Dennis Kelly

Kelly was one of the ten writers who took part in writing monologues based on a children's account for a one-off event at the Old Vic Theatre directed by Danny Boyle in London in support of Dramatic Need in 2010. His three monologues were performed by Ben Kingsley, Jenny Jules and Charlie Cox.[19]

In 2010, Kelly returned to the Hampstead Theatre once more for his response to Shakespeare's King Lear, The Gods Weep starring Jeremy Irons, with mixed reviews. His script adapted from Roald Dahl's book for Tim Minchin's production of the musical Matilda[20] proved highly successful, with the musical winning 99 awards between its opening in December 2010[21] and 2021, and scheduled to continue to run in the West End of London until at least December 2022.[22]

He wrote an adaptation of Pinocchio featuring the songs and score from the Walt Disney film for the National Theatre, opening in December 2017.

Kelly's one-woman play Girls & Boys had its world premiere at the Royal Court Theatre in February 2018, directed by Lyndsey Turner and starring Carey Mulligan.[23][24] This production also had a run at the off-Broadway New York theatre, Minetta Lane Theatre in June 2018, to good reviews.[25][26][27] In March 2022, State Theatre Company South Australia put on a performance of the play at the Odeon Theatre, Norwood in Adelaide as part of the Adelaide Festival. The performance was directed by the artistic director of STCSA, Mitchell Butel, and starred Justine Clarke.[20][28] This production received overwhelmingly positive reviews, receiving five stars from reviewers[29][30][31] and earning a standing ovation at least one performance.[32] In the Netherlands, the play was staged by Theater Oostpool, directed by Daria Bukvić and starring Hadewych Minis, who won the prestigious Theo d'Or prize for her solo performance.[33]

His work has been produced in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Slovakia, the Netherlands, Ireland, Iceland, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Poland, Italy, Australia, Japan, the United States, France, Belgium, Denmark, Romania and Canada.

Other work includes translations of Péter Kárpáti's Fourth Gate (National Theatre Studio) and The Colony, a radio play which won Best European Radio Drama at the Prix Europa, 2004.

• Matilda the Musical (2022) - Writer (based on the 2010 stage musical)
• Black Sea (2014) - Writer

• 12 Shares (2005)
• The Colony (2004)[36]

• Spooks BBC Series 8
• Pulling for BBC Three co written with Sharon Horgan
• Utopia for Channel 4
• The Circuit for Channel 4 co written with Sharon Horgan
• The Third Day for HBO and Sky One
• Together for BBC Two

• White Pig: a play written around 2002 which Kelly says was about a passive boy with food-obsessed parents who had non-real characters wandering into his life.[11] Kelly has said that, "I used to have lots of these really odd meetings with theatres where I’d go in and they’d tell me how much they loved the play and then tell me they weren’t going to do it".[37] The play was eventually performed publicly at Jacksons Lane by students of Mountview on 30 September 2016.[38] However, no professional production has been mounted and the script remains unpublished.
• Fifty-Three Million Miles: a play Kelly says was written early in his career, set variously on a council estate, a NASA interview room, and a living pod on Mars.[16][11] The play remaineds unproduced and the script unpublished.

• Pulling, series 3: the television sitcom Pulling, which Kelly co-wrote with Sharon Horgan, was unexpectedly not renewed for a third series by BBC Three despite Kelly and Horgan both wanting to write another series. Instead, the channel opted for a one-hour special to tie up loose ends of the narrative.[39] The sitcom had received good ratings, critical success and a nomination for a BAFTA award.[40][41] BBC Three controller Danny Cohen denied claims the channel was chasing a younger audience, saying the series was cancelled to make room for new shows.[40][39]
• Utopia, series 3 and 4: in October 2014, Channel 4 announced that Kelly's conspiracy thriller Utopia had been cancelled after its second series.[42][43] Kelly said, "The people who liked it really liked it, but the ratings were just bad. I don’t know why. I think going out in the summer didn’t help. It’s gutting not being able to finish the story. We did want to do a special. We said to Channel 4, ‘I could finish it off with a two-hour special,’ but they weren’t going for it. I understand, though. It was a risky show to do."[5] The show's cancellation prompted The Independent in 2015 to publish a list of "The best prematurely cancelled TV shows", with Utopia placed first.[44] In 2017 The Guardian included Utopia in a list of "the best shows that had the plug pulled on them".[45] Publications such as NME and the i newspaper website felt that Netflix should fund a continuation of Utopia for its streaming service.[46][47] In a 2020 interview about the US remake of Utopia, Kelly said there would be difficulties in making another series but he had not ruled out the possibility.[48]
• Consider Phlebas adaptation: In February 2018, Amazon Studios announced plans to adapt Iain Banks' Consider Phlebas for television, with Kelly as writer.[49] However, development was discontinued in 2020. Kelly said Banks' estate had not yet seen anything he had written for the project but he believed they did not feel ready to proceed.[50]

• World War Z sequel: in 2015 Kelly was reported to have been hired to rewrite a sequel to World War Z. The film was being developed by Paramount Pictures with Brad Pitt to star, and a release slated for June 2017.[51][52] In 2019, Paramount reportedly cancelled the sequel due to budgetary issues, the death of executive Brad Grey who was a key advocate for the film, and director David Fincher's involvement with his Mindhunter series.[53] However, The Hollywood Reporter reported the cancellation was mainly due to a Chinese government ban on zombie films.[54]

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