Clint Dyer

Acting

Dyer has worked as an actor, director, and writer. As an actor, his first major role on stage was as Zwanini in the production of Michele Celeste's Hanging the President at Battersea Arts Centre in 1990,^[11] replacing Adrian Lester who had portrayed the same character in the original production at Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh.^[1] Another major role in his early career was as Randall in Mike Leigh's It's a Great Big Shame in 1993,^[12] which Dyer said to have opened him up to bigger opportunities on stage as well as on the screen.^[13] He starred as Delroy in the 2000 revival production of Sus by Barrie Keeffe^[14] and later reprised this role in the 2010 film adaptation of the play as well as the stage revival at the Young Vic in addition to a UK tour in the same year.^[15] For his role in the film adaptation, he won Best Male Performance in Film at the 2011 Screen Nation Film and Television Awards^[16] as well as the Best Actor Award at British Urban Film Festival 2015 (in a special edition which considered submissions over the last 1 years0).^[17]

Other notable stage appearances by Dyer were: Big White Fog (Almeida Theatre, 2007);^[18] Perseverance Drive^[19] and The Royale^[20] (Bush Theatre, 2014 and 2015); Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (National Theatre, 2016);^[21] and The Kid Stays in the Picture (Royal Court Theatre, 2017).^[9]

Directing and writing

Dyer made his directorial debut with The Big Life, a musical adaptation of Love's Labour's Lost inspired by the Windrush generation, which premiered at Theatre Royal Stratford East in 2004 before transferring to Apollo Theatre in 2005. The Big Life was said to be the first "black, British musical" staged in the West End^[22] and Dyer the first Black British director of a West End musical.^[2][6]

Dyer and Roy Williams were the co-writers of the trilogy of plays at the National Theatre (and later @sohoplace) entitled Death of England (2020-2024),^[23] as well as the film Death of England: Face to Face (2021),^[24] all directed by Dyer. He had previously directed the 2014 short film Death of England, written solely by Williams for the Off the Page series, a collaboration between Royal Court Theatre and The Guardian.^[25] Dyer had also directed Williams's play Kingston 14, staged at Theatre Royal Stratford East in 2014.^[26] The Death of England series marked Dyer as the first Black British artist to have worked at the National Theatre in three different capacities: as an actor (in the National's production of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom), a director, and a playwright.^[27]

Since the success of Death of England, Dyer has gone on to direct Get Up, Stand Up! The Bob Marley Musical at Lyric Theatre (2021-2023); Othello at the National Theatre (2022); Wretch 32: HOME, a theatrical performance of Wretch 32's album Home? on the National Theatre stage (2025);^[28] and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest at the Old Vic (2026).^[7] He is believed to be the first Black director to work on a major stage production of Othello in the UK.^[3][29]

Appointments

Dyer was a longstanding trustee and associate artist at Theatre Royal Stratford East.^[30] In 2020, he was appointed as an Associate of the National Theatre.^[31] The following year, he was appointed by Rufus Norris as the National Theatre's Deputy Artistic Director, making him "arguably the most high-profile person of color in British theater".^[3] He remained in this position until January 2025, succeeded by Robert Hastie. In the same year, he was appointed as one of the Artistic Associates at the National Theatre, thus continuing his long association with the company.^[32]

Stage

Film

Television

Stage

Films and television