Joe Penhall

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Joe Penhall is an English writer. Born in London in 1967, he was called "one of the finest playwrights of his generation" by the Financial Times.

Penhall won the Laurence Olivier Award, The Evening Standard Award and the Critics' Circle Award for Blue/Orange, a play about the dynamics between a young black schizophrenic man and two psychiatrists in a London mental hospital. It premiered at the National Theatre in 2000, starring Bill Nighy, Andrew Lincoln and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Blue/Orange went to London's West End in 2001.

Also in 2000, Penhall adapted his Royal Court and Off-Broadway play Some Voices - about the impact of Schizophrenia on an average family - for film. That was directed by Simon Cellan-Jones and starred Daniel Craig and Kelly MacDonald. It premiered at the Cannes Directors' Fortnight.

Penhall adapted Ian McEwan's novel Enduring Love for a 2004 film starring Rhys Ifans and Daniel Craig, and wrote the screenplay for BBC2's four-part dramatisation of Jake Arnott's acclaimed East-End gangster novel The Long Firm.

Penhall's other plays include Dumb Show, Love and Understanding, Pale Horse, and The Bullet.

He has directed at the Royal Court Theatre, and his first short film The Undertaker premiered at the London Film Festival, starring Rhys Ifans.