Roger Williams (born 1974) is a Welsh playwright[1] and screenwriter working in both English and Welsh. His work often examines aspects of modern Welsh life, such as the place of minority languages, the plight of declining industrial communities and the Cardiff gay scene.[2]

He was born at Newport, Wales, and brought up in Carmarthen. He graduated in 1995 from the University of Warwick with a degree in English and American Literature.

His theatre work includes:

  • Surfing, Carmarthen Bay (1995)
  • Love in Aberdare (1997)
  • Gulp (1997)[1]
  • Calon Lân (1997)
  • Saturday Night Forever (1998)
  • Killing Kangaroos (1999)
  • Pop (2000)
  • Y Byd (A'i Brawd) (2004)
  • Me, a Giant (2005)
  • Mother Tongue (2005)
  • Kapow! (2006)
  • Tir Sir Gâr (2013)

In 2002, his work Tales from the Pleasure Beach, screened on BBC Two, was nominated for a BAFTA Award in the Best Drama Series category. He has also written episodes of Hollyoaks (Channel 4), The Story of Tracy Beaker (BBC), The Bench (BBC Wales), Citizens! (BBC Wales) and many episodes of the daily Welsh-language soap opera Pobol y Cwm which is broadcast on S4C. In 2006, he became the lead writer of S4C's popular new drama series Caerdydd,[3] for which he won a Bafta in 2011.[4]

In 2012 he established the production company Joio. The company's first production was the film Tir for S4C. The film was adapted from Roger Williams's original theatre play Tir Sir Gâr for which he won the Best Welsh language Playwright award at the Wales Theatre Critics Awards 2014.[5]

Williams created and wrote the bilingual English/Welsh crime drama television series Bang (TV series), first broadcast on S4C in 2017. Bang won the Celtic Media Festival award for Best Drama series and a New York Film and TV Festivals medal of excellence.[6]

References

  1. 1 2 Steven Blandford (2007). Film, drama and the break-up of Britain. Intellect Books. p. 171. ISBN 978-1-84150-150-5. Retrieved 24 December 2010. Typical of this was Gulp by a young Cardiff writer, Roger Williams: It was generally considered to be Cardiff's first professionally produced young, out gay play, referred to by the press as a 'cultural milestone'. ...
  2. ↑ "Parthian Books".
  3. ↑ Shipton, Martin (7 December 2010), "S4C 'has lack of hunger for great programming'", Wales Online, retrieved 24 December 2010
  4. ↑ British Academy Cymru Awards - Winners in 2011, 29 May 2011
  5. ↑ "Theatre Critics of Wales Awards 2014 - News and latest information on Theatre Dance and Performance in Wales - news, reviews, commentary, features and discussion".
  6. ↑ "Roger Williams - Independent Talent".

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