Kwame Kwei-Armah

Kwame Kwei-Armah (born 1967) is a British actor, playwright, singer and broadcaster. In 2004 he became the first black Briton to have a play staged in the West End when his award-winning piece Elmina's Kitchen transferred to the Garrick Theatre in 2005.

Born Ian Roberts in Hillingdon, London, and raised in Southall, he changed his name after tracing his family history, through the slave trade back to his ancestral African roots in Ghana. His parents were born in Grenada.

He first achieved fame playing the paramedic Finlay Newton in the BBC drama series Casualty from 1999 to 2004. His other television credits include appearances in episodes of the Casualty sister series Holby City, the BBC's Afternoon Play, Between The Lines and The Bill.

For a number of years Kwei-Armah has been seen as a panellist on the arts discussion show Newsnight Review, he has also appeared on Question Time on two occasions and reported for The Culture Show.

His fifth play, Elmina's Kitchen premiered in May 2003 at the National Theatre, and was shortlisted in the "best new play" category at the 2004 Laurence Olivier Award's. In the same year Kwei-Armah received The Evening Standard Award for the Most Promising New Playwright of 2003. Kwei-Armah also appeared in the Original London production of Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens, which played at the Criterion Theatre, back in 1993.

In 2003 he appeared as a contestant on the Reality TV programme Comic Relief does Fame Academy and subsequently released an album, Kwame.

In 2005, Kwei-Armah was nominated for a BAFTA award for the television version of his play Elmina's Kitchen.

Kwei-Armah has recently been seen in an episode of the new BBC1 revival of Robin Hood and in the feature film Fade to Black opposite Danny Huston, Christopher Walken and Diego Luna. He is also a regular on TheatreVoice.

Plays

• Elmina's Kitchen
• Fix Up
• Blues Brother Soul Sister
• Hold On
• A Bitter Herb
• Big Nose
• Statement of Regret
• Let There Be Love