Vinay Patel

Vinay Sunilkumar Patel FRSL (born 1986) is a British-Indian screenwriter and playwright. He is best known for writing the BBC drama Murdered by My Father.

Early life

Patel was born in Sidcup, South East London.[1][2] He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in English from the University of Exeter.[3]

Before writing, Patel worked as a corporate filmmaker and then a technician at the London-based Met Film School.[4]

In 2011, Patel graduated from the Central School of Speech and Drama with an MA in writing.

Career

In 2014, he wrote True Brits, a play juxtaposing the news of the London 2012 Olympics, with the 7 July 2005 London bombings. This led to his selection for the Bush/Kudos TV writing scheme and an original short commission for BBC iPlayer. In 2018, he wrote An Adventure, inspired by his grandparents, for the Bush Theatre.[1][5] Patel contributed Death is a Many Headed Monster to the BAME essay anthology The Good Immigrant.[6][7]

In June 2018, Patel was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in its "40 Under 40" initiative.[8] In 2022, it was announced the Yard Theatre would produce Patel's sci-fi re-imagining of The Cherry Orchard, directed by James Macdonald.[9][10]

Television

In 2016, he wrote BBC One's honour killing drama Murdered By My Father. It tells of an honour killing of a British Asian Muslim teenage girl, Salma (played by Kiran Sonia Sawar), by her father Shahzad (Adeel Akhtar).[11] It was nominated for a BAFTA TV Award for best single drama, and won the RTS Award for Best Single Drama. He has also written for the first series of The Good Karma Hospital and, in 2018, contributed the sixth episode of the eleventh series of Doctor Who, 'Demons of the Punjab', set during the Partition of India.[12][13]

The episode received high praise from fans and critics alike, and was announced as a finalist (nominee) in the category of Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form for the 2019 Hugo Awards.[14] At the Eastern Eye Arts, Theater, and Culture Awards, Patel won "Best Scriptwriter" for Demons of the Punjab.

Patel returned to Doctor Who, co-writing the fifth episode, 'Fugitive of the Judoon' with Chris Chibnall, for the twelfth series.[15] Jo Martin appears as a character named Ruth Clayton,[16][15] later revealed to be a previously unknown incarnation of the Doctor. Martin is credited as Ruth and with an "introducing" credit as the Doctor, as previous new incarnations of the character have been since 2005.[17] The episode featured the return of Jack Harkness played by John Barrowman, after a ten-year absence from the series. Barrowman's appearance was not publicised prior to broadcast.[17]

In November 2021, it was announced Patel would write an episode of Netflix's television adaptation of One Day.[18] The series premiered on 8 February 2024 on Netflix.

References

  1. ^ a b Tripney, Natasha (11 September 2018). "Playwright Vinay Patel: 'Putting on the play is not enough – it's who you get in the room'". The Stage. Retrieved 6 January 2018.
  2. ^ Kanchan, Suman (10 November 2018). "DOCTOR WHO: Demons Of The Punjab – Who Is Writer Vinay Patel?". Blogtor Who. Retrieved 29 August 2024.
  3. ^ Clark, Nick (30 August 2022). "Writer Vinay Patel on sending Chekhov into space: "I feel I've earned taking a swing"". Evening Standard. Retrieved 29 August 2024.
  4. ^ "Breakthrough Brits: Vinay Patel, Writer". British Academy of Film and Television Arts. 27 October 2016. Retrieved 6 January 2019.
  5. ^ Minamore, Bridget (26 July 2018). "Vinay Patel: 'I think people having their power dismantled is good'". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 January 2019.
  6. ^ "The Good Immigrant review – an unflinching dialogue about race and racism in the UK". The Guardian. 22 September 2016. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  7. ^ Shukla, Nikesh (2016). The Good Immigrant. London: Unbound. pp. Editor's Note. ISBN 9781783523955.
  8. ^ Flood, Alison (28 June 2018). "Royal Society of Literature admits 40 new fellows to address historical biases". the Guardian. Retrieved 3 July 2018.
  9. ^ "The Yard Theatre's new season kicks off with a classic Chekhov play… set in space!". 14 September 2022.
  10. ^ "Vinay Patel adapts Cherry Orchard as part of new ETT season".
  11. ^ Collinson, Gavin (4 April 2016). "Murdered By My Father: Interview with Writer Vinay Patel". BBC Writers Room. Retrieved 6 January 2019.
  12. ^ Laford, Andrea (15 October 2018). "Doctor Who Series 11: episodes 5 and 6 titles, synopses, photos". Cultbox. Retrieved 6 January 2019.
  13. ^ Sequeira, Gayle (17 November 2018). "Doctor Who's Newest Episode Is A Compelling Look At Partition-Era India". Film Companion. Retrieved 6 January 2019.
  14. ^ unknown, Cheryl (2 April 2019). "2019 Hugo Award & 1944 Retro Hugo Award Finalists". thehugoawards.org. Retrieved 8 April 2019.
  15. ^ a b Laford, Andrea (9 January 2020). "Doctor Who Series 12: new episode titles, writers and descriptions". Cult Box. Retrieved 9 January 2020.
  16. ^ "Doctor Who films scenes in Gloucester". BBC News.
  17. ^ a b Hogan, Michael (26 January 2020). "Doctor Who: Fugitive of the Judoon, recap: the best episode of the series, with surprise returns and killer twists". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
  18. ^ Yossman, K. J. (30 November 2021). "Netflix Commissions Five U.K. Series Including Re-Make of David Nicholls' 'One Day' and Abi Morgan's 'Eric'". Variety.