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Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti

Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti (born in Watford in ) is a British playwright and screenwriter. Her play Behzti (Dishonour) was cancelled by the Birmingham Repertory Theatre after protests against the play turned violent and death threats forced Bhatti to go into hiding.

Life

Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti was born into a working-class Sikh Punjabi family in Watford. She went to the University of Bristol to study Chemistry but graduated with honours in Modern Languages. Before becoming a full-time playwright and screenwriter, she worked in a hospital laundry and a women’s refuge. She has also been a waitress, actor, workshop leader and a carer.

Work

Bhatti's first play, Behsharam (Shameless), broke box office records at Soho Theatre and Birmingham Rep when it opened in 2001.

In 2005, Behzti (Birmingham Repertory Theatre) won the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for the best English language play written by a woman.

In 2010, her follow-up to Behzti titled Behud (Beyond Belief) was co-produced by Soho Theatre and Coventry Belgrade and was shortlisted for the John Whiting Award.

In 2014, Khandan (Family) opened at the Birmingham Rep before transferring to the Royal Court Theatre.

In June 2014, her first anthology of plays, Plays One, was published by Oberon Books.

Bhatti's other credits include Scenes from Lost Mothers (Clean Break); Silence (Donmar Warehouse); 846 (Theatre Royal Stratford East); A Kind of People (Royal Court Downstairs); Elephant (Birmingham Repertory Theatre); Dishoom (Rifco/Watford Palace Theatre); Fourteen (Watford Palace Theatre); the feature film Everywhere And Nowhere; DCI Stone, Radio 4; Londonee (Rich Mix); Dead Meat, Channel 4 and An Enemy Of The People, BBC World Service.

She was a core writer on The Archers from 2012 to 2019, part of the team that created the ‘Helen and Rob’ domestic violence story. She has also written for EastEnders and Hollyoaks.

In 2025, her adaptation of Sathnam Sanghera’s Marriage Material was produced at the Lyric Hammersmith and her play Choir opened at Chichester Festival Theatre.

Awards

  • 2003 Nominated for the Race in the Media Award by the Commission for Racial Equality in the radio music/entertainment category for North East South West.
  • Asian Women of Achievement awards, nominated twice
  • 2005 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, a US-based award of $10,000 made annually to the best English language play by a woman, for Behzti
  • 2010 Behud (Beyond Belief) nominated for the John Whiting Award
  • 2020 A Kind of People nominated for the Asian Media Awards
  • 2025 Marriage Material finalist for the Asian Media Awards

Plays

  • Soho Theatre, London 2001
  • Behzti The Door, Birmingham Rep, Birmingham, UK 2005
  • Come to Where I'm From, , Listen to the Podcast at Painesplough
  • Soho Theatre, London 2010
  • Londonee, Mukul and Ghetto Tigers and Lifeguard Productions
  • Two Old Ladies, Leicester Haymarket 2000
  • Fourteen (2014), Watford Palace Theatre commissioned 'Fourteen' after Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti wrote a short play for 'Come To Where I'm From' in 2010, co-produced by Watford Palace Theatre and Paines Plough
  • Khandan (Family) (2014), A Royal Court Theatre and Birmingham Repertory Theatre Co-production
  • "A Kind of People" (2019). Premiered at the Royal Court Theatre London.
  • "Marriage Material". Adapted from Satnam Sangerha's novel, premiered at the Birmingham Rep and Lyric Hammersmith.

Radio, Films, TV and Teleplays

References

External links

  • Website: https://www.gurpreetkaurbhatti.com/