Jasmine Lee-Jones

Playwriting

Lee-Jones has had training experiences with Royal Court Theatre from the age of 17 and it was at this venue that she would go on to make her professional debut as a playwright. In 2017, Lee-Jones was selected for a bespoke playwriting programme for young women called "The Andrea Project", in honour of the late playwright Andrea Dunbar.^[7] During the six-week programme, organised by Royal Court in collaboration with Out of Joint Theatre Company, Lee-Jones received training and guidance from award-winning playwright Rachel De-lahay, and started writing what was to become seven methods of killing kylie jenner.^[8][9] The play, often shortened to seven methods..., was further developed as part of the Jerwood New Playwright programme at Royal Court,^[10] where it was eventually premiered in 2019.^[11] The play has earned Lee-Jones several accolades, notably the Alfred Fagon Award, annually awarded to the best new play by a Black British author.^[12] The play was revived at Royal Court Theatre in 2021 and has also been performed internationally in Australia,^[13][14][15] New Zealand^[16], the United States,^[17][18] Canada,^[19] and Luxembourg.^[20] seven methods... has also been translated into Swedish and was toured across Sweden in 2022.^[21]

In 2020, Lee-Jones wrote black pain redux, a monologue performed by Paapa Essiedu at Young Vic as part of the venue’s 50th anniversary celebration.^[22][23] The following year, her second full length play, curious, was staged at Soho Theatre, with Lee-Jones also performing in the show.^[24]

In 2021, Lee-Jones was a finalist in the inaugural Gold and Ruth Harris Commission competition at the New York Theatre Workshop. The commission had been set up by Tony Award nominated playwright Jeremy O. Harris and awarded each finalist a cash prize of US$12,500 in support of their artistic endeavours.^[25] In 2023, Lee-Jones won the Windham–Campbell Literature Prize in the Drama category, awarded with a cash prize of US$175,000.^[26] She is the youngest person to achieve this accolade.^[27]

Screenwriting

In 2017, while she was still a student, Lee-Jones was selected for the BBC writers’ room London Voices scheme.^[28][6]

Having broken into the theatre scene in 2019 with seven methods…, Lee-Jones was, alongside 13 other playwrights, commissioned by Headlong to write a short television play for BBC Four's lockdown series Unprecedented in 2020.^[29] Lee-Jones’s piece, batshit, a monologue delivered by Kae Alexander, was included in episode 5 and released exclusively on BBC iPlayer.^[30]

Also in 2020, Lee-Jones was commissioned by Young Vic to write a short play in collaboration with the homelessness charity Thames Reach.^[31] Due to the outbreak of COVID-19 and lockdown restrictions, the project had to be adapted and instead a short film was made. Home(body), directed by Milli Bhatia, was released via YouTube with a premiere on 28 January 2021.^[32]

In 2021, Lee-Jones was selected for BFI Flare x BAFTA Crew, a mentoring programme for LGBTQ filmmakers.^[33] Her mentor on the programme was Terence Nance.^[34] In 2022, Lee-Jones took residency at MacDowell, where she worked on a screen adaptation of her 2021 play, curious.^[35]

Acting

As an actress, Lee-Jones has appeared in E4's Dead Pixels (2021)^[36] and ITV1's The Long Shadow.^[37]

Plays

Films

Television

Published playtexts

• Lee-Jones, Jasmine (2023). seven methods of killing kylie jenner. Modern plays (Reprinted ed.). London: Methuen Drama. ISBN 978-1-350-27748-9.
• Lee-Jones, Jasmine (2021). curious. Modern plays (1st ed.). London: Methuen Drama. ISBN 978-1-350-29266-6.
• Lee-Jones, Jasmine (2020). "Jasmine Lee-Jones". In De-lahay, Rachel (ed.). My White Best Friend (And Other Letters Left Unsaid). London: Oberon Books. ISBN 978-1-7868-2901-6.