Moira Buffini

Moira Buffini (born 1965) is an English dramatist, director, and actor.

Buffini was born in Cheshire to Irish parents, and studied English and Drama at Goldsmiths College, London University (1983–86). She subsequently trained as an actor at the Welsh College of Music and Drama. For Jordan, co-written with Anna Reynolds in 1992, she won a Time Out Award for her performance and Writers' Guild Award for Best Fringe play. Her 1997 play Gabriel was performed at Soho theatre, winning the LWT Plays on Stage award and the Meyer-Whitworth Award. Her 1999 play Silence earned Buffini the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for best English-language play by a woman.Loveplay followed at the RSC in 2001, then Dinner at the National Theatre in 2003 which transferred to the West End and was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Comedy.

Buffini wrote Dying For It, a free adaptation of Nikolai Erdman's classic, The Suicide, for the Almeida in 2007. She followed it with Marianne Dreams a dance play with choreographer Will Tuckett, based on Catherine Storr's book. Her play for young people, A Vampire Story was performed as part of NT Connections in 2008. She did a writers’ attachment at the Royal National Theatre Studio in 1996.

Buffini advocates big, imaginative plays rather than naturalistic soap opera dramas, and is a founder member of the Monsterists, a group of playwrights who promote new writing of large scale work in the British theatre. She has been described by David Greig as a metaphysical playwright. All her plays have been published by Faber.

Buffini is also a prolific screenwriter. In 2010 her film adaptation of Posy Simmon's "Tamara Drewe" was released, directed by Stephen Frears. In 2011 her adaptation of Jane Eyre for BBC Films and Ruby Films was released. The script appeared on the 2008 Brit List, a film-industry-compiled list of the best unproduced screenplays in British film. It received nine votes, putting it in second place. Buffini adapted her play A Vampire Story for the screenplay of Neil Jordan's film Byzantium released in 2013.

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