Jez Butterworth is one of the UK's leading playwrights. His plays include: Mojo (Royal Court Theatre, London, 1995; West End, 2013); The Night Heron (Royal Court, 2002); The Winterling (Royal Court, 2006); Parlour Song (Atlantic Theater, New York, 2008; Almeida Theatre, London, 2009); Jerusalem (Royal Court, 2009; West End, 2010; New York, 2011); The River (Royal Court, 2012) and The Ferryman (Royal Court and West End, 2017). Mojo won the George Devine Award, the Olivier Award for Best Comedy and the Writers' Guild, Critics' Circle and Evening Standard Awards for Most Promising Playwright. Jerusalem won the Best Play Award at the Critics' Circle, Evening Standard and WhatsOnStage.com Awards, and was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play. The Ferryman won the Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Play, and the Critics' Circle, Olivier and WhatsOnStage Awards for Best New Play, as well as the 2019 Tony Award for Best Play. He wrote and directed the film adaptation of Mojo (1998) starring Ian Hart and Harold Pinter, and Birthday Girl (2002) starring Nicole Kidman and Ben Chaplin, and co-wrote and produced Fair Game (2010) starring Sean Penn and Naomi Watts. In 2007 he was awarded the E.M. Forster Award by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.