Ridley's third film as writer-director, Heartless, premiered at the Frightfest horror film festival in London in August 2009.
Ridley has also directed three feature films from his own screenplays: The Reflecting Skin (1990) (winner of 11 international awards), The Passion of Darkly Noon (1995) (winner of the Best Director Prize at the Porto Film Festival), and Heartless (2009). While still a student at St Martin's, Ridley wrote a screenplay for The Krays (1990), which was directed by Peter Medak and starred real life brothers Gary Kemp and Martin Kemp, who previously were recognised for their band, Spandau Ballet. He later created a short film for Channel 4 called The Universe of Dermot Finn (1988), which featured renowned actress Sheila Hancock and was officially selected for the Cannes Film Festival, where it was a critical success and went on to receive theatrical distribution. He also has written two short stories for younger children, Dreamboat Zing (1996) and The Hooligan's Shampoo (1996).Īfter graduating from St Martin's, Ridley created the short film, Visiting Mr Beak (1987), which starred the veteran actor Guy Rolfe. His children's novels include Mercedes Ice (1989), Dakota of the White Flats (1989), Krindlekrax (1991) (winner of both the Smarties Prize and the WH Smith Mind-Boggling Book Award), Meteorite Spoon (1994), Kasper in the Glitter (1994) (nominated for the Whitbread Prize), Scribbleboy (1997) (shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal), Zinderzunder (1998), Vinegar Street (2000), Mighty Fizz Chilla (2002) (shortlisted for the Blue Peter Book of the Year Award), and Zip's Apollo (2005). Fury (1989), and Flamingoes in Orbit (1990). Ridley has written three books for adults: Crocodilia (1988), In the Eyes of Mr. Ridley also started his own theatre group as a student, acting in many of the productions, and made several short art films. One drawing from this sequence, " Corvus Cum", portraying a man ejaculating a black bird, was exhibited at the ICA in London while Ridley was still a student and – with calls for it to be displayed behind a curtain – became a cause célèbre. He started as both a performance artist and the creator of a long sequence of charcoal drawings called The Epic of Oracle Foster. Ridley studied painting at Saint Martin's School of Art, and his work has been exhibited throughout Europe and Japan. Ridley was born in Bethnal Green in the East End of London, where he lived and worked for the majority of his life until moving to Ilford. Īlthough Ridley creates stories through a wide range of media, he dislikes his work being categorised by the medium in which it is told, often referring to them belonging to each other as "different peaks of the same mountain." Ridley is also a poet, photographer, and performance artist and has written drama for radio. Ridley has also written songs for composer Anna Meredith, particularly operatic work. He and Bicât have also formed a music group called Dreamskin Cradle with singer Mary Leay. Īs a songwriter he has created songs for his cinematic and theatrical works, frequently collaborating with composer Nick Bicât.
As a writer for the stage he is also recognised for creating an ongoing series of plays for young people ( The Storyteller Sequence) and has written theatrical works for children and family audiences. A great number of his plays for adults have been perceived as controversial, being met with both condemnation and high acclaim upon their initial reception. Ridley's debut play, The Pitchfork Disney (1991), is considered by many to be a seminal work that influenced the development of this form of theatre, with one critic even dubbing it " the key play" of the 1990s. Īs a playwright he has been described as "a pioneer of In-yer-face theatre", which is a style and sensibility of drama that characterised many new plays that were performed in Britain during the 1990s. As a filmmaker in his own right he is recognised for creating a loose trilogy of horror films: The Reflecting Skin (1990), The Passion of Darkly Noon (1995) and Heartless (2009) for which he has acquired a cult following. In the field of cinema he is perhaps best known for his award-winning screenplay for the 1990 film, The Krays (1990), a biopic about the Kray twins which was directed by Peter Medak. Īs a novelist he has created fiction for both children and adults and has had particular success and recognition as a children's author.
Philip Ridley (born 1957 in East London) is an English storyteller working in a wide range of artistic media.Īs a visual artist he has been cited as a contemporary of the ' Young British Artists', and had his artwork exhibited internationally.