Course: BA (Hons) Acting
Graduated: 2011
Ryan Calais Cameron is an award-winning actor, director and writer. His first play, TIMBUKTU, was part of the Bush Theatre’s Black Lives Black Words Festival 2016, a festival of radical new BAME voices.
His play For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy, was nominated for two Olivier awards, won the Black British Theatre Awards 2022’s Best Production Play and Best Director, and was also joint-winner of Best Performer in a Play at the 2022 Stage Debut Awards.
Ryan's other writing credits include Human Nurture; Typical; Queens Of Sheeba, co-written with Jessica Hagan and winner of the 2018 Edinburgh Untapped Award; Rhapsody, which won the 2018 Off-West End Adopt A Playwright Award; RETROGRADE, which was shortlisted for the 2019 Alfred Fagon Award and Verity Bargate Award 2020 and premiered at The Kiln in April 2023 – to which he's also under commission – as part of a Sky Studios/Kiln Theatre new writing initiative.
His TV credits include guest writer on The Flatshare (42/Paramount+) and forthcoming green-lit productions Boarders (Studio Lambert/BBC3) and Queenie (Channel 4).
Ryan is developing several original series, My Brothers’ Keeper (Warp Films), Blerd (Wychwood) and an adaptation of BLOOD RIGHTS (Red Planet).
Ryan also works as a professional actor. On the stage, his credits include, Mogadishu (Manchester Royal Exchange/Lyric Hammersmith), The West Bridge (The Royal Court), The Dug Out (The Tobacco Factory) and Sponge (Old Vic New Voices). His TV and film credits include Luther (BBC), Jekyll and Hyde (ITV), The Coroner (BBC), Suspects (Channel 5), Casualty (BBC), Honey Trap (Bright Pictures), The Interceptor (BBC) and Cilla (ITV).
He's an alumnus of the Royal Court Writer’s Programme 2017 and the Soho Young Company 2016/17. He recently contributed to the Royal Court’s Living Newspaper, for which he is currently under commission, as well as the Arcola, Soho Theatre and Theatre Centre. Ryan was on the 2022 list of The Stage 25 future stars of the UK theatre industry, and was made an Honorary Fellow of AUB in 2023.
Following the most recent successes of For Black Boys in the West End, in 2024, Ryan contributed an opinion piece to The Standard discussing how his play has evolved into "a catalyst for healing and change."
Ryan was also interviewed for a feature in Issue Five of AUB's alumni magazine One Piece of Advice.
