Distinguished friends
Sukhpal Singh Ahluwalia
Riz Ahmed
Sughra Ahmed
Sir Keith Ajegbo
George Alagiah OBE
Professor Sir Michael Atiyah
Professor Peter Atkins
Julian Baggini
Dr Rob Berkeley
Richard Beswick
Professor Dinesh Bhugra CBE
Sir Geoffrey Bindman QC
Sir Nicholas Blake
Ian Blatchford
Lord David Blunkett
Dr Alan Borg CBE FSA
Mihir Bose
Alain de Botton
John Bowers QC
Rt. Hon. Lord Browne of Ladyton
The Duke of Buccleuch KBE
Rickie Burman
Saimo Chahal QC
Baroness Shami Chakrabarti CBE
Dr Jung Chang
Stephen Claypole
Professor Robin Cohen
Professor Linda Colley CBE
Professor David Crystal
Prakash Daswani
Lord Navnit Dholakia
Lloyd Dorfman CBE
Lord Alf Dubs
Rt. Hon. Lord Dyson
Graham Farmelo
Baroness Flather
Daniel Franklin
Dr Edie Friedman
Manjit S Gill QC
Teresa Graham CBE
Susie Harries
Naomie Harris
Professor James Hathaway
David Hencke
Sophie Herxheimer
Afua Hirsch
Lord Michael Howard
Clive Jacobs
Sir Adrian Johns KCB CBE DL
Shobu Kapoor
Jackie Kay
Ayub Khan-Din
Professor Francesca Klug OBE
Sir Hans Kornberg FRS
Tony Kushner
Kwasi Kwarteng
Kwame Kwei-Armah OBE
David Kynaston
Brian Lambkin
Lord Anthony Lester QC
Joanna Lumley OBE
Michael Mansfield QC
Heather Mayfield
Sue McAlpine
David Miles
Abigail Morris
Hugh Muir
Tessa Murdoch
Sir Vidia Naipaul
Sandy Nairne CBE
Bushra Nasir CBE
Susheila Nasta
Eithne Nightingale
John O’Farrell
Julia Onslow-Cole
John Orna-Ornstein
Lord Herman Ouseley
Panikos Panayi
Lord Bhikhu Parekh
David Pearl
Caryl Phillips
Dr Mike Phillips OBE FRSL FRSA
Trevor Phillips
Sunand Prasad
Cathy Ross
Sir Salman Rushdie
Professor Philippe Sands QC
Sir Konrad Schiemann
Rt. Hon. Sir Stephen Sedley
Saira Shah
Jon Snow
Robert Soning
David Spence
Dr Dhananjayan (Danny) Sriskandarajah
Stelio Stefanou, OBE, DL
Lord Dick Taverne QC
Andy Thornton
Robert Tombs
Lord Rumi Verjee
Patrick Vernon OBE
Edmund de Waal OBE
Iqbal Wahhab OBE FRSA
Yasmin Waljee OBE
Jake Wallis Simons
Sir David Warren KCMG
Iain Watson
Henning Wehn
Gary Younge
Benjamin Zephaniah
Kwame Kwei-Armah OBE
Kwame Kwei-Armah is a celebrated actor, playwright and director both in the UK and overseas. He has served as Artistic Director of the World Festival of Black Arts and Culture in Senegal, is Artistic Director of Centerstage Theatre in Baltimore, Maryland, USA and Chancellor of the University of the Arts, London. From 2018, he will be Artistic Director at the Young Vic theatre in London.
He was born in London as Ian Roberts. He changed his name in his early twenties after tracing his family history (through the slave trade) to his ancestral roots in Ghana. His parents were born in Grenada, then a British colony, and moved to the UK in the 1960s.
Kwei-Armah grew-up in Southall in the 1970s at a time when Asian families were moving in and white families were moving out, and he perceived animosity from the Asian community towards the Afro-Caribbean community. One day, at the time of the April 1979 Southall riots, his father came home after the evening workshift and took him out to see the Hambrough Tavern on fire. Kwei-Armah saw a police van arrive; when the police started to charge at the crowd using batons and shields, he ran home frightened. From the upstairs front room he saw the police chasing black and Asian boys along the street, followed by skinheads, who also had batons and shields, chasing behind the police. The event shocked him, making him feel that he was living in an alien environment, and reinforced his resolve to do well in his education. He later wrote about the event is his first play, A Bitter Herb.
Kwei-Armah’s 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 Awards. That same year, Kwei-Armah received the Evening Standard Award for the Most Promising New Playwright of 2003.
In June 2012 Kwei-Armah was awarded an OBE for Services to Drama in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.