Highlights
- First person of colour to chair BAFTA in the organisation's 79-year history
- Led the BAFTA 2020 Review, resulting in more than 120 changes to awards, voting and membership
- Succeeds Uzma Hasan, who chaired the Bush through and after the Covid pandemic over five years
KRISHNENDU MAJUMDAR, the film and television producer who became the first person of colour to chair BAFTA, has been appointed chair of trustees at the Bush Theatre in west London.
He takes up the position this month, succeeding Uzma Hasan, who held the role for five years.
Majumdar co-founded Me+You Productions alongside Richard Yee. The company's work includes Alice & Jack for Channel 4 and Masterpiece, starring Andrea Riseborough and Domhnall Gleeson, and the I Am series, also for Channel 4. The feature-length I Am Ruth, starring Kate Winslet, won two BAFTAs.
During his three-year term as BAFTA chair, which ended in June 2023, Majumdar led the BAFTA 2020 Review, resulting in more than 120 changes to the organisation's awards, voting and membership processes. He also oversaw the final stages of the £40 million redevelopment of BAFTA's 195 Piccadilly headquarters.
'Excited to work with the board'
Majumdar said, "I am delighted and honoured to be announced as the new chair of the Bush Theatre. I’m excited to work with the brilliant board of Trustees and support the dynamic duo of co-CEOs, Artistic Director Taio Lawson and interim Executive Director Angela Wachner, to deliver visionary work. This theatre has spent over fifty years finding writers before the world was ready for them - from Jonathan Harvey and Jack Thorne to Michaela Coel, Benedict Lombe, and Richard Gadd - and giving them the conditions to ask the big questions fearlessly, to push the boundaries of what new work can be.
"A distinctly local voice with a resonant national impact: that is the Bush I’ve long admired. I have come to take that mission to new heights, and I intend to protect it not carefully, not cautiously, but fiercely."
Krishnendu Majumdar, Taio Lawson and Angela Wachner at Bush Theatre (Photo by Laurie Fletcher)
Taio Lawson, artistic director and co-chief executive of the Bush, said Majumdar was "an industry titan with a passion for innovation and platforming marginalised voices."
Hasan said the Bush was "stronger and more itself than ever" after her tenure, and that in Majumdar, the theatre had gained "a chair of rare calibre and ambition."
Neil Darlison, Arts Council England's director of theatre, described the Bush as "a vital part of London's theatre landscape" and said the organisation looked forward to working with Majumdar and the board.
The Bush Theatre, based in Shepherd's Bush, has staged early work by writers including Michaela Coel, Richard Gadd and Jack Thorne.
