Bonnie Greer, OBE FRSL (born 16 November 1948) is an American-British playwright, novelist, critic and broadcaster, who has lived in the UK since 1986. She has appeared as a panellist on television programmes such as ''

Newsnight Review ''The Review Show'' was a British discussion programme dedicated to the arts which ran, under several titles, from 1994 to 2014. The programme featured a panel of guests who reviewed developments in the world of the arts and culture. History ' ...

'' and ''

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'' and has served on the boards of several leading arts organisations, including the

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, the

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and the London Film School. She is Vice President of the Shaw Society. She is former Chancellor of

Kingston University , mottoeng = "Through Learning We Progress" , established = – gained University Status – Kingston Technical Institute , type = Public , endowment = £2.3 m (2015) , ...

Kingston upon Thames Kingston upon Thames (hyphenated until 1965, colloquially known as Kingston) is a town in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, southwest London, England. It is situated on the River Thames and southwest of Charing Cross. It is notable ...

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. In July 2022 she was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Life and career

Early life

Greer was born on the West Side of Chicago, the eldest of seven children born to Ben, a factory worker, and Willie Mae, a home maker. Greer's father was born to a family of

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

sharecroppers. He was stationed in Britain during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

and took part in the

D-Day landings The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

. Although she began writing plays at the age of nine, Greer originally set out on a legal career, but dropped out when her professor told her he did not think women should have a career in law. Instead she studied theatre in Chicago under

David Mamet David Alan Mamet (; born November 30, 1947) is an American playwright, filmmaker, and author. He won a Pulitzer Prize and received Tony nominations for his plays ''Glengarry Glen Ross'' (1984) and '' Speed-the-Plow'' (1988). He first gained cri ...

's supervision and at the Actors Studio in New York with Elia Kazan. Living in Manhattan's

West Village The West Village is a neighborhood in the western section of the larger Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City. The traditional boundaries of the West Village are the Hudson River to the west, West 14th Street to th ...

(part of

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

) in New York City in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Greer had many gay male friends who became seriously ill.

Since 1986

Greer visited Scotland as part of a production at the

Edinburgh Festival __NOTOC__ This is a list of arts and cultural festivals regularly taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland. The city has become known for its festivals since the establishment in 1947 of the Edinburgh International Festival and the Edinburgh Fe ...

in 1986 and has been based in Britain since then. She told ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, w ...

'' in 2006 that she owes her life to the move. At the time, she made the decision to migrate to the UK because of her need to "escape the shadow of death" and the declining theatre scene in New York City. She acquired British citizenship in 1997. She has worked mainly in theatre with women and ethnic minorities, and is a former Arts Council playwright in residence at the

Soho Theatre The Soho Theatre is a theatre and registered charity in the Soho district of the City of Westminster, in London, England. It produces and presents new works of theatre, together with comedy and cabaret, across three performance spaces. The the ...

and for Nitro, previously known as the Black Theatre Co-operative and now called NitroBeat. Greer has played

Joan of Arc Joan of Arc (french: link=yes, Jeanne d'Arc, translit= �an daʁk} ; 1412 – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the coronat ...

at the Theatre Atelier in Paris. She has written radio plays for BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4, including a translation of '' The Little Prince''. Her plays include ''Munda Negra'' (1993), concerning the mental health problems of black women, ''Dancing on Blackwater'' (1994) and ''Jitterbug'' (2001), and the musicals ''Solid'' and ''Marilyn and Ella''. The latter work began as a radio play broadcast in December 2005 (''Marilyn and Ella Backstage at the Mocambo'') after Greer watched a documentary on

Marilyn Monroe Marilyn Monroe (; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; 1 June 1926 4 August 1962) was an American actress. Famous for playing comedic " blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s, as wel ...

which mentioned Monroe's assistance to the jazz vocalist

Ella Fitzgerald Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, in ...

segregation Segregation may refer to: Separation of people * Geographical segregation, rates of two or more populations which are not homogenous throughout a defined space * School segregation * Housing segregation * Racial segregation, separation of humans ...

prevented the singer from working at certain venues, especially the Mocambo nightclub. Adapted for the stage, Greer's radio play was given a production at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2006 and was later rewritten and performed at the Theatre Royal Stratford East in 2008. The play was produced at the

Apollo Theatre The Apollo Theatre is a Grade II listed West End theatre, on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster, in central London.

, in London's West End, in November 2009. She is the author of two novels, ''Hanging by Her Teeth'' (1994) and ''Entropy'' (2009), and is working on a play for the National Theatre Studio. Greer was a regular contributor to BBC Two's ''

'', and has been a panelist on the BBC's ''

'' programme. She appeared on the edition in October 2009 that also featured Nick Griffin, then leader of the

British National Party The British National Party (BNP) is a far-right, fascist political party in the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in Wigton, Cumbria, and its leader is Adam Walker. A minor party, it has no elected representatives at any level of UK gover ...

. Commenting after the recording she called it "probably the weirdest and most creepy experience of my life". The encounter formed the basis for her opera, ''Yes'', written for the

with music by

Errollyn Wallen Errollyn Wallen (born April 10, 1958) is a Belize-born British composer. Life Errollyn Wallen moved to London with her family when she was two. While her parents moved to New York, she and her three siblings (one of whom is the trumpeter By ...

, and which premiered there at the Linbury Studio Theatre in November 2011. She was formerly director of the Talawa Theatre Company and has served on the boards of the

and the London Film School. She is also a former theatre critic for '' Time Out'' magazine. Greer's book ''Obama Music'', partly a musical memoir, was published by Legend Press in October 2009. Reviewing it in ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

'', Lesley McDowell said: "Greer expertly weaves in memories of her own upbringing in Chicago, with more humour than you might expect, along with a clear, defined passion for the music she grew up listening to. She wants to show, too, how both the place she lived in, and the songs she listened to, were full of unseen boundaries that had held people back – but also gave them something to fight against." Her biography of Langston Hughes, ''Langston Hughes: The Value of Contradiction'', was published in 2011 (Arcadia/BlackAmber Inspirations). Greer co-produced a documentary film, ''Reflecting Skin'' (directed by Mike Dibb) – on representations of black people in Western art – which was shown by the BBC in 2004. She is currently working on a novel about Rossetti. Greer's memoir ''A Parallel Life'' was published in 2014 and was described by Joy Lodico in ''The Independent'' as "the story of a journey deliberately and bravely taken against all expectations". Greer is a member of the Arts Emergency Service, a British charity working with 16- to 19-year-olds in further education from diverse backgrounds. She is a patron of the

SI Leeds Literary Prize The SI Leeds Literary Prize is a biennial award founded in 2012 by Soroptimist International of Leeds (SI Leeds) – a branch of the worldwide women's organization Soroptimist International – for unpublished fiction written by Black and Asian w ...

for unpublished fiction by Black and Asian women in the UK. She is also a board member of the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS). In April 2005, she was appointed to the

's Board of Trustees and completed two full terms; from late March 2009 she served as Deputy Chairman. In 2011, she accepted the post of President of the Brontë Society. She resigned in June 2015, following internal disagreements about the society's direction. Greer is a contributor to the 2019 anthology ''

New Daughters of Africa ''Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent from the Ancient Egyptian to the Present'' is a compilation of orature and literature by more than 200 women from Africa and the African diaspora, ...

'', edited by Margaret Busby. Greer also appears in the

Sky Arts Sky Arts (originally launched as Artsworld) is a British free-to-air television channel offering 24 hours a day of programmes dedicated to highbrow arts, including theatrical performances, movies, documentaries and music (such as opera perfor ...

TV programme 'Discovering Film', as one of its leading movie experts celebrating the lives and work of some of the most prolific and iconic Hollywood stars, and comments frequently about members of the Royal Family on various ITN documentaries such as Channel 4's ''Charles: Our New King''.

Honours and awards

Greer was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the

2010 Birthday Honours The 2010 Birthday Honours for the Commonwealth realms were announced to celebrate the Queen's Birthday on 7 June 2010 in New Zealand, on 12 June 2010 in the United Kingdom, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Sai ...

for services to the Arts. She received her honour from Prince Charles. In July 2022 she was appointed Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in London.

Selected works

Books

* ''Hanging by Her Teeth'' (Serpent's Tail, 1994), novel. * ''Entropy'' (Picnic Publishing, 2009), novel. * ''Obama Music'' ( Legend Press, 2009). * ''Langston Hughes: The Value of Contradiction'' (2011) (Arcadia/BlackAmber Books). * ''A Parallel Life'' (Arcadia Books, 2014).

Films

*''White Men Are Cracking Up'' (1996), screenplay)

Musicals

*''Solid'' *'' Marilyn and Ella'' (2008)

Opera

*''Yes'' (November 2011), Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

Plays

*''Munda Negra'' (1993)Bonnie Greer
at Doollee.com *''Dancing on Blackwater'' (1994) *''Jitterbug'' ( Arcola Theatre, 2001)

Podcasts

Radio plays

*''The Little Prince'' *'' Marilyn and Ella Backstage at the Mocambo'' *''Ferguson'' (2016)

TV

*''Siren Spirits'', Episode 4 (1994)"'Siren Spirits' White Men Are Cracking Up (1994)"
IMDb.

References

External links

Greer's contributor page
at ''The Guardian''.
Contributor page
at the ''New Statesman''.
"Abstraction of Wit in Black Heritage and Modern Times"
9 February 2010, ''Insights'' Public Lecture, University of Newcastle

Lecture video recording, 2 hrs.]
"Marilyn, Ella ... & Bonnie – Newsnight's kindest critic brings the strange-but-true tale of two icons to Edinburgh"
''Sunday Herald'', 6 August 2006. {{DEFAULTSORT:Greer, Bonnie 1948 births Living people 20th-century American women writers African-American dramatists and playwrights American emigrants to the United Kingdom American women dramatists and playwrights British dramatists and playwrights Black British television personalities Black British women writers Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom Officers of the Order of the British Empire Trustees of the British Museum English people of African-American descent African-American women writers People from Greenwich Village 20th-century African-American women Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature