Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1965. His father was a diplomat in the Afghan Foreign Ministry and his mother taught Farsi and history at a high school in Kabul. In 1976, the Foreign Ministry relocated the Hosseini family to Paris. They were ready to return to Kabul in 1980, but by then their homeland had witnessed a bloody communist coup and the invasion of the Soviet Army. The Hosseinis sought and were granted political asylum in the United States, and in September 1980 moved to San Jose, California. Hosseini graduated from high school in 1984 and enrolled at Santa Clara University, where he earned a BSc in Biology in 1988. The following year, he entered the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, where he earned a medical degree in 1993. He completed his residency at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and was a practising internist between 1996 and 2004.

In March 2001, while practising medicine, Hosseini began writing his first novel, The Kite Runner, which was published by Riverhead Books in 2003. That debut went on to launch one of the biggest literary careers of our time. Today, Khaled Hosseini is one of the most recognized and best-selling authors in the world. His books, The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns and And the Mountains Echoed, have been published in over 70 countries and sold more than 40 million copies worldwide.

In 2006, Khaled was appointed a goodwill ambassador for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. Inspired by a trip he made to Afghanistan with the UNHCR, he later established the Khaled Hosseini Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, which provides humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan. He lives in northern California with his wife and two children.

Matthew Spangler’s plays have been produced on Broadway (Hayes Theatre), in the West End (Wyndham’s Theatre and the London Playhouse), off-Broadway (59E59 Theatre), the Dubai Opera House, Dublin Theatre Festival, Carthage Theatre Festival in Tunisia, and at many theatres around the world.

Plays include: The Beekeeper of Aleppo from the novel by Christy Lefteri, The Kite Runner from the novel by Khaled Hosseini, Albatross based on Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Operation Ajax about the CIA/MI6 coup in Iran, The Story of Zahra from the novel by Hanan al-Shaykh, Striking Back based on the book by Mary Manning and Sinead O’Brien, Tortilla Curtain from the novel by T.C. Boyle, The Forgotten Empress about Mughal Empress Noor Jahan, and Shady Hills from the stories of John Cheever.

Matthew is Professor of Performance Studies at San José State University in California where he teaches courses in how refugees and asylum-seekers are represented through the arts.

In 1985, Giles was appointed artistic director of the Gate Theatre, London.

In 1989 he joined the National Theatre as literary manager before becoming the artistic director of the Palace Theatre, Watford, in 1995. Giles was artistic director of Nottingham Playhouse from 1999 to 2017. Over his career he has directed more than 50 plays, many of which have toured the UK or transferred to London.

Giles first directed The Kite Runner in 2013 and since then it has toured five times, had two seasons in the West End and been performed in Dubai. In 2022 the production completed a successful on Broadway and will be touring the US this year.

More recently Giles has worked on projects with actors as diverse as Stephen Fry, Toby Jones, Emily Atack & James Norton.

Giles is also a playwright and his work has been performed widely in the UK and Europe.

Barney is a designer and maker for theatre, live events and creative spaces. He has designed sets and costumes for over ninety stage productions, ranging from regional and international touring to London's West End. His creative journey began as a film and television prop maker in a family run business. Barney continues to enjoy collaborating with artists and makers from diverse disciplines, reflecting his own broad creative background. He lives and works in the UK.

Theatre credits include: The Corn is Green, Rutherford and Son, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (all National Theatre); Romeo and Juliet, A Museum in Baghdad, The Seven Acts of Mercy, Miss Littlewood, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Alchemist, Queen Anne, Hecuba, The Christmas Truce, I’ll Be the Devil (Royal Shakespeare Company); Get Up, Stand Up! The Bob Marley Musical, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Queen Anne, Richard III, Mojo, Posh, Through the Leaves (West End); The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (Donmar Warehouse); The Suppliant Women (Edinburgh Lyceum/Young Vic); Torn, The River, Choir Boy, Chicken Soup with Barley, Now or Later, The Ugly One (Royal Court); The River (Broadway); Minetti

(Edinburgh International Festival); The Events (Young Vic/New York Theatre Workshop); Ah, Wilderness!, The Girlfriend Experience, The Beauty Queen of Leenane (Young Vic); Our Lady of Kibeho, The Pope (NorthamptonRoyal); Orlando,The Accrington Pals (Manchester Royal Exchange).

Dance and opera credits include: Tosca (Karlstad, Sweden); War Requiem, La Triviata (ENO); Sadko, Carmen (Flanders pera/Bratislava); La Bianca Notte (Hamburg Opera); OperaShots, La Voix Humaine (Royal Opera House); Carmen, Werther and Saul (Opera North). Over 30 works with the Richard Alston Dance Co. Other choreographers include Wayne McGregor, Aletta Collins and Rosemary Butcher; Scottish, Birmingham, Stuttgart, San Francisco, Atlanta and Vienna Ballets and Beijing Dance Academy.

William Simpson is a projection designer and film editor.

Projection credits include The Kite Runner (West End, Broadway); Rocky Das Musical (Stuttgart, Stage Entertainment); Derren Brown - Miracle (National tour); Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Clockwork (National Theatre); Richard III, Charlie Peace and Diary of a Football Nobody (Nottingham Playhouse); Theatre of Illumination (Light Night Leeds); Piano Circus – Trilogies (Kings Place) and the award winning adaptation of Of Mice and Men by Mike Kenny (Mind the Gap).

His film and television edit work includes Cause of Death (Channel 5); The Real Full Monty (ITV); The Pearl Island (NOW TV); Our Lives (BBC1); You Do You (Channel 4); Kite Strings (Undivided Pictures); Born Survivor (BBC3) and the award winning short, Soldiering On (Channel 4).

www.willsimpson.co

Drew trained at The Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, graduating in 2003.

Previous sound designs include:

The Kite Runner (Broadway, West End and the national tours); Enemy of the People, Pride and Prejudice, Home, Darkness Darkness, HOME, Time and the Conways, Richard III, My Judy Garland Life, Forever Young, Of Mice and Men, The Importance of Being Earnest, Private Lives, Grandpa in my Pocket: Teamwork, A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, Blithe Spirit, Vertigo (Nottingham Playhouse); The Threepenny Opera (Graeae Theatre Company); I Dare You (Leicester CURVE/Nottingham Playhouse); Mary Shelley (Shared Experience); Miss Nightingale (Mr Bugg Presents); Sweet Charity, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (The New Wolsey Theatre) Volpone, Dr Faustus, Workshop Negative (Tangle Theatre Company); Soonchild (Red Earth); Dissidents (Tricycle Theatre); Stacked, Bait (Almeida Theatre); It Kind of Looks like a Doughnut (Leicester CURVE); Influence, The Dream Collector, Life Raft, Dust, Dreamtime (Derby Theatre); Sleeping Beauty, Jack and the Beanstalk (CAST Doncaster) Ritual (Birmingham Rep) Dick Whittington, Peter Pan, Jack and the Beanstalk, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, The Legend of Robin Hood, Snow Whitw (Bury St Edmunds Theatre Royal); DNA, Seance on a Sunday Afternoon, Empty Bed Blues, Smile, The Wiz (Lakeside Arts).

Recent credits include: The Kite Runner (Nottingham Playhouse/Broadway/West End/UK tours); Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Pinocchio, Little Red Riding Hood (Nottingham Playhouse); The Wolf, The Duck and the Mouse and The Fishermen (New Perspectives at Unicorn Theatre and Trafalgar Studios); Hansel and Gretel, Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland (Derby Theatre); Crossings, Wolves are Coming for You and Here I Belong (Pentabus); FIVE, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King and Three Keepers (WinterWalker at Derby Theatre, The Hullabaloo and Watermans). Kitty is a staff director for Box Clever, her recent tours include Jekyll and Hyde, Mark and the Marked and Feet First.

Kitty trained at Laban and Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. She is currently a PhD candidate at De Montfort University, researching the intersections between contemporary dance and theatrical clowning.

Philip is a member of the Equity Register of Fight Directors, and of the teaching and examining staff of the British Academy of Stage and Screen Combat. He has worked throughout Europe and America, alongside his regular teaching commitments for RADA, Drama Studio London and other drama schools and universities.

Theatre credits include: Measure For Measure and Hamlet (The Globe); The Kite Runner (Broadway, USA); Ravenscourt (Hampstead Theatre); Shakespeare In Love (Norwegian National Theatre); The Prince And The Pauper, Richard III, Henry Vi, Bartholomew Fair – (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse); For Services Rendered, Stitchers (Jermyn Street Theatre); Botticelli In The Fire (Hampstead Theatre); Brassed Off (Northern Broadsides); Richard III (The Rose Theatre Blenheim); Twelfth Night, Merry Wives Of Windsor, Romeo & Juliet (Guildford Shakespeare Company); Henry V (The Rose Theatre York); Agreed (Glyndebourne Opera); Merry Wives Of Windsor, King Lear (Shakespeare’s Globe); Andrea Chenier (Royal Opera House); Simon Boccanegra (Greek National Opera); Romeo Et Juliette (Korea National Opera); Titus Andronicus (Royal Shakespeare Company); The Outsider (The Print Room); Brighton Rock (Theatre Royal York).

Recently for the stage The Nutcracker for the New Vic Theatre Stoke on Trent.

Philip's screen work includes films for Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures and documentaries for the BBC and Channel 4. Recently on television he was Sword Master for Lockwood & Co.

Damian trained at Oxford University (BA, English Literature & Language) and Arts Educational (MA, Creative Practice in Musical Theatre).

Damian was the resident director for The Kite Runner for over a year, at the Playhouse Theatre, London, and for the UK & Ireland tour, 2017-18. For its subsequent international tour, he moved to Associate Director and was also the Associate Director for the Broadway production, playing at the Hayes Theater, New York. He will shortly be returning to America as Associate Director for the US tour of The Kite Runner.

In 2023, he also directed and managed the sold-out Neighbours Celebration Tour, playing to 32,000 people across the UK’s finest venues, including three nights at the London Palladium, and then transferring the show to Melbourne, home of Ramsay Street. Damian is also the Director and Co-Producer of the annual Whatsonstage Awards, celebrating theatre all across the UK.

After directing various projects for UK Productions over 10 years, Damian is now in his third year of working for the company on a full-time basis as Artistic Producer to lead, inspire and deliver the next phase of its journey to create innovative, imaginative and outstanding theatre. His UKP directing credits include: Oklahoma! (Assistant Director, UK Tour); and several pantomimes including the very first production of Beauty and the Beast (Blackpool Grand); Cinderella (nominated, Best Director at the Great British Pantomime Awards); Sleeping Beauty (Basingstoke) and Aladdin (Malvern).

Damian’s directing credits also include: When Midnight Strikes (nominated for Best Musical Production in the Off West End Awards); the London revival of Tick, Tick...Boom! (Union Theatre); West Side Story (Theatre Royal, Windsor for Bill Kenwright Ltd); Dick Whittington (Beck Theatre, Winner - Best Pantomime, 2014); six seasons of NewsRevue (Canal Café Theatre); I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change (both Edinburgh Festival and subsequent London transfer); Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (for HM Queen Elizabeth II’s Birthday Celebrations); 42nd Street and Honk! (Bridewell Theatre); Twelve Angry Men and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Ready Ay Ready Productions).

For over a decade, he directed the Edinburgh Festival smash hit, sell out Shakespeare For Breakfast (Winner, Best Comedy, 2017), including two London transfers, as well as devising and directing its spin-off, Dickens For Dinner (Winner, Best Comedy, 2018). In addition to this, Damian has directed and produced 50 other productions at the Edinburgh Festival.

Damian has directed the premiere productions of many new musicals or workshops, including the world premieres of Equally (Cockpit Theatre); You Know How To Love Me (The Other Palace); The Poltergeist of Cock Lane (C venues); Don’t Tell Grandma (Chiswick Playhouse); Just Pretend (Putney Arts); Lia’s Guide To Winning The Lottery (Perfect Pitch) and London Street (ArtsEd).

Assistant/Resident credits include: Gary Barlow and Tim Firth’s Calendar Girls – The Musical (UK & Ireland Tour); the UK & International tour of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert; Associate/Resident on the UK premiere of Little Women the Musical (LOST Theatre); Me And My Girl (London Palladium); Legally Blonde (Aberystwyth Arts Centre); Into The Woods (Upstairs at the Gatehouse); Kiss of the Spider Woman (ArtsEd); David Mamet’s The Shawl (Canal Café Theatre); The Railway Children (Theatre Royal, Drury Lane).

He also worked on the world premiere of The Witches of Eastwick (Theatre Royal Drury Lane for Cameron Mackintosh); the National Theatre’s UK tour of Honk! And the West End production of Mary Poppins (Prince Edward Theatre for Cameron Mackintosh).

X / Instagram: @munchkindamo

The Kite Runner UK tour and at The Wyndhams and The Playhouse Theatres.

Other recent West End credits include: Bleak Expectations (Criterion); The Play That Goes Wrong; Magic Goes Wrong; Groan Ups; Peter Pan Goes Wrong; The Comedy About a Bank Robbery; Warhorse; Red Lion; Bombers Moon and Journey’s End.

Other theatre includes: Rent (Key Theatre); The Invincibles and Killing Jack (Queen’s Theatre); The Mind Mangler (Virgin Voyages); Recognition (Talawa); We Need New Names (New Perspectives); Alice in Wonderland and Top Girls (Liverpool Everyman); Good Luck Studio (Mercury, Salisbury, Guildford); Dead Air for Stockroom at the Riverside Studios; Wishmas; Guardians of the Galaxy, Bridgerton and Stranger Things (Secret Cinema); We Are The Best and Clear White Light (Live Theatre); The Beauty Queen of Leenane; A Number; Clybourne Park (Rapture Theatre); Close Quarters (Out of Joint / Sheffield); The Last Ship (Northern Stage & tour); Jekyll & Hyde (Rose Theatre and tour); Cathy (Cardboard Citizens); Trade (New Perspectives); Home Truths and La Ronde (Bunker Theatre); A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian and Mighty Atoms (Hull Truck); The Quiet House (Park Theatre); The Divided Laing (Arcola); Wet House (Soho Theatre); Serpent’s Tooth (Talawa / Almeida).

Film credits include: Runs in the Family; Dragged Up; Deus; Dark Encounter; For Love or Money; Widow’s Walk; The Comedian’s Guide to Survival and Bliss!

Andy has been working with UK Productions since their first national tour of the musical Barnum in 1995. Andy came to the company with extensive experience as a tour and production manager in the concert arena, having worked with such artists as Smokey Robinson, Frankie Valli, Neil Sedaka, Elaine Paige, the Pogues, Sister Sledge and Shakin’ Stevens. 27 years on, Andy is UK Productions’ Production Director having overseen its acclaimed West End productions of The Kite Runner and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, as well as national and international tours of Legally Blonde The Musical, The Kite Runner, 42nd Street, Oklahoma!, Singin’ in the Rain, Carousel, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, South Pacific, The Pirates of Penzance, Murdered to Death, Anything Goes, Fiddler on the Roof, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Jekyll & Hyde – The Musical, Fiddler on the Roof along with its large stable of nationwide pantomimes.

For the past thirteen years, Andy has continued to expand UK Productions’ Set Hire Department which he developed in 2011 as a new operation for the company. With extensive workshop facilities allowing new builds to be undertaken, and a talented team of designers, scenic artists and carpenters, UK Productions is now one of the largest suppliers of sets and costumes for musicals, pantomimes and plays in the country and deals with professional and amateur companies nationwide as well as internationally. During Christmas of 2023/24 he oversaw up to 30 productions going out to various parts of the UK and Ireland.

Elizabeth has been the Costume Designer and Head of Wardrobe for UK Productions since 2004. She is a graduate of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (BA Hons. - Costume Design & Construction) and London College of Fashion (BTEC Art & Design).

Prior to joining UK Productions full-time, Elizabeth worked as freelance Costume Designer/Maker and Wardrobe Mistress for both theatre and television. She was also touring wardrobe for Irie! Dance Company and Summer Holiday (2003).

Since 1998 and prior to graduating Elizabeth worked periodically in a variety of costume roles for UK Productions, on the company’s earliest musicals and pantomimes, experiencing all aspects of the costume department. Having successfully designed and supervised UK Productions Disney’s Beauty and the Beast in 2004, Elizabeth joined the team full time, taking charge of their ever-expanding costume stock and running workshop. Since joining she has designed, managed, and produced the costumes for all productions released by the company to date. Including their West End, Broadway, touring and regional back catalogue of musicals, plays, plus an extensive list of pantomimes. Supplying thousands of costumes, headwear, wigs, shoes and accessories over the years.

The busy and huge costume workshop situated in Blackpool, also produces, and supplies high quality costumes for hire and purchase, to production companies, amateur dramatic societies and schools.

Nottingham Playhouse is dedicated to making bold and thrilling world-class theatre, proudly made in Nottingham. In 2023, it was named the UK’s Most Welcoming Theatre in the UK Theatre Awards.

Nottingham Playhouse is one of the country’s leading producing theatres, renowned for creating ambitious and diverse productions, many of which have toured across the UK and have transferred to the West End and Broadway.

The theatre’s acclaimed participation programme creates life-changing experiences for the local community and its Theatre of Sanctuary status ensures it is a space where everyone feels they belong. Nottingham Playhouse nurtures the next generation of theatre-makers through their dynamic artist support programme, Amplify.

Recently awarded a Silver Carbon Literacy standard, Nottingham Playhouse is committed to continually improving its sustainability standards across productions and its Grade II* listed building.

For more information about Nottingham Playhouse visit www.nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk

Chief Executive Stephanie Sirr Artistic Director Adam Penford

We are two brilliant theatres, here for artists and audiences and the magic that happens when they come together.

A local artistic force with national significance and an international reputation, we use the power of theatre to inspire, entertain and nurture positive social change.

Whether you visit us at the Everyman or the Playhouse, see our work online or out in the community, a warm welcome awaits you.

We’re grateful for the continued support of Arts Council England, Liverpool City Council, our donors, patrons, partners, and our audiences.

To find out more about the Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse work, both on and off stage visit everymanplayhouse.com.

Chief Executive: Mark Da Vanzo