Jemma Kennedy

Jemma Kennedy is a novelist, playwright and screenwriter. Her first novel, Skywalking was published in 2003, and she has been writing for the stage since 2004. She was awarded a Jerwood Arvon Young Playwrights Apprenticeship in 2006 and was Pearson playwright in residence at the National Theatre in 2010.

Recent plays include: Maggot Moon (Unicorn Theatre); Genesis Inc. (Hampstead Theatre); The Grand Irrationality (Lost Theatre Studio, Los Angeles); The Gift for the New Vic’s Hoard Festival and Second Person Narrative for Tonic Theatre’s inaugural Platform play series. She has also written for the National Theatres Connections Festival. She is currently writing her first stage musical Electric Ladies for Universal Music.

Jemma’s first feature film, Captain Webb, was released in 2015. Adaptations includes Barbara Pym’s novel Excellent Women for Raindog/ BBC Films and Crooked Heart by Lissa Evans for Braven/ BBC Films. Jemma is developing Iris Murdoch’s The Sea, The Sea with Number 9 Films/Archery Pictures, and is writing original screenplays for Blueprint Pictures and Archery Pictures/BFI.

Jemma devised and wrote the National Theatre’s New Views playwriting course, and has taught many other writing classes including the National’s inaugural adult playwriting course in the Clore Learning Centre. Her book on playwriting will be published by Nick Hern Books in 2020.