Inua Marc Mohammed Onore de Ellams II (born 23 October 1984) is a Nigerian-born British poet, playwright and performer. He was appointed

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(MBE) in the

2023 Birthday Honours The 2023 King's Birthday Honours are appointments by some of the 15 Commonwealth realms of King Charles III to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded as part ...

for services to the arts.

Early years and education

Inua Ellams was born in 1984 in

Jos Jos is a city in the North-Central region of Nigeria. The city has a population of about 900,000 residents based on the 2006 census. Popularly called "J-Town", it is the administrative capital and largest city of Plateau State. The city is situ ...

Plateau State Plateau is a northern states of Nigeria, Nigerian state. It is located in the north-central geopolitical zone of Nigeria and includes a range of hills surrounding the Jos Plateau. Plateau State is described as "The Home of Peace and Tourism". Th ...

, Nigeria, to a Muslim father and a Christian mother. When he was 12 years old, he moved with his family to England, and three years later to Ireland, where he attended Firhouse Community College.

Work

Ellams has written for the

Royal Shakespeare Company The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and opens around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, Stratf ...

Royal National Theatre The National Theatre (NT), officially the Royal National Theatre and sometimes referred to in international contexts as the National Theatre of Great Britain, is a performing arts venue and associated theatre company located in London, England, ...

and the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

. In June 2018, Ellams was elected as a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 800 Fellows, elect ...

as part of its ''40 Under 40'' initiative. He took part in The Complete Works mentoring programme for poets of colour.

Poetry

* ''Thirteen Fairy Negro Tales'' ( flipped eye publishing, 2004) * ''Candy Coated Unicorns and Converse All Stars'' (flipped eye publishing, 2010) * ''The Wire-Headed Heathen'' (

Akashic Books Akashic Books is a Brooklyn-based independent publisher, formed in 1997. It was started by Johnny Temple (bassist), Johnny Temple, bassist of Girls Against Boys and mid-'80s Dischord band Soulside, with the mission "to make literature more part ...

, 2015)

Featured in anthologies

* ''The Salt Book of Younger Poets'' (

Salt In common usage, salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl). When used in food, especially in granulated form, it is more formally called table salt. In the form of a natural crystalline mineral, salt is also known as r ...

, 2010) * ''The Valley Press Anthology of Prose Poetry'' (Valley Press, 2018) * ''Ten: The New Wave'' ( Bloodaxe, 2013)

Performances and plays

''The 14th Tale''

Ellams's one-man show ''The 14th Tale'' was awarded an

Edinburgh Fringe First The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featur ...

at the

Edinburgh International Festival The Edinburgh International Festival is an annual arts festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, spread over the final three weeks in August. Notable figures from the international world of music (especially european classical music, classical music) and ...

in 2009, and later transferred to the Royal National Theatre, London.

''Untitled''

A one-man show staged at the

Soho Theatre Soho Theatre is a theatre and registered charity in the Soho district of the City of Westminster, and Soho Theatre Walthamstow in north-east London. It produces and presents new works of theatre, together with comedy and cabaret, across three pe ...

in 2010, telling the story of twins born on Nigeria's independence day.

''Barber Shop Chronicles''

''Barber Shop Chronicles'' is a play set in black

barber shops A barber is a person whose occupation is mainly to cut, dress, groom, style and shave hair or beards. A barber's place of work is known as a barbershop or the barber's. Barbershops have been noted places of social interaction and public discourse ...

in six cities on one day, against the backdrop of a football match between Chelsea and

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

. The play explores the African diaspora in the UK, masculinity, homosexuality and religion. The play was produced by the National Theatre, Fuel Theatre and Leeds Playhouse and was shortlisted for the Alfred Fagon Award in 2017. Following a period of touring, the play was also performed at the Roundhouse in 2019, and a recording of the National Theatre production was streamed in May 2020 as part of the ''National Theatre at Home'' season. For the production, Ellams recorded 60 hours of "male banter" in barbershops all over Africa and in London at his barber Peter's shop ''Emmanuel's'' in Clapham Junction. This project originally did not secure funding.

''An Evening with an Immigrant''

At the

Traverse Theatre The Traverse Theatre is a theatre in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was founded as The Traverse Theatre Club in 1962 by John Calder, John Malcolm, Jim Haynes, Richard Demarco, Terry Lane, Andrew Muir, John Martin and Sheila Colvin. The Traverse Th ...

, Edinburgh, in 2017, Ellams performed a live stage programme titled ''An Evening with an Immigrant'', with anecdotes of his childhood and his experiences as a refugee. An excerpt was shown at the

Hay Festival The Hay Festival of Literature & Arts, better known as the Hay Festival (), is an annual literature festival held in Hay-on-Wye, Powys, Wales, for 10 days from May to June. Devised by Norman, Rhoda and Peter Florence in 1988, the festival was d ...

on 24 May 2020.

''The Half God of Rainfall''

In April 2019, his new play, ''The Half God of Rainfall'', was presented at the

Birmingham Repertory Theatre Birmingham Repertory Theatre, commonly called Birmingham Rep or just The Rep, is a producing theatre based on Centenary Square in Birmingham, England. Founded by Barry Jackson, it is the longest-established of Britain's building-based theatre ...

, in advance of its run at London's

Kiln Theatre The Kiln Theatre (formerly the Tricycle Theatre) is a theatre located in Kilburn, in the London Borough of Brent, England. Since 1980, the theatre has presented a wide range of plays reflecting the cultural diversity of the area, as well as n ...

, as well as its publication as a book.

''Three Sisters''

In December 2019–February 2020, a reworking by Ellams of

Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; ; 29 January 1860 – 15 July 1904) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer, widely considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his b ...

's play '' Three Sisters'' was performed at the Royal National Theatre, London. The play restaged the story in the 1960s in the midst of the

Biafran war The Nigerian Civil War (6 July 1967 – 15 January 1970), also known as the Biafran War, Nigeria-Biafra War, or Biafra War, was fought between Nigeria and the Republic of Biafra, a secessionist state which had declared its independence from N ...

in Nigeria.

Television

''Doctor Who''

In January 2025, it was announced that Ellams had joined the writing team of the fifteenth series of ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...

''. Ellams is the first black man to have written for the television series, and the fourth black writer overall (after Malorie Blackman, Charlene James and Sharma Angel Walfall). Ellams wrote the episode '' The Story & the Engine'', set in contemporary Lagos, Nigeria, which was broadcast on 10 May 2025.

Awards

* 2008: winner of an Edinburgh Fringe First Award for ''The 14th Tale''. * 2014: Live Canon International Poetry Prize. * 2017: shortlisted for the Alfred Fagon Award, for ''The Barber Shop Chronicles''. * 2018: elected a Fellow of the

. * 2020: winner of the medal for Poetry at the

for ''The Half God of Rainfall'' and for ''The Barber Shop Chronicles'',

References

External links

Official websiteInterview with Inua Ellams
by ''The Poetry Extension'' * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ellams, Inua 1984 births 21st-century British dramatists and playwrights 21st-century British male writers 21st-century British poets Black British writers British male dramatists and playwrights British male poets Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Living people Members of the Order of the British Empire Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom Nigerian emigrants to the United Kingdom People from Jos