Hanif Kureishi: Stories, Piano & Violin

Talent

Gethin Anthony was born in Stratford-Upon-Avon to Welsh parents and grew up in the UK and USA. He trained in acting at LAMDA, after graduating from Oxford University with a degree in English Literature and Language. Soon after completing his training Gethin featured as the ill-fated Renly Baratheon in Game of Thrones and led a company at the RSC. He has worked on both stage and screen throughout his career.

Gina Bellman is a New Zealand-born British actress best known for her performances as grifter Sophie Devereaux on the 2008-12 TNT television series Leverage and in the revival Leverage: Redemption when the series moved to Amazon Freevee in 2021 and Jane Christie on the 2000–04 BBC hit comedy show Coupling

MyAnna Buring is a Swedish actress, known for her roles in The Descent, Kill List, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 and Part 2, Ripper Street, The Witcher and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Blood and Wine.

Kulvinder Ghir‘s diversity in the entertainment industry has seen him perform on TV, film and theatre. His transition into comedy wasn’t easy. As a young man, worried how his parents would react to his passion, he would secretly go off to comedy clubs to perform. Conquering tough audiences gave him the confidence to then move into the wide world of radio, film and television. One quarter of the highly successful ‘Goodness Gracious Me’ team, he has also starred in ‘Casualty’ and ‘The Bill’. He can currently be seen in the Casualty spin off series ‘Holby City’. Kulvinder is most well know for his GGM character, ‘Chunky Lafunga’ a stereotype of a slimey Bollywood hunk, complete with hairy chest and medallion. Other characters include “Bhangra Man”, “Dennis Cooper” and “Mr. Ishaq”. He is also known for his roles in the films “Bend It Like Beckham” and “Blinded by the Light.”

Author

HANIF KUREISHI

Hanif Kureishi was born in south London in 1954. His mother was English, and his father, who harboured frustrated desires to become a writer, came from a family which had been displaced by the partition of India and Pakistan.

Kureishi went to school in Bromley, and studied philosophy at the University of Lancaster and King’s College London. He enjoyed early success as a playwright, working with the Hampstead Theatre, Soho Poly and the Royal Court. From there, he received a commission from Channel 4 to write the screenplay for what became My Beautiful Laundrette (1985), a film about a gay British Pakistani youth in 1980s London. Directed by Stephen Frears, it won the New York Film Critics Best Screenplay Award and an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay. Kureishi’s other screenplays include Sammy and Rosie Get Laid (1987), The Mother (2003) and Venus (2006).

The Buddha of Suburbia (1990) won the Whitbread Award for a first novel. Drawing on Kureishi’s own experiences, it focusses on a bisexual British South Asian character called Karim Amir as he explores class, ethnicity, sexuality and culture (both high and pop) in late 20th-century London. The novel was adapted into a television series with a soundtrack by David Bowie in 1993.

A second novel, The Black Album (1995) deals with Islamic fundamentalism and freedom of speech, and was adapted for the stage in 2009; a third, Intimacy (1998), concerns a man contemplating leaving his wife and children. A film of the same name, drawing on Kureishi’s stories, was made in 2001. Kureishi’s other novels include Gabriel’s Gift (2001), The Body (2003), Something to Tell You (2008) and The Last Word (2014).

Having been the victim of a suspected fraud in 2012, he turned the experience into a short pamphlet called A Theft: My Con Man (2014). In 2013, his film Le Week-end – part of an ongoing collaboration with the director Roger Michell – was released.

Kureishi is often categorised alongside, for example, Salman Rushdie, as a ‘commonwealth writer’. He has commented that his writing of the British Asian experience ‘all came out of E P Thompson’, the English social historian and author of The Making of the English Working Class (1963), particularly ‘the idea that ordinary people have their own history’. Other stated influences include the British comic writer P G Wodehouse and the American novelist Philip Roth.

He was appointed CBE in 2008 and sold his archive to the British Library in 2014.

Musicians

Lizzie Ball: Born in Sheffield, raised in rural Derbyshire, and based in London, Lizzie is a violinist, vocalist, concert producer and founder of Classical Kicks Productions. Classical Kicks is in an ongoing mission is to bring classical music to a wider audience in accessible, diverse venues and contexts. The residency has included everything from string quartets to beat boxing flute players and East End female rappers. Lizzie has a busy international freelance career as a solo performer/orchestra leader and session musician. Highlights of her work as a featured solo violinist includes Jeff Beck (featured solo violinist and vocalist -US wide arena tour and Crossroads Festival 2013 Madison Square Garden) , Brian Wilson (featured solo violinist and vocalist on a US wide tour) , and with Grammy-award winning choir New York Polyphony. Recent highlights of Lizzie’s orchestra leading work includes with Hugh Jackman (European Stadium Tour 2019), Ariana Grande (BBC Live film with Ariana Grande), Liam Gallagher (MTV Unplugged Live in Hull 2019)  Lizzie was concertmaster of Nigel Kennedy’s handpicked ‘Orchestra of Life’ between 2010-2018. Lizzie has also become Ambassador for PRISMA, a charity founded by her colleague Morgan Szymanski to help children in need in Mexico by providing arts workshops to rural underdeveloped areas of Mexico. So far the project has reached over 15,000 children in just two years of existence. During lockdown Lizzie invested her time in a long held dream to qualify as a Transformational Life Coach. Her new business Set your Stage aims to combine her career in music and her life experience together with this new skill in order to help young people and professionals both in music and otherwise, around the world with their skills in leadership, performance, and mindset.

David Lempriere-Laughton: Virtuoso pianist critically acclaimed for performances that combine dazzling technique with impassioned musicianship. A highly sought after solo and collaborative artist who currently maintains a successful performing career across Europe, Australia and the USA. A passionate advocate for new music, Mr. Laughton frequently premieres new works by living composers and actively promotes Australian music across the world.