Jasmine Lee-Jones

Jasmine Lee-Jones, sometimes credited as Jasmine Jones, is a Black British playwright and actress, known for her debut play, seven methods of killing kylie jenner ^{[note 1]}, which premiered at Royal Court Theatre in 2019.^[1]

Lee-Jones was born in 1998 in North London^[2] and grew up in South London. She took parts in youth theatres in her teens, starring in Globe Young Players' production of Dido, Queen of Carthage and The Malcontent when she was 16.^[3] She was a member of Royal Court Theatre's Young Writers programme from the age of 17.^[2][4]

Lee-Jones went on to study acting at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, supported by the Laurence Olivier bursary in her final year.^[5] She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 2019.^[6]

Lee-Jones has had training experiences with Royal Court Theatre from the age of 17 and it was at this venue that she would go on to make her professional debut as a playwright. In 2017, Lee-Jones was selected for a bespoke playwriting programme for young women called "The Andrea Project", in honour of the late playwright Andrea Dunbar.^[7] During the six-week programme, organised by Royal Court in collaboration with Out of Joint Theatre Company, Lee-Jones received training and guidance from award-winning playwright Rachel De-lahay, and started writing what was to become seven methods of killing kylie jenner.^[8][9] The play, often shortened to seven methods..., was further developed as part of the Jerwood New Playwright programme at Royal Court,^[10] where it was eventually premiered in 2019.^[11] The play has earned Lee-Jones several accolades, notably the Alfred Fagon Award, annually awarded to the best new play by a Black British author.^[12] The play was revived at Royal Court Theatre in 2021 and has also been performed internationally in Australia,^[13][14][15] New Zealand^[16], the United States,^[17][18] Canada,^[19] and Luxembourg.^[20] seven methods... has also been translated into Swedish and was toured across Sweden in 2022.^[21]

In 2020, Lee-Jones wrote black pain redux, a monologue performed by Paapa Essiedu at Young Vic as part of the venue’s 50th anniversary celebration.^[22][23] The following year, her second full length play, curious, was staged at Soho Theatre, with Lee-Jones also performing in the show.^[24]

In 2021, Lee-Jones was a finalist in the inaugural Gold and Ruth Harris Commission competition at the New York Theatre Workshop. The commission had been set up by Tony Award nominated playwright Jeremy O. Harris and awarded each finalist a cash prize of US$12,500 in support of their artistic endeavours.^[25] In 2023, Lee-Jones won the Windham–Campbell Literature Prize in the Drama category, awarded with a cash prize of US$175,000.^[26] She is the youngest person to achieve this accolade.^[27]

In 2017, while she was still a student, Lee-Jones was selected for the BBC writers’ room London Voices scheme.^[28][6]

Having broken into the theatre scene in 2019 with seven methods…, Lee-Jones was, alongside 13 other playwrights, commissioned by Headlong to write a short television play for BBC Four's lockdown series Unprecedented in 2020.^[29] Lee-Jones’s piece, batshit, a monologue delivered by Kae Alexander, was included in episode 5 and released exclusively on BBC iPlayer.^[30]

Also in 2020, Lee-Jones was commissioned by Young Vic to write a short play in collaboration with the homelessness charity Thames Reach.^[31] Due to the outbreak of COVID-19 and lockdown restrictions, the project had to be adapted and instead a short film was made. Home(body), directed by Milli Bhatia, was released via YouTube with a premiere on 28 January 2021.^[32]

In 2021, Lee-Jones was selected for BFI Flare x BAFTA Crew, a mentoring programme for LGBTQ filmmakers.^[33] Her mentor on the programme was Terence Nance.^[34] In 2022, Lee-Jones took residency at MacDowell, where she worked on a screen adaptation of her 2021 play, curious.^[35]

As an actress, Lee-Jones has appeared in E4's Dead Pixels (2021)^[36] and ITV1's The Long Shadow.^[37]

Lee-Jones's writing has been noted for its realism through her use of Internet speak, references to memes and pop culture,^[9] as well as Black British vernacular English.^[16] She was dubbed "Gen-Z Shakespeare" by Playbill Magazine in their review of seven methods... in 2023.^[4] Lee-Jones explained the realism of her writing, "my duty as a writer is to tell the truth of what I see around me as I see it and not be unhelpfully concerned with how it will be received by an audience. My primary focus should be reflecting the voices of those I see and know honestly."^[8]

Lee-Jones's work often explores serious topics such as racism and cultural appropriation while also "strik[ing] a comic tone". According to the playwright herself, this is partly to make it easier for the audience to consider polarising topics from a different perspective.^[38]

Lee-Jones has cited playwrights Lorraine Hansberry, debbie tucker green, August Wilson, Roy Williams, Jackie Sibblies Drury, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Trevor Rhone, and Andrea Dunbar as her influences.^{[2][39][40][27][9]}

Lee-Jones does not use social media, having left these platforms at the end of 2020.^[38]

• Lee-Jones, Jasmine (2023). seven methods of killing kylie jenner. Modern plays (Reprinted ed.). London: Methuen Drama. ISBN 978-1-350-27748-9.
• Lee-Jones, Jasmine (2021). curious. Modern plays (1st ed.). London: Methuen Drama. ISBN 978-1-350-29266-6.
• Lee-Jones, Jasmine (2020). "Jasmine Lee-Jones". In De-lahay, Rachel (ed.). My White Best Friend (And Other Letters Left Unsaid). London: Oberon Books. ISBN 978-1-7868-2901-6.

• Jasmine Lee-Jones at IMDb
• Jasmine Lee-Jones's profile on her agency's website