Richard Everett began his career in 1970. He was a professional actor for ten years making regular appearances on TV, in the theatre, and in films such as the 70’s cult classic “If …” starring Malcolm McDowell, “Cry of The Banshee” starring Vincent Price, and “Hamlet” directed by Tony Richardson, and starring Anthony Hopkins, Marianne Faithful and Nicol Williamson.

In the late 70’s he went on to form his own fringe theatre company. Working with David Wickert, he financed and built The Upstream Theatre in London (opposite the Young Vic) and was Artistic Director there for 3 years.

In the 80’s Richard turned to writing. He is the author of eight produced stage plays including Happy Event, Close To The Wind, Hand Over Fist and Present From The Past which have been published, translated into several languages, and are regularly performed in the UK and abroad. His latest play Demons had its world premiere in Heidelberg in 2009 and is scheduled for production in the UK in 2010.

Most recently, his play Entertaining Angels starring Penelope Keith, which opened the Chichester Festival Season in 2006, and has had two highly successful UK tours is now published by Oberon Plays.

Richard has also written three plays for BBC Radio 4 – A Little Behind On The Video, Something To Say, and Grace And Favour.

Richard has also written extensively for animation with over 150 scripts to his credit. Among them are the BAFTA nominated ‘Joseph’ for the Testament series, Dig, Dug and Daisy, a series he created for Dorling Kindersley, Nellie The Elephant, Timbuctoo and Busy Buses. He also wrote the screenplay for the animation feature film Under The Black Flag which premiered in Berlin.

In 2002, his first feature film Two Men Went To War (directed by John Henderson and starring Kenneth Cranham, Leo Bill, Derek Jacobi, Julian Glover, and Phyllida Law) went on general release in the UK. He developed the project over nine years with actor Chris Villiers and was Associate Producer as well as screenwriter. The movie was in the official selection for the Hollywood Film Festival and was released across the USA including New York. It is regularly screened as a BBC feature movie.

In addition to leading seminars and taking writing and comedy workshops for students at all levels, including at LAMDA and GSA, he also runs a weekly drama workshop for Down’s Syndrome and Special Needs adults at the L’Arche Community in Bognor.

Richard is a director of the recently formed First Media Syndicate, a company which finds media based projects with commercial potential for investors.

Introduction - Michael Lennox

Richard Everett is a playwright and screenwriter and started his career as an actor, performing in Hamlet on Broadway with Anthony Hopkins.

He is the author of 7 published stage plays, including the much-acclaimed “Entertaining Angels” which, starring Penelope Keith, had a sell-out UK national tour and has since had over 100 productions worldwide.

Richard has 200 children’s animation scripts to his credit including “The Mr. Men” series, as well as 2 feature films, 3 plays for radio, -  and a published collection of award-winning sketches entitled “Sound Bites”, some of which we will hear this evening. Only very recently, this received the Jerusalem Trust Award at BAFTA.

Richard also runs drama workshops for adults with Special Needs and Learning Difficulties.