Kamal Kaan

Kaan was selected for The Emerging Writers Group 2016 at The Bush Theatre, London[7] and for the BBC Writersroom Drama Room in 2017.[8] His first professional commission was in collaboration with artist David Shearing: and it all comes down to this...[9]

In 2020, Kaan wrote Us (Post 23/3). The play detailed the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on British Asian communities and was described by Emma Clayton in Telegraph and Argus as "darkly humorous".[10]

Kaan wrote a modern adaptation of Antigone, Aaliyah: After Antigone, for Bradford-based theatre company Freedom Studios in 2021. It was described as 'the most radical rewrite'[11] by Michael Billington in The Guardian and was performed to a live audience and streamed online to a remote audience simultaneously.[12] Writing in The Times Literary Supplement, Marchella Ward described it as 'an ancient play of the moment' and 'strikingly modern'.[13] The show gained four stars in The Stage as a work of 'a necessary rage, and one that we should see more of in the stories that theatre tells'.[14]

In 2022, Kaan wrote Amma, a virtual reality play about Bangladeshi women's experiences of the War of Independence.[15]

Kaan won the BBC Radio 3 Verb New Voices 2015 with his audio drama as the cloud takes its last breath.[16]

Since then he has written a number of radio dramas for BBC Radio 4, including:

• Breaking Up With Bradford, starring Luke Newberry and described as a 'love letter' to Bradford.[17] The Spectator called the drama 'refreshingly different'. [18]

• The Headline Ballads: Whilst the Water Weeps Next to the Water, a drama-documentary about the Boxing day floods in 2015, paralleled with the flooding in Bangladesh.[1]

• Father's Land in Mother Tongue, starring Bhavna Limbachia. The story reflects on the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War and was inspired by the poetry of Rabindranath Tagore.

• Bangla Bantams, starring Nina Wadia and Sudha Bhuchar. The story is based on the real life story of The Bangla Bantams,[19] a British-Bangladeshi football fan group of Bradford City AFC[20]

In 2022, Kaan wrote 'The Greatest Story Ever Told' for the Northern Broadsides Winter Tales podcast series.[21]

Kaan worked as Script Consultant with writer and director Clio Barnard on the BAFTA nominated Outstanding British film[22] Ali & Ava. He helped to shape the story, giving feedback on treatments, scripts, locations and character research.[23] In The Observer, Mark Kermode described the film as a 'pitch perfect Bradford love story'.[24]

Kaan's work for screen includes Five Days (series 2), The Syndicate, Doctors, Ali & Ava.

On stage, Kaan has appeared in: The Chef Show, directed by Stefan Escreet, winner of the Rural Touring Show Awards 2018.[25] In 2021 he appeared in Full English (2021) by Bent Architect, winner of the Best Stage Production, 2021 at the Asian Media Awards.[26]

Other credits include: Cymbeline (2008) directed by Sir Trevor Nunn, starring James Norton. Peter Pan (2008) and the Pembroke Players Japan Tour of A Midsummer Night's Dream (2008).[27] Boy With a Suitcase (2010) by Mike Kenny at the Arcola Theatre. Plan D by Hannah Khalil (2010). Brief Encounters Freedom Studios (2015). North Country Directed by Alex Chisholm (2016). Wanted (2016) Leeds Playhouse. This Space Is Occupied (2018) Bent Architect.