Yasmin Joseph

Yasmin Joseph
Born1991 or 1992 (age 33–34)
Camden, London
OccupationPlaywright
Notable worksJ'Ouvert (2019)
Notable awardsJames Tait Black Prize (2020)

Yasmin Joseph is a British-Caribbean playwright and screenwriter. She is best known for her debut play J'Ouvert, which premiered at the fringe venue Theatre503 in 2019, before moving to the West End.

Early life and education

Yasmin Joseph was born and raised in Camden, North London.[1][2] She is of Caribbean heritage, with a Dominican-Jamaican mother and a Vincentian father.[3] Her grandparents had come to the UK fas part of the Windrush Generation. One of her grandmothers worked as a nurse.[4]

Joseph studied English and drama at university.[3][4]

Career

Before becoming a playwright, Joseph worked in a variety of roles in the theatre sector. In 2015, she interned at New York Theatre Workshop in audience outreach and engagement.[1][3]

Jospeh has credited her participation in Soho Theatre's Young Writers' Lab as her first experience with playwriting. Pinch, which she wrote during this time,[3][5] was longlisted for the Alfred Fagon Award in 2015.[6] Having previously worked as resident assistant producer at Theatre503, Joseph applied and was selected for the theatre's 503Five scheme, becoming one of its resident writers in 2017. Joseph's debut play, J'Ouvert, was developed during this residency and subsequently premiered at Theatre503 in 2019.[7][8] The production was transferred to the Harold Pinter Theatre in the West End in 2021, making Joseph the second Black British female playwright to have her work staged in the West End (after Natasha Gordon).[9] J'ouvert was inspired by her childhood experiences, when her family was actively involved in creating carnival floats and taking part in the costume parade every summer.[4][10]

She has written for the Royal Court Theatre (as a winner of the Channel 4 Playwrights scheme),[8] Soho Theatre, the Actors Touring Company, and Clean Break.[8] She used her grandmother's experience as a nurse when she was hired by The Place Theatre in Bedford to write a drama based on memoirs compiled by the Retired Caribbean Nurses Association.[4][11]

Joseph is an alumnus of Sister Pictures' writer-in-residence scheme.[12] She has worked on writing screenplays, developing projects for Sister Pictures, and was a co-writer on the period drama series A Thousand Blows (released 2025 on Hulu and Disney +).[13][14]

In 2022, Joseph contributed a poem, Who Said Summer Was Fun!, for the anthology Joyful Joyful: Stories Celebrating Black Voices, edited by Dapo Adeola and published by Pan MacMillan.[15][16]

She is based in London.[10]

Writing credits

Key
† Denotes film or TV productions that have not yet been released

Plays

Year Title Notable production(s) Notes
2015 Pinch Unproduced Longlisted for Alfred Fagon Award (2015)[6]
2017 Do You Pray? 2017 - Theatre503 (Part of the "Rapid Write Response" programme)[17] Included in Routledge's anthology entitled Short Plays with Great Roles for Women (2020)[18]
The Place of Shining Light 2017 - Theatre503 (Part of the "Sahar Speaks: Voices of Women from Afghanistan" programme) [19]
2018 Sugar 2018 - Kiln Theatre Part of Mapping Brent Festival[20][21]
2019 J'ouvert 2019 - Theatre503
2021 - Harold Pinter Theatre 		Joseph's West End debut[9]
2020 Inside this box 2020 - Arcola Theatre; Omnibus Theatre (Clapham); Online Produced by Clean Break [22][23]
2021 First Winter 2021 - Online reading performed by members of the Retired Caribbean Nurses’ Association, Bedford. Produced in partnership with The Place Theatre Bedford, The Higgins Art Gallery & Museum, and University of Bedfordshire[24][11]
2022 Of the Cut 2022 - Young Vic [25]
2025 Citizens of Umi Unproduced Shortlisted for George Devine Award[26]

Television

Year Title Network / Production company Notes
2025-2026 A Thousand Blows Hulu, Disney + Guest writer and story consultant[13][14]
Major Players † Channel 4, A24 Co-written with Molly Manning Walker[27]

Audio

Year Title Station / Channel / Programme Note
2023 The Wound F**ked Up Bedtime Stories (for Adults) - podcast by English Touring Theatre Read by Tamara Lawrance[28]
2024-2025 A Proposal for Resisting Darkness National Prison Radio Audiodrama produced with Clean Break through workshops with inmates of HM Prison Downview; first performed inside the prison in 2022[29]

Recognition and awards

Year Award Category Nominated work(s) Result Refs
2015 Alfred Fagon Award Pinch Longlisted [6]
2019 Evening Standard Theatre Awards Most Promising Playwright J'Ouvert Nominated [30]
2020 James Tait Black Prize Drama Won [31]
2022 The Stage Debut Awards Best Creative West End Debut Nominated [32]
2025 George Devine Award Citizens of Umi Shortlisted [26]

References

  1. ^ a b Akunna, Nkenna (17 August 2021). "Finding joy, honouring spirit: Skin Deep Meets Yasmin Joseph". skindeepmag.com. Retrieved 6 March 2026.
  2. ^ Ilayda, McIntosh (21 September 2019). "J'Ouvert: Yasmin Joseph Brings Carnival To Life on Stage". GUAP. Retrieved 7 March 2026.
  3. ^ a b c d Jackson, Sophia A (1 June 2019). "Yasmin Joseph – interview". www.afridiziak.com. Retrieved 6 March 2026.
  4. ^ a b c d Armitstead, Claire (27 April 2021). "'I wanted to capture the joy': J'Ouvert writer Yasmin Joseph on bringing Europe's biggest carnival to the stage". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 6 March 2026.
  5. ^ "Cast announced for J'Ouvert at Theatre503". Theatre-News.com. 8 May 2019. Retrieved 6 March 2026.
  6. ^ a b c "2015 Award". Alfred Fagon Award. Retrieved 6 March 2026.
  7. ^ "J'Ouvert: Bringing Carnival to the Theatre503 Stage". Everything Theatre. 5 June 2019. Retrieved 6 March 2026.
  8. ^ a b c "Yasmin Joseph". Royal Court. 11 December 2020. Archived from the original on 18 June 2025. Retrieved 18 September 2025.
  9. ^ a b Bakare, Lanre (20 June 2024). "'We needed this': UK audiences thirsty for black British love stories, says playwright". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 6 March 2026.
  10. ^ a b Thompson, Jessie (16 July 2021). "Meet the young playwrights shaking up London's reopened stages". standard.co.uk. Archived from the original on 4 November 2021. Retrieved 18 September 2025.
  11. ^ a b Roffe, Erica (17 February 2021). "Bedford nurses to preserve and perform their story thanks to Arts Council collaboration". Bedford Independent. Retrieved 6 March 2026.
  12. ^ "About Us". SISTER. 31 July 2025. Archived from the original on 18 September 2025. Retrieved 18 September 2025.
  13. ^ a b "DISNEY+ REVEALS FIRST LOOK AT "A THOUSAND BLOWS" WITH MALACHI KIRBY, ERIN DOHERTY AND STEPHEN GRAHAM EMBROILED IN AN EPIC FIGHT FOR POWER IN VICTORIAN LONDON". Disney. 21 August 2024. Retrieved 6 March 2026.
  14. ^ a b "A THOUSAND BLOWS S2: First Look and Date Announcement | The British Blacklist". 8 October 2025. Retrieved 6 March 2026.
  15. ^ "Joyful, Joyful". www.panmacmillan.com. Retrieved 6 March 2026.
  16. ^ Dowty, Leah (6 December 2022). "Joyful Joyful: Stories Celebrating Black Voices - Just Imagine". Just Imagine - Training, consultancy and book supply to schools. Retrieved 6 March 2026.
  17. ^ Deb, Descant (26 May 2017). "Short Plays "The Subject" by Brian Eley And "Do You Pray" By Yasmin Joseph Impress at Theatre 503's Rapid Write Response Night!". The British Black List. Retrieved 6 March 2026.
  18. ^ "Short Plays with Great Roles for Women". Routledge & CRC Press. Retrieved 7 March 2026.
  19. ^ Ferris-Rotman, Phoebe (24 September 2017). "Yasmin Joseph, Playwright, Sahar Speaks: Voices of Women from Afghanistan". palindrome. Retrieved 6 March 2026.
  20. ^ Wild, Stephi. "Tricycle Theatre Announces Festival Of Young People's Work Across Brent". BroadwayWorld.com. Retrieved 6 March 2026.
  21. ^ "Mapping Brent 2018 - Production photos". Kiln Theatre. Retrieved 6 March 2026.
  22. ^ "Inside This Box — Clean Break". www.cleanbreak.org.uk. Retrieved 7 March 2026.
  23. ^ Jenner, Simon (10 July 2020). "Inside This Box". FringeReview. Retrieved 7 March 2026.
  24. ^ "RNCA (Bedford) - First Winter". The Place Bedford. Retrieved 7 March 2026.
  25. ^ "Of The Cut". Young Vic website. 30 July 2022. Retrieved 7 March 2026.
  26. ^ a b Raven, Paul (11 December 2025). "Martha Loader wins 2025 George Devine Award for playwriting | West End Theatre". www.westendtheatre.com. Retrieved 6 March 2026.
  27. ^ "Channel 4 commissions new drama Major Players from Molly Manning Walker and A24". www.channel4.com. 2 June 2025. Retrieved 6 March 2026.
  28. ^ The Wound | F**ked Up Bedtime Stories (for Adults). 28 October 2023. Retrieved 7 March 2026 – via shows.acast.com.
  29. ^ "A Proposal for Resisting Darkness — Clean Break". www.cleanbreak.org.uk. Retrieved 7 March 2026.
  30. ^ Thompson, Jessie (15 November 2019). "Meet the writers: this year's Most Promising Playwright shortlist". The Standard. Retrieved 6 March 2026.
  31. ^ "Vibrant carnival production wins drama prize | News". The University of Edinburgh. 29 September 2020. Retrieved 6 March 2026.
  32. ^ Wood, Alex (18 September 2022). "The Stage Debut Awards winners announced including Jodie Comer". Retrieved 6 March 2026.


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