Gary Mitchell

Gary Mitchell (born 3 May 1965) is a Northern Irish playwright.

It won The Irish Times Theatre Award for Best New Play in 1997, and it later went to Belfast as part of an Abbey Theatre tour.

The following year the Peacock Theatre produced his As The Beast Sleeps.

He was writer-in-residence at the Royal National Theatre, London in 1999.

His works have also premiered at London's Royal Court Theatre.

Force of Change won the Evening Standard Charles Wintour Award (£30,000) for Most Promising Playwright.

He won the prestigious Stewart Parker Award for Independent Voice; other accolades include the George Devine Award.

By the 2000s, he had become "one of the most talked about voices in European theatre ... whose political thrillers have arguably made him Northern Ireland's greatest playwright".

From a working-class, loyalist background, Mitchell's first foray into writing was for Radio 4.

His first play was produced by Tinderbox but Mitchell's first major theatre success was the production (by Connall Morrison) of his In A Little World of Our Own at the Peacock, a gripping and unflinching portrayal of loyalist culture.

In November 2005, he was forced out of his home in the Belfast suburb of Rathcoole after it was attacked by loyalist paramilitaries.

He and his family had to live in hiding somewhere in Northern Ireland which forced Mitchell to put his career on hold for five years.

He has gone on to win the Aisling Award for Outstanding Achievement in Arts and Culture.