Insignificance: About the Playwright

Terry Johnson (born in 1955) is a British dramatist and director working for stage, television and film. Educated at Birmingham University, he worked as an actor from 1971 to 1975, and has been active as a playwright since the early 1980s.

Johnson's stage work has been produced around the world. He has won nine British Theatre awards including the Olivier Award for Best Comedy 1994 for his play Hysteria, and in 1999 for his play Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle and Dick, Playwright of the Year in 1995, the Critics' Circle Theatre Awards for Best New Play in 1995 for Dead Funny, two Evening Standard Theatre Awards, the Writers Guild Award for Best Play in 1995 and 1996, the Meyer-Whitworth Award 1993 and the John Whiting Award 1991.

He has had many West End productions as director and/or writer including: One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (director, featuring Alex Kingston and Christian Slater), Hitchcock Blonde (writer/director featuring Rosamund Pike), The Graduate (writer). Johnson won the 2010 Tony Award for Best Director of a Musical for La Cage aux Folles.

He has worked with Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre, directing John Malkovich in The Libertine (nominated for five Joseph Jefferson Awards including Best Production) and Lost Land, both plays by Stephen Jeffreys.

He has written and directed television drama that has been broadcast worldwide, most recently Not Only But Always for Channel 4, which won five International Award nominations, Best Film at Banff, and a BAFTA for Rhys Ifans.

The film version of his play Insignificance (directed by Nicolas Roeg) was the official British entry at the Cannes Film Festival in 1985.