Hanif Kureishi

The Buddha of Suburbia is semi-autobiographical: Kureishi was born in Kent to a Pakistani father and an English mother, and his father was from a wealthy family. Kureishi attended several colleges and finally completed a philosophy degree at King's College London. His writing career began when he started writing pornography, and he soon moved on to writing for theatre. Kureishi began experiencing major success in 1985 with his screenplay My Beautiful Launderette. The film was directed by Stephen Frears, and it won both an Academy Award and the New York Film Critics Best Screenplay Award. The Buddha of Suburbia was wildly successful: it won several awards and was made into a television series, complete with a soundtrack by David Bowie. Despite his success, Kureishi has garnered criticism in regards to his personal life. His family has accused him of exploiting them, and they state that many of the "semi-autobiographical" elements of his work are entirely fictional. His sister in particular has been vocal about this, saying that their family was never working class, their mother didn't work in a shoe factory, and that their father didn't speak to Kureishi for a year after Buddha's publication because of how Kureishi portrayed him. Similarly, his 1998 novel Intimacy created controversy because it portrays a man leaving his wife and young children. Many assumed it was autobiographical as Kureishi had done the same not long before the novel was published. Kureishi has three children with the film producer Tracey Scoffeild and lives in West London.