Ryan Calais Cameron

Ryan Peter Martin Cameron,^[1] known professionally as Ryan Calais Cameron,^[2] (born 22 May 1988)^[3] is a British playwright, screenwriter, and actor. He is best known for his 2021 play, For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Hue Gets Too Heavy, which has seen two sold-out West End productions.^[4][5] The play received two Laurence Olivier Awards nominations and won two Black British Theatre Awards, among other accolades.

Cameron was born in Tooting^[2] and grew up in Catford, a majority working-class neighbourhood in Southeast London.^[5] Cameron is the only son and eldest of six children born to his parents, who were of Guyanese heritage. His grandparents migrated to the UK as part of the Windrush generation.^[6] As a child, Cameron briefly moved to Martinique with his family in 1999 before returning to London after a year.^[7]

Cameron has spoken about wanting to become an actor since his childhood.^[8] His early experience of acting was through attending classes at Albany Theatre as a teenager.^[9] However, Cameron did not always feel an affinity towards the theatre. "This theatre thing isn't made for me; it isn't speaking to me. They don't sound like me either", said Cameron of his experience of school trips to the theatre.^[10] Growing up in a predominantly working-class area, he was instead encouraged to pursue a more traditional trade^[11][9] and as such he trained as an electrician after leaving school.^[12]

Cameron returned to college at 19 and rediscovered his passion for acting. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Acting from Arts University Bournemouth in 2011.^[13] He later received an honorary fellowship from the university in 2023.^[14]

Cameron studied acting at university and pursued this path professionally before he started writing, which he is now most well known for. Having had no personal connections in the industry, Cameron first sought acting opportunities by cold-contacting his favourite actors to ask for advice. One of such actors, Jimmy Akingbola, responded by encouraging Cameron to compete in the Monologue Slam competition that he was hosting. Cameron not only won the competition but also got noticed by agents and casting directors in attendance. It was through this competition that Cameron met director Clint Dyer, who eventually cast him in The Westbridge (written by Rachel De-lahay), staged at Royal Court Theatre in 2011.^[9][11][15] This was Cameron's first acting gig after graduating from university. He went on to secure stage as well as TV roles. His notable acting credits include Luther, Casualty, and Jekyll and Hyde.^[13]

Cameron was inspired to start writing as he notices a lack of authentic, nuanced Black British representation as well as a lack of opportunity for Black performers in British theatre.^[16][11] While this has driven many of his contemporaries to seek stage opportunities in the US, Cameron chose instead to create original works that could create opportunities for Black actors like himself.^[5] He said in an interview in 2025: "I was always that person online saying, 'someone needs to write this idea for us'. So I thought, I'm just gonna have a go, and if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. But at least I can satisfy that creativity in my mind that's looking for something more than what I'm being offered."^[5] Cameron's writing is also guided by the ambition to bring more Black British and working-class audience to the theatre. Cameron believes that authentic stories is key to this: "if I can create stories for the people I meet on my street, then I'm positive I can get those people into the theatre".^[15]

Cameron's first major work was Timbuktu (2016), which was first staged as part of Bush Theatre's Black Lives Black Words Festival.^[17][14] He went on to write Rhapsody (2018), Typical (2019), followed by major West End hits, For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Hue Gets Too Heavy (2021) and Retrograde (2023).

In addition to plays, Cameron has also been a guest writer on a number of TV series, namely The Flatshare, Boarders, and Queenie.^[13]

In 2019, Cameron received a writer’s fellowship from Theatre Centre,^[18] where he also became a resident writer^[19] and wrote Human Nurture, premiered in Sheffield and toured across the UK in 2022.^[20]

In 2021, Cameron was an associate artist on the Artists of Change programme at Albany Theatre,^[21] where he had previously had acting classes as a teenager.^[9] Cameron is currently an associate playwright at Royal Court Theatre.^[22]

Cameron first became aware of Sidney Poitier, the first Black man to win the Oscar for Best Actor, when Poitier was awarded with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama in 2009. The playwright became particularly interested in Poitier's experiences of the Red Scare and McCarthyism and how that affected Poitier's career.^[2] In 2018, Cameron won the Off West End's Adopt a Playwright award for his play Rhapsody, staged at the Arcola Theatre. The prize money from the scheme allowed him to create a new play, and thus Cameron started researching and writing Retrograde, inspired by the career of Sidney Poitier.^[23] The play was first read by a full cast on stage in 2019, starring Ivanno Jeremiah as Poitier.^[24] Retrograde was premiered at Kiln Theatre in 2023, with Jeremiah reprising his role. Jeremiah returned to the role again for the play's West End transfer to Apollo Theatre in 2025, with Colman Domingo as producer.^[8] Retrograde will be premiered in Australia at Arts Centre Melbourne in May 2026, produced by Melbourne Theatre Company.^[25]

Also inspired by his frustration with the lack of diversity and representation in British theatre, Cameron and his wife, Shavani Cameron, co-founded their production company Nouveau Riche in 2015, hoping to create roles for young Black actors beyond the stereotypes of gangsters and drug dealers.^[16][26] In addition to Cameron's original works, Nouveau Riche has also produced plays written by other emerging Black British authors, notably Jessica Hagen.^[27] The company has also worked with Lewisham Council to organise the annual SEEN festival, which has platformed many Black performers and writers and those from other underrepresented groups.^[28][29]

In 2018, Cameron married his wife Shavani (née Seth); they had previously acted alongside one another in The Westbridge (2011) at Royal Court Theatre.^[11] Shavani also works in the theatre industry as an actress and producer. The couple reside in London and have four children.^[12][10] Cameron converted to Pentecostal Christianity as an adult.^[6][30]

• Ryan Calais Cameron at IMDb
• Ryan Calais Cameron - JT Management
• Noveau Riche Production Company - official website