Playwright Kwame Kwei-Armah Pens Laurie Cunningham Biopic

According to Deadline.com Award winning playwright Kwame Kwei-Armah is working on a script for a biopic about 1970s soccer star Laurie Cunningham. The film is entitled 'Black Flash.' No casting or release dates have been announced. Cunningham was the first English player to join Real Madrid, the most successful soccer team from Spain.

Cunningham was also the first black player to represent England at any level (under 21), and the first to represent the full England side in a competitive match, although Viv Anderson had appeared in a friendly before him to be recognised as the nation's first black full internationAl. Cunningham died in a car crash in 1989.

Kwei-Armah's fifth play, Elmina's Kitchen premiered in May 2003 at the National Theatre, and was shortlisted in the "best new play" category at the 2004 Laurence Olivier Awards. That same year, Kwei-Armah received The Evening Standard Award for the Most Promising New Playwright of 2003. In 2005, Kwei-Armah was nominated for a BAFTA award for the television version of Elmina's Kitchen.

Walter's War, a drama written by Kwei-Armah and based on the wartime experiences of footballer Walter Tull's life, was made by UK TV channel BBC Four and screened on 9 November 2008 as part of the BBC's "Ninety Years of Remembrance" season in November 2008. Kwame also had a cameo role in the film.

Kwei-Armah is a member of the board of the National Theatre and was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Open University in 2008, and in 2009 was a judge for the BBC World Service's International Radio Playwriting Competition.

Kwei-Armah appeared in the original London production of Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens, which played at the Criterion Theatre in 1993.

Kwei-Armah first achieved fame playing the paramedic Finlay Newton in the BBC drama series Casualty from 1999 to 2004. His other television credits include appearances in episodes of the Casualty's sister series Holby City, the BBC's Afternoon Play, Between The Lines and The Bill. In 2003 he appeared as a contestant on the Reality TV programme Comic Relief does Fame Academy and subsequently released an album, Kwame. In 2007, he starred as "E.R. Braithwaite" in the two-part BBC Radio 4 adaptation of To Sir, with Love.

Kwei-Armah has recently been seen in an episode of the new BBC1 revival of Robin Hood, as an ambitious town planner in Lewis, and in the feature film Fade to Black opposite Danny Huston, Christopher Walken and Diego Luna. He is also a regular on TheatreVoice.

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