Bonnie Greer (16 November 1948 – 15 September 2026) was an American and British playwright, novelist, critic and broadcaster, who lived in the UK from 1986 until her death in 2026.
Greer appeared as a panellist on television programmes such as Newsnight Review and Question Time and served on the boards of leading arts organisations, including the British Museum, the Royal Opera House and the London Film School. She was Vice President of the Shaw Society and Chancellor of Kingston University in London. She was appointed OBE in 2010 for her work in the arts, and in 2022 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
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Early life
Bonnie Greer was born on 16 November 1948 in the West Side of Chicago, the eldest of seven children of Ben, a factory worker, and Willie Mae, a homemaker. Greer's father was from a family of Mississippi sharecroppers. He was stationed in Britain during World War II and took part in the D-Day landings.
Career
Although she began writing plays at the age of nine, Greer originally set out on a legal career, but dropped out when her professor told her he did not think women should have a career in law. She instead studied theatre in Chicago under David Mamet's supervision and at the Actors Studio in New York with Elia Kazan. Living in Manhattan's West Village in New York City in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Greer had many gay male friends who contracted HIV/AIDS.
Greer visited Scotland in 1986 as part of a production at the Edinburgh Festival and was based in Britain from then on. She told The Sunday Times in 2006 that she owed her life to the move. At the time, she decided to migrate to the UK because of her need to "escape the shadow of death" and the declining theatre scene in New York City. She acquired British citizenship in 1997. She worked mainly in theatre with women and ethnic minorities, and was an Arts Council playwright in residence at the Soho Theatre and for Nitro, previously known as the Black Theatre Co-operative and now called NitroBeat. Greer played Joan of Arc at the Theatre Atelier in Paris.
She wrote radio plays for BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4, including a translation of The Little Prince. Her plays included Munda Negra (1993), concerning the mental health problems of black women, Dancing on Blackwater (1994) and Jitterbug (2001), and the musicals Solid and Marilyn and Ella. The latter began as a radio play broadcast in December 2005 (Marilyn and Ella Backstage at the Mocambo) after Greer watched a documentary on Marilyn Monroe which mentioned Monroe's assistance to the jazz vocalist Ella Fitzgerald as segregation prevented the singer from working at certain venues, especially the Mocambo nightclub. Adapted for the stage, Greer's radio play was given a production at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2006 and was later rewritten and performed at the Theatre Royal Stratford East in 2008. The play was produced at the Apollo Theatre in London's West End in November 2009. She is the author of two novels, Hanging by Her Teeth (1994) and Entropy (2009), and was working on a play for the National Theatre Studio.
Greer was a regular contributor to BBC Two's Newsnight Review and was a panellist on the BBC's Question Time. She appeared on the edition in October 2009 that also featured Nick Griffin, then leader of the British National Party. Commenting after the recording she called it "probably the weirdest and most creepy experience of my life". The encounter formed the basis for her opera, Yes, written for the Royal Opera House with music by Errollyn Wallen, and premiered at the Linbury Studio Theatre in November 2011. She was director of the Talawa Theatre Company and served on the boards of the Royal Opera House and the London Film School. She was also a theatre critic for Time Out magazine.
Personal life and death
Greer married solicitor David Hutchins in 1993.
Greer died on 15 September 2026, aged 77, after a brief illness.
Honours and awards
In the 2010 Birthday Honours, Greer was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), for services to the Arts. She received the honour from Prince Charles.
In July 2022, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (FRSL) in London.
Selected works
Books
Hanging by Her Teeth (Serpent's Tail, 1994), novel. ISBN 978-1-85242-185-4
Entropy (Picnic Publishing, 2009), novel. ISBN 978-0-9560370-3-9
Obama Music (Legend Press, 2009). ISBN 978-1-906558-24-6
Langston Hughes: The Value of Contradiction (2011) (Arcadia/BlackAmber Books). ISBN 978-1-906413-76-7
A Parallel Life (Arcadia Books, 2014). ISBN 978-1-909807-62-4
Short stories
How Maxine Learned to Love her Legs: And Other Tales of Growing Up (1995) ISBN 978-0-9515877-4-4
Films
White Men Are Cracking Up (1996), screenplay)
Musicals
Solid
Marilyn and Ella (2008)
Opera
Yes (November 2011), Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
Plays
Munda Negra (1993)
Dancing on Blackwater (1994)
Jitterbug (Arcola Theatre, 2001)
Podcasts
In Search of Black History. Audible Original. 2019. ASIN B08DCLQL3T.
Radio plays
The Little Prince
Marilyn and Ella Backstage at the Mocambo
Ferguson (2016)
TV
Siren Spirits, Episode 4 (1994)