Vinay Sunilkumar Patel (born 1986) is a British-Indian screenwriter and

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...

. He is best known for writing the BBC drama '' Murdered by My Father''.

Early life

Patel was born in

Sidcup Sidcup is an area of south-east London, England, primarily in the London Borough of Bexley. It is south-east of Charing Cross, bordering the London Boroughs of London Borough of Bromley, Bromley and Royal Borough of Greenwich, Greenwich. It was ...

, South East London. He graduated with a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

(BA) in English from the

University of Exeter The University of Exeter is a research university in the West Country of England, with its main campus in Exeter, Devon. Its predecessor institutions, St Luke's College, Exeter School of Science, Exeter School of Art, and the Camborne School of ...

. Before writing, Patel worked as a corporate filmmaker and then a technician at the London-based Met Film School. In 2011, Patel graduated from the

Central School of Speech and Drama The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, commonly shortened to Central, is a drama school founded by Elsie Fogerty in 1906, as the Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art, to offer a new form of training in speech and drama for ...

with an MA in writing.

Career

In 2014, he wrote ''True Brits'', a play juxtaposing the news of the

London 2012 Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

, with the

7 July 2005 London bombings The 7 July 2005 London bombings, also referred to as 7/7, were a series of four co-ordinated suicide attacks carried out by Islamist terrorists that targeted commuters travelling on Transport in London, London's public transport during the ...

. This led to his selection for the Bush/Kudos TV writing scheme and an original short commission for

BBC iPlayer BBC iPlayer (stylised as iPLAYER or BBC iPLAYER) is a video on demand service from the BBC. The service is available Over-the-top media service, over-the-top on a wide range of devices, including Mobile phone, mobile phones and Tablet computer ...

. In 2018, he wrote ''An Adventure'', inspired by his grandparents, for the

Bush Theatre The Bush Theatre is located in the Passmore Edwards Public Library, Shepherd's Bush, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. It was established in 1972 as a showcase for the work of new writers. Artistic Directors * Brian McDermott ...

. Patel contributed ''Death is a Many Headed Monster'' to the BAME essay anthology '' The Good Immigrant''. In June 2018, Patel was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in its "40 Under 40" initiative. In 2022, it was announced the Yard Theatre would produce Patel's sci-fi re-imagining of ''

The Cherry Orchard ''The Cherry Orchard'' () is the last play by Russian playwright Anton Chekhov. Written in 1903, it was first published by '' Znaniye'' (Book Two, 1904), and came out as a separate edition later that year in Saint Petersburg, via A.F. Marks Pu ...

'', directed by James Macdonald.

Television

In 2016, he wrote

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

's honour killing drama ''Murdered By My Father''. It tells of an

honour killing An honor killing (American English), ''honour killing'' (Commonwealth English), or ''shame killing'' is a type of murder in which a person, usually a woman or girl, is killed by or at the behest of male members of their family or their male ...

of a British Asian Muslim teenage girl, Salma (played by Kiran Sonia Sawar), by her father Shahzad (

Adeel Akhtar Adeel Akhtar is a British actor. He is known for his role in '' Murdered by My Father'', for which he won the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor in 2017. He is also known for ''Utopia'', '' Ali & Ava'', '' Showtrial'', and '' She ...

). It was nominated for a

BAFTA TV Award The BAFTA TV Awards, or British Academy Television Awards, are presented in an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. They have been awarded annually since 1955. Background The first-ever Awards, given in ...

for best single drama, and won the RTS Award for Best Single Drama. He has also written for the first series of ''

The Good Karma Hospital ''The Good Karma Hospital'' is a medical drama series produced by Tiger Aspect Productions for ITV about a disillusioned doctor, Ruby Walker, who travels to South India hoping to make a fresh start. It stars Amanda Redman, Amrita Acharia, Jam ...

'' and, in 2018, contributed the sixth episode of the eleventh 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 ...

'', ' Demons of the Punjab', set during the

Partition of India The partition of India in 1947 was the division of British India into two independent dominion states, the Dominion of India, Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan. The Union of India is today the Republic of India, and the Dominion of Paki ...

. The episode received high praise from fans and critics alike, and was announced as a finalist (nominee) in the category of

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form The Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation is given each year for theatrical films, television episodes, or other dramatized works related to science fiction or fantasy released in the previous calendar year. Originally the award covered both ...

for the 2019 Hugo Awards. At the Eastern Eye Arts, Theater, and Culture Awards, Patel won "Best Scriptwriter" for ''Demons of the Punjab''. Patel returned to ''Doctor Who'', co-writing the fifth episode, ' Fugitive of the Judoon' with

Chris Chibnall Christopher Antony Chibnall (born 21 March 1970) is an English television writer and producer, best known as the creator and writer of the award-winning ITV (TV network), ITV mystery-crime drama ''Broadchurch'' (2013-17) and as the third showr ...

, for the twelfth series. Jo Martin appears as a character named Ruth Clayton, later revealed to be a previously unknown incarnation of the Doctor. Martin is credited as Ruth and with an "introducing" credit as the Doctor, as previous new incarnations of the character have been since 2005. The episode featured the return of

Jack Harkness Captain Jack Harkness is a fictional character played by John Barrowman in ''Doctor Who'' and its spin-off series, '' Torchwood''. The character first appears in the 2005 ''Doctor Who'' episode " The Empty Child" and subsequently features in t ...

played by

John Barrowman John Scot Barrowman MBE (born 11 March 1967) is a Scottish-American actor, author, presenter, singer and comic book writer. He is known for his roles as Captain Jack Harkness in ''Doctor Who'' (2005–2010; 2020–2021) and its spin-off ''Torc ...

, after a ten-year absence from the series. Barrowman's appearance was not publicised prior to broadcast. In November 2021, it was announced Patel would write an episode of

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

's television adaptation of '' One Day''. The series premiered on 8 February 2024 on Netflix.

References

External links

Official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Patel, Vinay Living people 21st-century British male writers Alumni of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama Alumni of the University of Exeter British male dramatists and playwrights British Asian writers British male screenwriters British male television writers English people of Indian descent People from Sidcup Writers from the London Borough of Bexley 1986 births 21st-century British screenwriters