Theatre, Film and TV
Lily Williams
+44 (0)20 7393 4452
Email Lily Williams

Sabrina
Mahfouz

Writer & Performer

Sabrina recently performed her cross-genre show A History of Water in the Middle East at the Royal Court Theatre and is one of the inaugural writers in residence at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre for 20-21.

Sabrina has recently been called ‘[one of] our most interesting playwrights’ by Lyn Gardner in the Guardian and ‘theatrical dynamite’ by the Independent. Her theatre work includes Chef, a play about an inmate of a woman’s prison who is also a haute cuisine chef, which won a Fringe First Award and was nominated for multiple international awards; Dry Ice, her first play based on her time working in strip clubs, directed by David Schwimmer and for which she was nominated as Best Solo Performer in The Stage Awards for Acting Excellence; Clean, a play about three women who work in the criminal underworld, which won a Herald Angel Award and transferred from Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh to Off-Broadway in 2015.

She also wrote With a Little Bit of Luck, a gig theatre piece for Paines Plough with a live UK Garage score about a young woman’s coming of age in 2001, which has been performed across the UK, including at the National Theatre and the Roundhouse and was adapted for BBC 1Xtra radio, where it won the 2019 BBC Music & Radio Award for Best Drama.

In television she has working in writers’ rooms, and developing original work for House Productions, Moonage Pictures, Little Dot Studios and FX.

Sabrina is the editor of the critically acclaimed anthology The Things I Would Tell You: British Muslim Women Write (Saqi Books), a Guardian Book of the Year and is an essay contributor to the multi-award-winning The Good Immigrant (Unbound), exploring her mixed heritage through the lens of British fashion. She won the 2018 King’s Arts & Culture Alumni Award for inspiring change in the creative industries. Her most recent anthologies are Smashing It: Working Class Artists on Life, Art and Making It Happen (Westbourne Press); Poems for a Green and Blue Planet (Hachette Children's) and Sabrina Mahfouz, Plays: 1 (Methuen Bloomsbury).

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Theatre, Film and TV
Lily Williams
+44 (0)20 7393 4452
Email Lily Williams

CV

Theatre

Writer

Metamorphoses

Director Sean Holmes/Holly Race Roughan

New theatre based on Ovid's collection of myths, written specifically for the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse. Co-written with Sami Ibrahim and Laura Lomas.

A History of Water in the Middle East

Director Stef O'Driscoll

Sabrina also performs in this forthcoming cross-genre
show about the British presence in the Middle East historically and presently.

Royal Court

The Song Project

Director Chloe Lamford & Isobel Dixon

The Song Project combines the lyrics of 5 Royal Court writers with the music of Dutch musician Wende and composer Isobel Waller-Bridge to create a unique theatrical musical experience.

Music by Wende and Isobel Waller-Bridge

Royal Court

Noughts & Crosses

Director Esther Richardson

Writer Malorie Blackman

A sold out UK tour of this adaptation of Malorie
Blackman’s award-winning YA novel received rave reviews from critics and audience members

Pilot Theatre

Zeraffa Giraffa

Best Production for Young People at the Offies 2018

Director Elgiva Field

This playful puppet-based production for young children was based on the true story of Zeraffa, the first Giraffe to travel to France.

Omnibus Theatre/Little Angel

Offside

Director Caroline Bryant

Writer Co-writer Hollie McNish

Charting the history of women’s football in the UK from the 1800s with song, movement and monologue this popular show toured the UK twice and was presented at Wembley Stadium during the FIFA 2019 conference

Futures Theatre

With a Little Bit of Luck

Producer Paines Plough

Director Stef O'Driscoll

Well-loved and critically acclaimed show combining UK Garage tracks with a coming of age story toured the UK twice and played to a sold out main space audience at The Roundhouse in 2017

Paines Plough/ Latitude Festival

Chef

Edinburgh Fringe First 2014; The Stage Award for Acting Excellence; Shortlisted for Carol Tambor Award; Holden Street Theatre Award; Brighton Fringe Award for Excellence

Creator Sabrina Mahfouz

Producer POP

Director Kirsty Patrick Ward

Starring

Jade Anouka

A powerful monologue about a haute cuisine head
chef who ends up running a prison kitchen, originally performed by Jade Anouka

The Stage Award for Acting Excellence / Shortlisted for Carol Tambor Award; Holden Street Theatre Award; Brighton Fringe Award for Excellence and Soho Theatre June 2015

P.O.P/ Just For Laughs

Clean

Herald Angel Award, 2013

Director Orla O'Loughlin

A fun, fast-paced play about three criminal women
pulling off the ultimate heist. Transferred to Off-Broadway in 2014

Traverse Theatre

One Hour Only

Old Vic New Voices Edinburgh Award

Producer Made From Scratch Theatre

Director Matt Wilde

A real-time duologue set in a fancy East London
brothel

Made From Scratch

Lyricist

Woman at Point Zero

Director Maria Koripas

A devised opera with director and choreographer Maria
Koripas, composer Bushra El-Turk and singer Merit Ariane, which played to great acclaim at LSO St Luke’s in 2018

Adapted from the novel by Nawal El Saadaw

Royal Opera House/ Snape Maltings

Paws and Padlocks

Director Harry Fehr

A children’s opera written for composer Kate Whitley,
performed at Blackheath Hall with local children in the cast

Blackheath Halls