Zodwa Nyoni
Zodwa Nyoni
Lecturer in Scriptwriting
My profile
Biography
Zodwa Nyoni is a Zimbabwean-born playwright, screenwriter, director and lecturer.
Her debut play, BOI BOI IS DEAD won the Channel 4 Playwrights’ Scheme in 2014. It was also a finalist for the international Susan Smith Blackburn Prize 2014/15. Since, her plays have been produced in the UK, France, Germany, USA, Zimbabwe and South Africa.
Her most recent work, THE DARKEST PART OF THE NIGHT (Kiln Theatre) was shortlisted for the Alfred Fagon Award and George Devine Award 2021. It was ranked as one of the best plays of 2022 by The Independent (UK). Zodwa’s plays are published by Bloomsbury.
She has written two radio plays, LOVE AGAIN (BBC Radio 3) and A KHOISAN WOMAN (Drama on 3); and three short films: MAHOGANY (National Trust and 24 Design Ltd) and NOTES ON BEING A LADY (New Creatives / BBC Arts) and the award winning, THE ANCESTORS (BBC Films and BFI Network).
Zodwa was an international fellow on Oxbelly’s inaugural Episodic Program in Greece. She is a BAFTA Connect member and was on the BIFA mentoring programme.
She is currently working on Netflix’s spin-off series, CASTLEVANIA: NOCTURNE; under commission at Manchester Royal Exchange, Bristol Old Vic and Kiln Theatre; and writing an opera for Buxton International Festival.
Her work explores black diasporic identities, spirituality, ritual, race, class, politics, migration and liminality.
Teaching
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Reading Script 1 & 2 (PG)
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Scriptwriting Workshop 2 (PG)
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Creative Workshop 1 (UG)
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Writing Series Drama (UG)
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Postgraduate dissertation supervision
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Undergraduate personal tutor
Research outputs
PUBLICATIONS
The Darkest Part of the Night, Bloomsbury 2022
Ode To Leeds, Bloomsbury, 2017
Nine Lives and Come To Where I’m From, Bloomsbury, 2016
CONTRIBUTIONS
Black British Queer Plays and Practitioners: An Anthology of Afriquia Theatre | 2022, Bloomsbury | Mojisola Adebayo, Lynette Goddard (Editors).
Telling Our Stories of Home : International Performance Pieces By and About Women | 2021, Bloomsbury | Kathy A. Perkins (Editor).
Teach Like A Writer: Expert Tips On Teaching Students To Write In Different Forms | 2020, John Catt | Jennifer Webb (Editor)Public Art Encounters : Art, Space and Identity | 2018, Routledge| Martin Zebracki, Joni M.Palmer (Editors).
Career history
2023
Dramaturg | Fifth Word Theatre
COMMISSIONS
Castlevania : Nocturne , Series 1 & 2| Screenwriter | Netflix, Federation Studios
We Need New Stories | Nine audio dramas | Fifth Word Theatre | Dir. Anastasia Osei-Kuffour
The Ancestors (2023) | Short Film | Writer/Director | Prod. Redbag Pictures | Supported by BBC Films & BFI Network
2022
COMMISSIONS
The Darkest Part of the Night | Stage play | Dir. Nancy Medina | Kiln Theatre
2022 - Present
Dramaturg-in-Residence | Tiata Fahodzi
the UK’s leading British African heritage contemporary theatre company based in London.
2021
Co-curator, Re:Assemble | Paines Plough & 45 North |
a new dramaturgy professional development programme aimed at identifying, challenging, and evolving existing storytelling systems and professional practicesin theatre
2020
COMMISSIONS
The Happiness Project: Part 1 | interactive theatre and gaming |Pilot Theatre
2019 - 2022
Visiting Artist Lecturer | University of Manchester
Playmaking
2019
Visiting Artist Lecturer | Leeds Beckett University
BA (Hons) Theatre and Performance’s Pilot Project
2019
COMMISSIONS
A Khoisan Woman | BBC Radio 3 | Prod. Gary Brown
Notes On Being A Lady (2019) | Short film | Director | Funded by New Creatives, Arts Council England and BBC Arts.
2018- 2021
Workshop Leader | Freedom Studios
Designing and delivering an annual six-month playwriting course, Street Voices for experienced writers.
2018
Sessional Tutor | University of Warwick
Writing Out Loud: Slam, Spoken Word and Performance Poetics
2018
COMMISSIONS
Mahogany | Writer/Director | Short Film |Writer/Director
Producer. Triple Dot Makers | Commissioned by National Trust and 24 Design Ltd.
Of Home and Each Other | Site-specific and immersive audio experience | Dir. Rosie Poebright | Splash & Ripple & University of West of England (UWE)
2017
COMMISSIONS
Weathered Estates | The Roaring Girls and University of Hull | Dir. Amy Skinner
Modern adaptation of Euripides’ ‘Women of Troy’ set in Hull as part of the City of Culture.
Ode To Leeds (2017) | Dir. James Brining | Leeds Playhouse
2016
Phone Home | Upstart Theatre(London), Pathos Theatre (Munich) & Highway Productions, (Athens) | Dir. Yannis Kalavrianos, Michael Sommer &Tom Mansfield
Love Again: Sonnets in the City | BBC Radio 3| Prod. Nadia Molinari
Press and media
Manchester Writing School lecturer pens cult Netflix anime show
‘I felt unwanted’: Zodwa Nyoni on the immigration tales behind Nine Lives
The playwright’s monologue, staged at the Bridge theatre, reflects the anger and pain of refugees and asylum seekers
We are Leeds: slam poet Zodwa Nyoni’s shout-out to Yorkshire’s young voices
The Zimbabwe-born writer found her passion for words as a teenager in Yorkshire. Her new play, Ode to Leeds, explores its in-your-face poetry scene
How to make it in theatre as a playwright
The most powerful weapon in a wannabe playwright’s arsenal? Lists, and lots of them, writes Zodwa Nyoni