Bola Agbaje is an award-winning playwright/screenwriter.
Bola is currently developing an international thriller for television – CARAT – with producer Yaw Basoah of Dark Pictures, director Myles Whittingham, and writer Stephen Gallagher plus OFF THE RECORD a television pilot for Tom Legett at Red Planet. Bola has written VIOLATED, a play, for Producer James Dacre and has two feature films casting and being financed, SLEEPLESS for Bold pictures and Producer Jumafor Ajogwu, and a FELA KUTI biopic for Mark Gordon production.
Bola Agbaje’s first play, GONE TOO FAR! premiered upstairs at the Royal Court Theatre in 2007, moving to the main theatre the following year and subsequently ran at Hackney Empire and The Albany. The play won the 2008 Oliver Award for an Outstanding Achievement. Bola was also nominated the same year for the Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright.
Bola’s other plays include OFF THE ENDZ, DETAINING JUSTICE, BELONG, HOUSE OF CORRECTIONS, THE BURIAL, TAKE A DEEP BREATH, AND BREATHE. Bola is passionate and committed to writing powerful and authentic BME stories and characters, many now well-known actors had their early career debuts performing roles in Bola’s plays.
Bola’s film adaptation of GONE TOO FAR! for Poisson Rouge Pictures and the BFI premiered at the London Film Festival 2013 and won the 2014 DC Award at the London Comedy Film Awards. GONE TOO FAR! had a nationwide release in UK cinemas in October 2014 and won the People’s choice Award at the African International Film Festival 2014 and the Bafta/LA prize at the 2015 Pan African Film Festival. GONE TOO FAR! has been broadcast on Film 4.
In 2016 she was selected for a JJ screenwriting bursary in association with Bafta. Bola’s international work includes the original screenplay for the highly successful 2015 Nigerian feature film, FIFTY, available on Netflix.
In 2024 Bola’s work on the play THE ARCHITECT was nominated for an Innovation Award for The Stage Magazine. The revival of GONE TOO FAR! has been nominated for a Community award at the Offies.