Rory is the co-winner (with Alice Birch) of the 2014 George Devine Award for Playwriting. He's also the third recipient of the Harold Pinter prize, the Royal Court Theatre’s annual commission.The prize is given annually to support a new or established playwright in writing a new play for the Sloane Square venue. Most recently it was announced that Rory had won the James Tait Black Prize for Drama, making it a hat-trick of awards this year for this incredibly talented writer.

Rory's last play, Cannibals, opened at the Royal Exchange in Manchester to rave reviews from critics and audiences alike.

Here's what a couple of audience members said: ‘I was highly impressed. It is always a bit of a risk to see a new play rather than a known classic. . . Cannibals however rewarded me handsomely. An impressive play, affecting and poignant.’  ‘Thank you very much for a wonderful evening's entertainment and a play that I will think about and remember for a long time.’

In 2010, Rory was Writer-on-Attachment at the Royal Court Theatre and in 2011 he was Pearson Writer in Residence at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester. Rory is currently under commission to Headlong and the National Theatre. The play he's writing for the National next year is for the Olivier stage – rather wonderful that alongside that he’s also writing for village hall touring,  the biggest and the largest stages in the UK.

Stockport native Rory Mullarkey graduated in 2009 from Cambridge, after which he studied at the State Theatrical Arts Academy of St. Petersburg. Plays include Cannibals (Royal Exchange); Grandfathers (National Theatre), Remembrance Day (Royal Court), Decade (Headlong) and Come To Where I'm From (Paines Plough).