Jez Butterworth

Jez Butterworth was born in London in 1969. He is one of five children, all of whom would go on to pursue careers in the arts. Butterworth attended secondary school at Verulam Comprehensive School, St. Albans, before studying at St. John’s College, Cambridge. He graduated with a degree in English in 1991. Butterworth’s first writing success came in 1995 when his play Mojo premiered at the Royal Court Theatre to widespread critical acclaim. Following Mojo, Butterworth continued to write for the stage but also had some success writing film scripts, often with his brother, Tom. Butterworth’s first successful film script was an adaptation of Mojo, which he also directed. Butterworth’s greatest success on the stage is Jerusalem (2009), which many critics regard as one of the greatest plays of all time and perhaps the best English play of the twenty-first century. His 2017 play, The Ferryman, also received widespread critical acclaim and reestablished Butterworth as one of the great contemporary English playwrights. He has also co-written several big-budget film scripts, including Edge of Tomorrow (2014), Spectre (2015), and Ford v Ferrari (2019).