Jez Butterworth

Jez Butterworth was born in London, in 1969 and studied English at St. John’s College, Cambridge. His first play, Mojo (Royal Court Theatre, 1995), won seven major awards, including the Olivier Award for Best Comedy. Other plays include The Night Heron (2002), The Winterling, (2006), Parlour Song (2008), Jerusalem (2009), The River (2012), and The Ferryman (2017). Jerusalem transferred from the Royal Court to the West End, breaking box office records for a new play. It won Best Play at the Evening Standard Awards 2010, The UK Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play 2010, before travelling to Broadway where it won Best Foreign Play at the New York Drama Critics Circle Awards 2011. It received six Tony nominations, winning two, including Best Actor for Mark Rylance. The River transferred to Broadway in 2014, starring Hugh Jackman. His sixth play for the Royal Court, The Ferryman, directed by Sam Mendes, was extended during its transfer to the West End. It received 15 five-star reviews in the UK daily press and won Best Play and Best Director at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards in 2017, the Critics Circle Award for Best Play, and 3 Olivier Awards for Best Play, Best Director and Best Actress in 2018. In 2018 The Ferryman transferred to Broadway and was nominated for nine Tony Awards, winning four including Best Play 2019. His latest play The Hills of California began its West End run in February 2024. Directed by Sam Mendes, it stars Laura Donnelly, Leanne Best, Ophelia Lovibond and Helena Wilson. Jez’s screenwriting credits include Fair Game (2010) directed by Doug Liman and starring Sean Penn and Naomi Watts; Get On Up (2014) directed by Tate Taylor and starring Chadwick Boseman and Octavia Spencer; Edge Of Tomorrow (2014) directed by Doug Liman and starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt; Black Mass (2015) directed by Scott Cooper and starring Johnny Depp and Dakota Johnson; Spectre (2015) directed by Sam Mendes and starring Daniel Craig and Naomie Harris; Ford v Ferrari (2019) directed by James Mangold and starring Matt Damon and Christian Bale; Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023) directed by James Mangold and starring Harrison Ford, Antonio Banderas and Phoebe Waller-Bridge. For TV Jez has created and written the comedy series “Mammals” for Amazon Studios starring James Corden, Sally Hawkins, Melia Kreiling and Colin Morgan. Jez also created the historical fantasy drama “Britannia,”which was the first co-production between Sky and Amazon Prime. It stars David Morrissey, Zoe Wanamaker and Mackenzie Crook and ran for three seasons. In 2007, Jez won the E.M Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2019 he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.