RIKKI BEADLE-BLAIR

'Rikki Beadle-Blair' was born in 1962, in Bermondsey, south London. He is a British actor, director, screenwriter, playwright, singer, aerobics teacher and songwriter of West Indian origin.

Contents

Early life

Career

Plays

External links and Sources

Early life

He was brought up by his single mother, Monica Beadle (born 1944), a counsellor and unionist who is also gay. She was born in Jamaica and moved to Britain when she was 12. She was the first black child in her school in Peckham.
When she was pregnant with Rikki at the age of 16 her mother had just died and her sister was throwing her out into the street. Rikki was brought up with a brother, Gary, 4 years younger, and a sister, Carleen, 8 years younger. He attended Lois Thompson's Experimental Bermondsey Lampost Free School. He wrote his first play aged 7 and started directing aged 11.

Career

The BBC current affairs television programme, ''Nationwide'', made a documentary about him when he was a child performer in Bermondsey, south London, in the 1970s.
When he was 17 he did a cappella concerts at the ''Gay's The Word'' bookshop in Bloomsbury, London. At this time he was also going to gay pubs and clubs and was involved with the Gay Liberation Front (GLF).
He was subsequently a dancer, a cabaret artist, a rock musician, an actor, a choreographer, and a director. He has performed worldwide, and has written plays for BBC Radio 4 and Channel 4 television. He was proud of his performance in the early 1990s in the film Sirens in which he played Blue, a punky Scouse heroin junkie.
In 1994, he wrote the screenplay for Nigel Finch's film ''Stonewall'', about the Stonewall Riots. This won the audience award at the London Film Festival and the San Francisco Lesbian and Gay film festival.
In 2001 he adapted Boy George's autobiography ''Take It Like A Man'' for a BBC film.
In March 2001, he wrote, produced, and directed the Channel 4 television series ''Metrosexuality'' in which he also played a lead role. This greatly improved his profile.
The same year, he hosted the Big Up Yourself And Be Proud show at The Brixtonian during Mardi Gras Festival in aid of GMFA, a London based gay men's health charity whose Big Up innitiative (targeting black men), he is supporting.
In 2002, his documentary ''Roots of Homophobia'', for BBC Radio 4 won the Sony Radio Academy Awards for Best Radio Feature. There he brings his own experience as a gay black man to inform his investigation into homophobic attitudes in Jamaican pop music.
He is also an executive writer in the second season of the US TV series ''Noah's Arc'' and is a director for the South African organisation for first time filmmakers ''Out of Africa''.
Rikki has recently taken up photography. He has written songs for Kevin Marques. His Theatre company, ''Angelica'', is resident at the Tristan Bates Theatre in Covent Garden, London.
Rikki has adapted his own Screenplay of ''Stonewall'' for the Stage and his Production company Team Angelica will be taking "Stonewall" to the 2007 Edinburgh Festival.
The Show will be at the 327-seat Pleasance One venue (Pleasance Courtyard) for the entire Festival, with a short pre-Edinburgh run at The Pleasance Theatre in London on July 19/20/21.
Apart from having written the Stage version of "Stonewall" Rikki is also Director, Actor, Producer, Designer (Set & Costumes) & Choreographer on the show. The play was nominated for Best Ensemble at The Stage Awards for Acting Excellence. [1]

Plays

His plays include:

★ ''Stonewall'' (2006/7) - stage adaptation of the BBC film

★ ''Bashment'' (2005) - explores the controversy around dancehall reggae music and the consequences of homophobic lyrics

★ ''Totally Practically Naked In My Room On A Wednesday Night'' (2005) - a night in the life of 17 year old Dylan, desperate to lose his virginity.

★ the ''South London Passion Plays'' trilogy (''Gutted'', ''Laters'' and ''Sweet'') (2004)

★ ''Captivated'' (1997) - the story of a gay black man imprisoned for murder. Shane corresponds with an Asian pen pal who writes him as an act of charity. Shane’s self-hatred turns into a soul-searching journey from cockiness to agonized self-reflection, and finally ultimate gratitude for his unseen friend.

★ ''Human'' - Two terminally ill cancer patients get together for a final riotous love affair.

★ ''Prettyboy''

★ ''Gunplay''

★ ''Wild At Heart'' (1988)

External links and Sources

★ Personal MySpace

★ Team Angelica MySpace

★

★ Interview on Rainbow Network - 6 June 2005

★ Profile on Knitting Cricle

★ Rikki Beadle-Blair on ‘Metrosexuality’

★ interview in Closer Magazine - April 2002 ?

★ Tristan Bates Theatre

★ script of ''Roots of Homophobia'' (scroll down to No 6)

★ Interview of Beadle-Blair in the Independent - August 2007

★ Interview of Beadle-Blair in the Guardian - August 2007