Kwame Kwei-Armah, Actor, Director and Playwright, Signs With CAA and Redefine Entertainment (EXCLUSIVE)
The British playwright, director and actor Kwame Kwei-Armah has signed with CAA and Redefine Entertainment.
He currently serves as the artistic director for the Young Vic in London and was previously artistic director of Baltimore Center Stage. Kwei-Armah most recently wrote “All Rise,” a musical about how Viagra came to market inside Pfizer, with “The Trial of the Chicago 7’s” Matt Jackson set to produce and Spike Lee on board to direct.
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As a writer and director, his original musical adaptation of “Twelfth Night,” written with Shaina Taub, opened at the Delacorte Theater in New York City to critical raves and was named one of Time Magazine’s 10 best plays and musicals of 2018.
Kwei-Armah also directed Kemp Powers’ “One Night in Miami” at the Donmar Warehouse in London — it went on to earn an Olivier Award nomination for best new play. He will direct the play “The Collaboration,” by Anthony McCarten, which will explore the creative relationship between artists Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol.
He is currently rewriting “Liberty Road,” a World War II action movie, with George Tillman Jr. directing for Chernin and 3000 Pictures.
As a cultural commentator and contributor, Kwei-Armah appears regularly on news and current affairs shows across the U.K., and has been a regular columnist for The Guardian.
He got his first break as part of the ensemble on the BBC medical drama “Casualty,” which aired from 1999 until 2004.
Kwei-Armah has received the Evening Standard Charles Wintour Award for most promising playwright, Screen Nation Award for favourite TV actor, 100 Black Men of London public figure award and the National Black Theatre visionary artist award.
He is a visiting fellow at Lady Margaret Hall and the University of Oxford; was chancellor of the University of the Arts London and awarded an OBE for services to drama in 2021; and listed as one of the 100 Great Black Britons in 2020.
Kwei-Armah continues to be repped in the U.K. by Sean Gascoine at United Agents; and attorney Linda Lichter at Lichter Grossman Nichols Adler Feldman & Clark. Redefine Entertainment is a new literary management company formed by partners Jairo Alvarado, Tony Gil and Max Goldfarb. Goldfarb will represent Kwei-Armah.
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