Shaun McKenna

Shaun McKenna is an award-winning British/Irish playwright, screenwriter, librettist, and lyricist. He specializes in original and adapted theatre, together with audio dramas and, increasingly, original screenplays. Shaun was one of the core writers on the long running BBC series Home Front, which won an “Outstanding Contribution to Radio” Audio Award in 2019. In 2021, his original psychological thriller Rocky Road was nominated for the new OnComm award for “Outstanding Theatre Work” streamed during COVID-19 lockdown. His 2012 stage version of Ladies in Lavender won five BroadwayWorldUK awards, including “Best Regional Play.” He was Olivier-nominated and won a Dora Mavor Moore award for his 2006-08 stage version of The Lord of the Rings in Toronto and London. His first episode of the long-running series, Heartbeat, won a Royal Television Society “Best Drama” award in 2005, and his musical Heidi was nominated for the Prix Walo in Switerland in 2008. Shaun has dramatized How Green Was My Valley and To Serve Them All My Days (Royal Theatre, Northampton), and written an original play, Ruling Passions.

Since 2014, he has written five thrillers for UK tours based on books by bestselling author Peter James (The Perfect Murder, Dead Simple, Not Dead Enough, The House on Cold Hill, Looking Good Dead). A sixth is programmed for 2023 (Wish You Were Dead). Forthcoming plays include Private Lives: Suited and Re-boooted, an English version of the Zurita brothers’ Thinking Too Loud, and a radical reworking (w/ Lin Coghlan) of John Galsworthy’s classic The Forsytes. Shaun has written book and/or lyrics for three further West End musicals: Maddie, La Cava, and Lautrec. Edinburgh Festival shows include Only You Can Save Mankind and Murder Mystery Musical. His disco musical, Last Dance (comp. Paul Jabara) played at the York Theatre in NYC in 2012. International hits include the Heidi trilogy in Switzerland and Germany. He wrote the Book for Ben Hur Live, which opened at the O2 arena in London, and subsequently toured Europe. Forthcoming musical theatre projects include Are You As Nervous as I Am? in London, The Return of Peter Pan in Germany, and She Loves You (Songs by Lennon & McCartney) in Denmark, all in 2022. The Bollywood extravaganza Anurakti will tour internationally in 2023.

With composer Leighton James House, he has developed Trouser Bar, the story of a porn film. With director and choreographer Chet Walker, he has created Jack Cole and developed a Stephen Schwartz ballet, Boy on The Roof. With director and choreographer Matt West and composer Grant Sturiale, he is developing a large-scale American musical. With many works available on Audible or BBC Sounds, Shaun’s extensive BBC credits include three series of Eleanor Rising, Joseph Andrews Re-Mixed, China Towns (reinvention of 5 Arnold Bennett novels), and The Forsytes (reinvention of 9 John Galsworthy novels). These followed The Complete Smiley (star. Simon Russell Beale), To Serve Them All My Days, East of Eden, Meeting Jack, The Cry of the Owl, Marnie, Brother Dusty Feet, and Me and Little Boots (a comedy about Caligula’s horse). Screenplays include the TV film The Crooked Man, the miniseries Like Father Like Son, the documentary series Great West End Theatres, nine episodes of Heartbeat, Doctors, and (in development) Agent 160 and Oscar’s Boys. In 2020, Shaun published Maddie and Us, the story of his first musical and its seven-year rollercoaster journey to the West End.