Rhianna Ilube

Rhianna Adesuwa Ilube is a playwright from London, currently based in New York as a second-year fellow on Juilliard’s Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program. Her debut play, Samuel Takes a Break in Male Dungeon No. 5 After a Long but Generally Successful Day of Tours, premiered for a 6-week run at The Yard Theatre in 2024 to critical acclaim, and was selected as a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and the Verity Bargate Award. Rhianna’s second show, 1884, an interactive game-theater show, premiered at Shoreditch Town Hall in 2024 with a sold-out run, before touring the UK and Greece. Rhianna also wrote 81 (Life), the second instalment of the ‘Islington Trilogy’ at the Almeida Theatre, co-created and performed by over 60 non-professional actors. Her latest play in development, Forest People, has been longlisted for the Verity Bargate Award and shortlisted for the Alpine Fellowship Award.

Rhianna previously worked as an associate director of Coney, an award-winning interactive theater company, and as film programmer for both BFI Flare and London Film Festival. She was a 2025/26 writer-on-attachment with the Royal Court Theatre, a 2024 MacDowell Fellow, and an alum of BBC’s London Voices, Oxford Playhouse Playmakers, and Royal Court’s Intro to Playwriting. She holds an MA from Goldsmiths in Writing for Performance and Dramaturgy, and a BA in Politics, Psychology and Sociology from Cambridge.

www.rhiannailube.com