Harley Granville Barker (1877-1946) was an actor, playwright, director and critic, who exerted a major influence on British drama both during and after his lifetime.

Patrick Barlow is an English actor, comedian and playwright. His comedic alter ego, Desmond Olivier Dingle, is the founder, Artistic Director and Chief Executive of the two-man National Theatre of Brent, which has performed on stage, on television and on radio. 

As a playwright, his work includes: a stage adaptation of Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps (West Yorkshire Playhouse, 2005, then Tricycle Theatre and West End, as well as productions in Australia, New Zealand and Broadway); The Wonder of Sex (National Theatre, London, 2001); Love Upon the Throne (Edinburgh Festival and West End, 1998); and The Messiah (Tricycle Theatre, London, 1983; revived in a new version for a UK tour, 2018).

Adam Barnard began his career as a theatre director and now increasingly writes.

His first full-length play, buckets, was produced by the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, in 2015. Previous one-act plays include Closer Scrutiny (Orange Tree, 2014), I.S.S.(Y) (Wilderness Festival, 2013) and Too Small To Be A Planet (Company of Angels / Latitude, 2012). Invisible, a play for young performers, was produced by Theatre Royal Plymouth in 2015.

As a director, he has worked extensively at the Orange Tree (starting as a trainee director, 2003-4), and at Trafalgar Studios, the Finborough, Arcola, King’s Head, Salisbury Playhouse, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Lichfield Garrick, Edinburgh Fringe, HighTide and in Copenhagen and Vienna.

Until 2013 he was joint director of Company of Angels, where he created the new writing programme The Commissioners and the digital theatre programme Virtual Empty Space, and wrote and directed four short films. Previously he was founding artistic director of Activated Image. He also works sporadically as a newspaper journalist.

Barnabe Barnes (c.1571–1609) was an English poet and dramatist. He is known for his Petrarchan love sonnets and for his combative personality, involving feuds with other writers and culminating in an alleged attempted murder. The Devil's Charter is his only surviving play.