Andrew Bovell


Andrew Bovell is an Australian writer for theatre, film and television.

Life

Bovell was born in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia and completed his secondary school education in Perth. He graduated from the University of Western Australia with a BA and followed that with a Diploma in Dramatic Arts at the Victorian College of Arts, in Melbourne. He currently lives in South Australia.

Writing career

His AWGIE award-winning play, Speaking in Tongues, has been seen throughout Australia as well as in Europe and the US and Bovell adapted it for the screen as Lantana. Both the play and screenplay have been published by Currency Press along with After Dinner, Holy Day, Scenes from a Separation and Who's Afraid of the Working Class?, written with Patricia Cornelius, Melissa Reeves, Christos Tsiolkas and Irene Vela. Who's Afraid of the Working Class? was adapted to film as Blessed.
When the Rain Stops Falling won the 2008 Victorian Premier's Literary Award and the 2008 Queensland Premier's Literary Awards. In 2010, a production of When the Rain Stops Falling opened in New York. The New York Times reviewed the play describing it as "a fitfully moving but diagrammatic play about the long legacy of unnatural acts" and commenting that "the relationships eventually emerge with an emotional clarity that the play’s elliptical structure works against".

Plays

Bovell's film credits include Lantana and Blessed as mentioned above. Bovell also co-wrote the screenplay for Strictly Ballroom with Baz Luhrmann and Craig Pearce and Head On with Mira Robertson and Ana Kokkinos. His other film credits include Edge of Darkness starring Mel Gibson, The Book of Revelation and Iris. He wrote the thriller film A Most Wanted Man, directed by Anton Corbijn, based on the novel A Most Wanted Man by John le Carré.