Hanif Kureishi was born and brought up in Kent. He read philosophy at King's College, London. In 1981 he won the George Devine Award for his plays
Outskirts and
Borderline, and in 1982 he was appointed Writer-in-Residence at the Royal Court Theatre. In 1984 he wrote
My Beautiful Laundrette, which received an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay. His second screenplay
Sammy and Rosie Get Laid (1987) was followed by
London Kills Me (1991) which he also directed.
The Buddha of Suburbia won the Whitbread Prize for Best First Novel in 1990 and was made into a four-part drama series by the BBC in 1993. His version of Brecht's
Mother Courage has been produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre. His second novel,
The Black Album, was published in 1995. With Jon Savage he edited
The Faber Book of Pop (1995). His first collection of short stories,
Love in a Blue Time, was published in 1997. His story
My Son the Fanatic, from that collection, was adapted for film and released in 1998.
Intimacy, his third novel, was published in 1998, and a film of the same title, based on the novel and other stories by the author, was released in 2001 and won the Golden Bear award at the Berlin Film Festival. His play
Sleep With Me premièred at the Royal National Theatre in 1999. His second collection of stories,
Midnight All Day, was published in 2000.
Gabriel's Gift, his fourth novel, was published in 2001.
The Body and Seven Stories and
Dreaming and Scheming, a collection of essays, were published in 2002. His screenplay
The Mother was directed by Roger Michell and released in 2003. In 2004 he published his play
When The Night Begins and a memoir,
My Ear At His Heart. A second collection of essays,
The Word and the Bomb, followed in 2005. His screenplay
Venus was directed by Roger Michell in 2006. His novel
Something to Tell You was published in 2008.In July 2009 his adaptation of his novel,
The Black Album, opened at the National Theatre, prior to a nation-wide tour. In 2010 his
Collected Stories were published.He has been awarded the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
