JOE PENHALL

'Joe Penhall' is an English writer. Born in London in 1967, he was called "one of the finest playwrights of his generation" by the ''Financial Times''.
Penhall won the Laurence Olivier Award, The Evening Standard Award and the Critics' Circle Theatre Awards for ''Blue/Orange'', a play about the dynamics between a young black schizophrenic man and two psychiatrists in a London mental hospital. It premiered at the National Theatre in 2000, starring Bill Nighy, Andrew Lincoln and Chiwetel Ejiofor. ''Blue/Orange'' went to London's West End in 2001.
Also in 2000, Penhall adapted his Royal Court and Off-Broadway play ''Some Voices'' - about the impact of Schizophrenia on an average family - for film. That was directed by Simon Cellan-Jones and starred Daniel Craig and Kelly MacDonald. It premiered at the Cannes Directors' Fortnight.
Penhall adapted Ian McEwan's novel ''Enduring Love'' for a 2004 film starring Rhys Ifans and Daniel Craig, and wrote the screenplay for BBC2's four-part dramatisation of Jake Arnott's acclaimed East-End gangster novel ''The Long Firm''.
''Landscape With Weapon'', a play about an engineer who invents an innovative and devastating weapons system, premiered at the National Theatre in 2007.
Penhall's other plays include ''Dumb Show'', ''Love and Understanding'', ''Pale Horse'', and ''The Bullet''.
He has directed at the Royal Court Theatre, and his first short film ''The Undertaker'' premiered at the London Film Festival, starring Rhys Ifans.