Robin French (born 1978,

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

) is an English playwright, film and television writer and songwriter.

Background

French's father is English, his mother is from Barbados. French studied modern and medieval languages at

Selwyn College, Cambridge Selwyn College, Cambridge (formally Selwyn College in the University of Cambridge) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1882 by the Selwyn Memorial Committee in memory of George Augustus Selwyn (1 ...

, where he graduated with first-class honours in 2001. While at Cambridge he was active in the Cambridge Footlights and won two play-writing competitions.

Career

Television

French's sitcom ''

Cuckoo Cuckoos are birds in the Cuculidae family, the sole taxon in the order Cuculiformes . The cuckoo family includes the common or European cuckoo, roadrunners, koels, malkohas, couas, coucals and anis. The coucals and anis are sometimes separat ...

'', co-created and co-written with Kieron Quirke started to air on

BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes targeting 16 to 34-year-olds, cov ...

and

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's Flagship (broadcasting), flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News ...

in 2012, with the second series in 2014 and the third series in 2016. The series launch became BBC Three's most-watched comedy launch, beating the record set by '' Bad Education'' which debuted the previous month. Greg Davies was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Male Performance in a Comedy Programme, for his role in ''

''. At the

British Comedy Awards The National Comedy Awards (known as the British Comedy Awards from 1990 to 2014) is an annual awards ceremony in the United Kingdom, celebrating notable comedians and entertainment performances of the previous year. The British Comedy Awards (1 ...

, '' ''Cuckoo'''' was nominated for Best New Comedy Programme and Greg Davies was nominated for Best TV Comedy Actor. "Cuckoo'' stars: Andy Samberg (first series only), Greg Davies,

Taylor Lautner Taylor Daniel Lautner (; born February 11, 1992) is an American actor. He is best known for playing shapeshifter Jacob Black in '' The Twilight Saga'' film series. Lautner began his acting career playing bit parts in comedy series such as '' ...

(second series onwards), Helen Baxendale, Esther Smith (second series onwards), Tyger Drew-Honey and

Tamla Kari Tamla Kari Cummins (born 27 July 1988), known as Tamla Kari, is an English actress. She is best known for her role as Constance Bonacieux in the BBC television series ''The Musketeers'', and Lucy in ''The Inbetweeners Movie'' and ''The Inbetwe ...

(first series only). French has twice been awarded the title of Hotshot (representing UK writing) by ''Broadcast'' magazine (2006 and 2008). He was writer and script editor for two series of BBC's '' Man Stroke Woman'' starring

Nick Frost Nicholas Jonathan Frost (born 28 March 1972) is a British actor, author, comedian, painter, producer and screenwriter. He has appeared in the ''Three Flavours Cornetto'' trilogy of films, consisting of '' Shaun of the Dead'' (2004), '' Hot Fu ...

, Nicholas Burns (actor),

Amanda Abbington Amanda Abbington (born Amanda Jane Smith; 28 February 1974) is an English actress. She is best known for playing Miss Mardle in '' Mr Selfridge'' and Mary Watson in '' Sherlock'', the BBC adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes st ...

and Daisy Haggard. He was co-creator of (

ABC Family The American cable and satellite television network that is now known as Freeform was originally launched as the CBN Satellite Service on April 29, 1977, and has gone through several different owners (and six different name changes) during its h ...

) US sitcom ''

Roommates A roommate is a person with whom one shares a living facility such as a room or dormitory ''except'' when being family or romantically involved. Similar terms include dormmate, suitemate, housemate, or flatmate ("flat": the usual term in Britis ...

'', and co-creator and co-writer of

ITV2 ITV2 is a British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998. For a number of years, it had the largest audience share after the five analogue terrestrial station ...

's mystery dramedy ''

Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the ...

'' starring Charles Dance and Claire Skinner.

Film

French's film Crocodile, directed by Gaelle Denis, was selected for Cannes Critics’ Week 2014 and won the Canal Plus Award at the

2014 Cannes Film Festival The 67th Cannes Film Festival was held from 14 to 25 May 2014. New Zealand film director Jane Campion was the head of the jury for the main competition section. The Palme d'Or was awarded to the Turkish film ''Winter Sleep'' directed by Nuri B ...

. It was nominated by BIFA for Best British Short 2014. It was winner of the Signis Prize at Guanajuato International Film Festival, Mexico 2014. It was winner of the Channel 4 Best Short Film Award at Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival 2014 French's short film Groove is in the Heart, directed by Bijan Sheibani, was produced by The Guardian and The Royal Court Theatre. It was subsequently selected as part of the BFI film season 2015. French is currently writing a film about David Bowie and Iggy Pop's time in Berlin.

Theatre

French is currently writer in residence 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 ...

. His version of

Henrik Ibsen Henrik Johan Ibsen (; ; 20 March 1828 – 23 May 1906) was a Norwegian playwright and theatre director. As one of the founders of modernism in theatre, Ibsen is often referred to as "the father of realism" and one of the most influential pla ...

Hedda Gabler ''Hedda Gabler'' () is a play written by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. The world premiere was staged on 31 January 1891 at the Residenztheater in Munich. Ibsen himself was in attendance, although he remained back-stage. The play has been ca ...

, "Heather Gardner", was produced by

in 2013. French's first play, ''Bear Hug'', won the

Royal Court Theatre The Royal Court Theatre, at different times known as the Court Theatre, the New Chelsea Theatre, and the Belgravia Theatre, is a West End theatre#London's non-commercial theatres, non-commercial West End theatre in Sloane Square, in the Royal ...

Young Writers Programme and was subsequently produced at the theatre. It has since had productions in Italy, Germany, Ireland and Poland. His second play, ''Gilbert is Dead'' performed at Hoxton Hall in Shoreditch, London, in November 2009. His play for young people ''The Red Helicopter'' was performed at the Almeida theatre, London, in August 2010.

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

listed French as one of the UK's "young stars in the ascendant" in 2005. French's play ''Crooked Dances'', inspired by the music of

Erik Satie Eric Alfred Leslie Satie (, ; ; 17 May 18661 July 1925), who signed his name Erik Satie after 1884, was a French composer and pianist. He was the son of a French father and a British mother. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire, but was an un ...

, played at The Other Place, Stratford-upon-Avon, in 2019.

Music

French spent several years as the bassist of UK band '' Mr Hudson and the Library''. French played under the alias Maps Huxley, and co-wrote the song "One Specific Thing" from the album ''

A Tale of Two Cities ''A Tale of Two Cities'' is a historical novel published in 1859 by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The novel tells the story of the French Doctor Manette, his 18-year-long imprisonment in the ...

''. He left the band to pursue writing in September 2007. He co-wrote the opening song of

Pixie Lott Victoria Louise Lott (born 12 January 1991), better known by her stage name Pixie Lott, is an English singer and songwriter. Her debut album, ''Turn It Up (Pixie Lott album), Turn It Up'', released in September 2009, reached number six on th ...

's latest album Young Foolish Happy with Mr Hudson, Cathy Dennis and

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:French, Robin Alumni of Selwyn College, Cambridge People educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham British dramatists and playwrights People from Birmingham, West Midlands Living people 1978 births British male dramatists and playwrights Date of birth missing (living people)