Kenny Emson

Kenny Emson is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter. He was born in Essex and his writing mostly concerns itself with working-class narratives, exploring the lives of characters often neglected by the arts. He co-created, co-wrote and was associate producer on the BBC’s groundbreaking multi-platform murder mystery The Last Hours of Laura K which earned him a BAFTA Craft nomination in Digital Creativity and a number of other prestigious television awards. He adapted Agatha Christie’s The Coming of Mr Quin for digital media which was BAFTA CYMRU nominated for Best Game. 

In 2011 he was selected for the BBC Writers Academy where he trained under John Yorke and has gone on to write episodes of Doctors, EastEnders, Pheonix Rise and for BBC Radio 4’s Afternoon Play series. His stage plays include Rust, Terrorism, The Shit (all Bush Theatre); Plastic, Sirens, Quadrophenia (all Mercury Theatre); Our Nobby, Parkway Dreams (both Eastern Angles); Plastic (Old Red Lion) and Front (Queens Theatre, Hornchurch). He is a past winner of the Mercury Theatre playwriting prize, the Adopt a Playwright award, the Adrienne Benham award and has been shortlisted for both the Bruntwood and Papatango prizes. 

In 2019 he helped to create, and now runs, the Mercury Theatre Playwrights Development Programme which looks to nurture young writers from the East of England. He is a passionate supporter of writers from working-class backgrounds and has worked for the Bush Theatre, BBC, BFI, Leeds Playhouse, Royal Court and the Old Vic running writing workshops and script reading.