA, Mexico, Italy, South Korea and Japan. The musical was nominated for 5

Olivier Awards The Laurence Olivier Awards, or simply the Olivier Awards, are presented annually by the Society of London Theatre to recognise excellence in professional theatre in London at an annual ceremony in the capital. The awards were originally known as ...

and won Best New Musical at the

WhatsOnStage WhatsOnStage.com is a London-based website that provides information about, and offers tickets for, theatrical performances in the United Kingdom. It also organises the annual WhatsOnStage Awards. Founded in 1996, it has been owned by the Americ ...

Awards

Film

Warp Films acquired the rights to adapt the stage show for the on-screen musical version of the same name. Butterell, MacRae and Gillespie-Sells served in the same roles as they did for the original musical for the film adaptation.

New Regency Regency Enterprises (commonly referred to as Regency onscreen and copyrighting as Regency Entertainment (USA), Inc. in the U.S. and Monarchy Enterprises S.á.r.l. overseas) is an American entertainment company formed by Arnon Milchan. It was foun ...

and

Film4 Productions Film4 Productions is a British film production company owned by Channel Four Television Corporation. The company has been responsible for backing many films made in the United Kingdom. The company's first production was ''Walter'', directed by ...

produced the film and the distribution rights were originally with

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

via their acquisition of

20th Century Studios 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Disn ...

. Originally intended for a 23 October 2020 release, the film was pushed back because of the Covid 19 epidemic. The film was eventually released on 17 September 2021 by Amazon Studios on

Amazon Prime Amazon Prime is a paid subscription service from Amazon which is available in various countries and gives users access to additional services otherwise unavailable or available at a premium to other Amazon customers. Services include same, one- ...

. '' Everybody’s Talking About Jamie'' was nominated for Outstanding British Film at the 75th

BAFTA Awards The British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTA Film Awards is an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to honour the best British and international contributions to film. The cere ...

in 2022.

References

1994 births Living people 21st-century British LGBT people English drag queens People from Bishop Auckland English media personalities {{Improve categories, date=July 2023