Joe Scott Penhall (born 1967) is an English-Australian playwright and screenwriter, best known for his award-winning stage play ''
Blue/Orange'', the award-winning West End musical
''Sunny Afternoon'' and creating the
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
original series
''Mindhunter''.
Early life
Penhall was born in London, and raised in
Melbourne, Australia
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metropol ...
.
Career
Penhall's first major play, ''Some Voices'', premiered at the
Royal Court Theatre
The Royal Court Theatre, at different times known as the Court Theatre, the New Chelsea Theatre, and the Belgravia Theatre, is a non-commercial West End theatre in Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, Englan ...
's upstairs playing space in London in 1994. It was very well-received, winning the
John Whiting Award
Between 1965 and 2010, the John Whiting Award (from 2007 renamed the Peter Wolff Trust Supports the John Whiting Award) was awarded annually to a British or Commonwealth playwright who, in the opinion of a consortium of UK theatres, showed a new ...
, and has since been played off-Broadway twice. In 2000 Penhall adapted the play for
a film with the same name directed by
Simon Cellan Jones
Simon Cellan Jones (born January 1963) is a British television director and film director.
Career
Simon Cellan Jones began his career as a production assistant in the mid-1980s, working on series such as ''Edge of Darkness''. By the late 1980s he ...
, starring
Daniel Craig
Daniel Wroughton Craig (born 2 March 1968) is an English-American actor who gained international fame playing the secret agent James Bond in the film series, beginning with '' Casino Royale'' (2006) and in four further instalments, up to '' ...
and
Kelly Macdonald
Kelly Macdonald (born 23 February 1976) is a Scottish actress. She is known for her roles in '' Trainspotting'' (1996), '' Gosford Park'' (2001), '' Intermission'' (2003), '' Nanny McPhee'' (2005), '' No Country for Old Men'' (2007), ''Boardwa ...
, which premiered at the Cannes
Directors' Fortnight
The Directors' Fortnight (french: Quinzaine des Réalisateurs) is an independent selection of the Cannes Film Festival. It was started in 1969 by the French Directors Guild after the events of May 1968 resulted in cancellation of the Cannes festiv ...
. Penhall returned to the
Royal Court Theatre
The Royal Court Theatre, at different times known as the Court Theatre, the New Chelsea Theatre, and the Belgravia Theatre, is a non-commercial West End theatre in Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, Englan ...
with his second full-length play ''Pale Horse'', which also played in the Theatre Upstairs and featured
Ray Winstone
Raymond Andrew Winstone (; born 19 February 1957) is an English television, stage and film actor with a career spanning five decades. Having worked with many prominent directors, including Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, Winstone is perha ...
, who had starred in ''Some Voices''. A dark play, ''Pale Horse'' tells the story of a bar keeper coming to terms with the sudden death of his wife.
Penhall adapted
Ian McEwan
Ian Russell McEwan, (born 21 June 1948) is an English novelist and screenwriter. In 2008, ''The Times'' featured him on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945" and ''The Daily Telegraph'' ranked him number 19 in its list of th ...
's novel ''
Enduring Love
''Enduring Love'' (1997) is a novel by British writer Ian McEwan. The plot concerns two strangers who become perilously entangled after witnessing a deadly accident.
Summary
On a beautiful and cloudless day, a middle-aged couple celebrate thei ...
'' in 2004 to
film
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
starring
Rhys Ifans
Rhys Ifans (; born Rhys Owain Evans; 22 July 1967) is a Welsh actor and musician. He was the frontman of Welsh rock music bands the Peth and Super Furry Animals. As an actor, he is best known for his roles in ''Notting Hill'' (1999), ''Kevin & ...
and
Daniel Craig
Daniel Wroughton Craig (born 2 March 1968) is an English-American actor who gained international fame playing the secret agent James Bond in the film series, beginning with '' Casino Royale'' (2006) and in four further instalments, up to '' ...
. That same year he also wrote the screenplay for BBC2's
BAFTA-nominated dramatisation of
Jake Arnott
Jake Arnott (born 11 March 1961) is a British novelist and dramatist, author of ''The Long Firm'' (1999) and six other novels.
Life
Arnott was born in Buckinghamshire. Having left Aylesbury Grammar School at 17, he had various jobs includin ...
's novel ''The Long Firm'' (1999), starring
Mark Strong
Mark Strong (born Marco Giuseppe Salussolia; 5 August 1963), is a British actor, best known for his film roles such as Prince Septimus in ''Stardust'' (2007), Archibald in '' RocknRolla'' (2008), Lord Henry Blackwood in ''Sherlock Holmes'' (20 ...
.
In 2000 Penhall's play ''
Blue/Orange'' began its run at the
National Theatre, directed by
Roger Michell
Roger Michell (5 June 1956 – 22 September 2021) was a South African-born British theatre, television and film director. He was best known for directing films such as ''Notting Hill (film), Notting Hill'' and ''Venus (2006 film), Venus'', as ...
and starring
Bill Nighy
William Francis Nighy (; born 12 December 1949) is an English actor. Nighy started his career with the Everyman Theatre, Liverpool and made his London debut with the Royal National Theatre starting with ''The Illuminatus! Trilogy, The Illuminatu ...
,
Andrew Lincoln
Andrew James Clutterbuck (born 14 September 1973), known professionally as Andrew Lincoln, is an English actor. His first major role was as the character Egg in the BBC drama ''This Life'' (1996–1997). Lincoln later portrayed Simon Casey in ...
and
Chiwetel Ejiofor
Chiwetel Umeadi Ejiofor ( ; born 10 July 1977) is a British actor. He is the recipient of various accolades, including a BAFTA Award, a Laurence Olivier Award, an NAACP Image Award, and nominations for an Academy Award, two Primetime Emmy A ...
. The play centres on two NHS doctors trying to deal with a sectioned young black schizophrenic patient; it was a huge success, winning Best New Play at the
''Evening Standard'' Theatre Awards,
Laurence 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 at the
Critics' Circle. It transferred to the West End at the
Duchess Theatre
The Duchess Theatre is a West End theatre in the City of Westminster, London, located in Catherine Street near Aldwych.
The theatre opened on 25 November 1929 and is one of the smallest West End theatres with a proscenium arch. It has 494 se ...
the following year. Penhall
adapted this play in 2005 for TV with a new cast. That same year he wrote and directed ''The Undertaker'', his first short film, starring
Rhys Ifans
Rhys Ifans (; born Rhys Owain Evans; 22 July 1967) is a Welsh actor and musician. He was the frontman of Welsh rock music bands the Peth and Super Furry Animals. As an actor, he is best known for his roles in ''Notting Hill'' (1999), ''Kevin & ...
and premiering at the London Film Festival.
Penhall's follow-up play ''
Dumb Show
''Dumb Show'' is a three-character play written by Joe Penhall. First published in 2004, the play centers around the story of an out of control former TV comic named Barry.
Performances
''Dumb Show'' first premiered at the Royal Court Theatr ...
'' was staged at the
Royal Court Theatre
The Royal Court Theatre, at different times known as the Court Theatre, the New Chelsea Theatre, and the Belgravia Theatre, is a non-commercial West End theatre in Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, Englan ...
in 2004, focusing on tabloid journalism. It was directed by
Terry Johnson. Penhall has called this a "small light play" as opposed to the "huge dark play" ''Blue/Orange''.
''Landscape With Weapon'', about the invention of a weapon of mass destruction, was first performed at the
National Theatre in 2007, directed again by
Roger Michell
Roger Michell (5 June 1956 – 22 September 2021) was a South African-born British theatre, television and film director. He was best known for directing films such as ''Notting Hill (film), Notting Hill'' and ''Venus (2006 film), Venus'', as ...
and starring
Tom Hollander
Thomas Anthony Hollander (; born 25 August 1967) is an English actor. As a child Hollander trained with the National Youth Theatre and was later involved in stage productions as a member of the Footlights and was president of the Marlowe Soci ...
and
Julian Rhind-Tutt
Julian Alistair Rhind-Tutt (born 20 July 1967) is an English actor, best known for playing Dr "Mac" Macartney in the comedy television series ''Green Wing'' (2004–2006).
Early life
Rhind-Tutt was born in West Drayton, Middlesex, the youngest o ...
.
Penhall spent six years working on ''
The Last King of Scotland
''The Last King of Scotland'' is a novel by journalist Giles Foden,
published by Faber and Faber in 1998. Focusing on the rise of Ugandan President Idi Amin and his reign as dictator from 1971 to 1979, the novel, which interweaves fiction an ...
'', even flying to
Uganda
}), is a landlocked country in East Africa
East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...
and meeting
Idi Amin
Idi Amin Dada Oumee (, ; 16 August 2003) was a Ugandan military officer and politician who served as the third president of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. He ruled as a military dictator and is considered one of the most brutal despots in modern w ...
's henchmen; however, he requested his name be removed from the film after other writers were brought on board. Penhall adapted
Cormac McCarthy
Cormac McCarthy (born Charles Joseph McCarthy Jr., July 20, 1933) is an American writer who has written twelve novels, two plays, five screenplays and three short stories, spanning the Western and post-apocalyptic genres. He is known for his gr ...
's book ''
The Road
''The Road'' is a 2006 post-apocalyptic novel by American writer Cormac McCarthy. The book details the grueling journey of a father and his young son over a period of several months across a landscape blasted by an unspecified cataclysm that ha ...
'' in 2009 for
a film starring
Viggo Mortensen
Viggo Peter Mortensen Jr. R (; born October 20, 1958) is an American actor, writer, director, producer, musician, and multimedia artist. Born and raised in the State of New York to a Danish father and American mother, he also lived in Argentin ...
; for this he received wide praise, scoring a 74% rating on
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, and was named by Variety Magazine as one of their Top Ten Screenwriters to watch.
In 2009 Penhall's detective drama ''
Moses Jones
''Moses Jones'' is a British television crime drama series first broadcast on BBC Two in February 2009. The series was written by Joe Penhall, directed by Michael Offer and produced by Cameron Roach. The series follows DI Moses Jones (Shaun Par ...
'', where he also served as executive producer, was shown on the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
, winning a BAFTA for make-up design and Best Screenplay at the Roma Film Festival in 2009.
In 2011 Penhall returned to the theatre with two plays: ''Haunted Child'', staged at the
.
Penhall's first stage musical,
. The musical won four Laurence Olivier Awards in 2015, including for
.
In 2018, Penhall's new play ''
.
Penhall is married and lives in London.
for ''Some Voices''
*1995: Pearson Thames Television Award for ''Pale Horse''
*2000:
''
*2009: Roma Film Festival Best Screenplay for ''Moses Jones''
*2015: Laurence Olivier Award Best New Musical for ''Sunny Afternoon''