Janice Okoh
Janice Okoh is a British playwright and screenwriter.
Early life
Okoh is from Lewisham, South-East London, the daughter of Nigerian parents Gladys and Hezekiah Okoh from Delta State. Okoh attended a local primary school and then boarded at St Michael's School for Girls in Limpsfield near Oxted. She studied Law at Keele University. Before becoming a playwright, she worked at law firms in the City for seven years and as a teacher. Okoh pursued a Master of Arts in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia.Career
Her first play Egusi Soup was produced in 2012 by Menagerie Theatre/Soho Theatre. In 2011 Okoh won the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting for her play Three Birds, which she entered under a pseudonym Ebenezer Foot. The play was also short-listed for the Verity Bargate Award and the Alfred Fagon Award. She adapted the play for the television seriesJust Act Normal, broadcast on BBC Three from 16 April 2025.
Okoh's play The Gift tells the story of the Egbado princess Sarah Bonetta who was given to Queen Victoria as a gift, and raised as her god-daughter. The play opened at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry in January 2020 before moving on to the Theatre Royal Stratford East. It was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. She has also written for radio, including an adaptation of Malorie Blackman’s Noughts & Crosses.
Okoh has also written for television, contributing episodes of Doctors, Hetty Feather and On the Edge . She joined the writing team for series 2 of ITV's Sanditon.