Benjamin Zephaniah
Biography
Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah (April 15, 1958 - December 7, 2023) was a British writer, dub poet and Rastafarian. He was included in The Times list of Britain's top 50 post-war writers in 2008.
Known For & Full Filmography26 Titles
Drama Series - 2013, 16 episodes • as Jeremiah Jesus
A gangster family epic set in 1919 Birmingham, England and centered on a gang who sew razor blades in the peaks of their caps, and their fierce boss Tommy Shelby, who means to move up in the world.
Drama Series - 2003, 16 episodes • as Self
Comedy quiz show full of quirky facts, in which contestants are rewarded more if their answers are 'quite interesting'.
Drama Series - 1979, 16 episodes • as Self - Panellist
This topical debate series based on Any Questions? typically features politicians from at least the three major political parties as well as other public figures who answer pre-selected questions put to them by a carefully selected audience.
Drama Series - 2011, 16 episodes • as Self - Participant
Antiques experts accompany celebrities on a road trip around the UK searching for treasures and competing to make the most money at auction
Drama Series - 1998, 16 episodes • as Self
Michael Parkinson returns for a second run of his iconic talk show.
Drama Series - 1982, 16 episodes • as Rufus
The Comic Strip is a group of British comedians, who do parodies of films, literature and sometimes major events.
Drama Series - 2003, 16 episodes • Main Cast Role
Celebrity Mastermind is a British television quiz show broadcast by BBC television. The show is a spin-off of the long-running quiz show Mastermind, with the exception that all the contestants are celebrities. As with the main show, John Humphrys is the host and question-master. Magnus Magnusson was quizmaster on the 2003/04 episodes featuring Jonathan Meades as winner.
Drama Series - 1986, 16 episodes • as Benjamin Zephaniah
Screenplay was a drama anthology television series, broadcast on BBC between 1986 and 1993. Numerous episodes were produced including one named "Boswell and Johnson's Tour of the Western Islands" starring Robbie Coltrane as English writer Samuel Johnson who in the autumn of 1773, visits the Hebrides off the north-west coast of Scotland. That episode was directed by John Byrne and co-starred John Sessions and Celia Imrie.
Drama Series - 1981, 16 episodes • Main Cast Role
40 Minutes was a BBC TV documentary strand broadcast on BBC Two between 1981 and 1994. The documentaries could be on any possible subject, the only connection being that they last forty minutes. Some documentaries in the original series were revisited and updated in a 2006 version, Forty Minutes On.
Drama Series - 2007, 16 episodes • as Self
Nicky Campbell hosts a series of moral, ethical and religious debates.
Drama Series - 2018, 16 episodes • as Self
Grime legend and social media sensation Big Narstie hosts an anarchic studio show along with his co-host, and the hottest comedian in town, Mo Gilligan.
Drama Series - 2017, 16 episodes • as Self
In an attempt to make sense of the bewildering world we live in, Frankie Boyle dissects the week's news using stand-up, review, discussion and audience interaction.
Movie - 1991, 2h 15m • as Moses
A young man travels with his French girlfriend to Ethiopia. Whilst there he discovers a house in which the French poet Rimbaud once lived and he becomes obsessed with finding out more information about him.
Movie - 1988, 2h 15m • as Rufus
Carl Moss leaves jail,where he has taken the rap for his evil twin Sterling,and has been declared a model prisoner. Pauline Sneek,his probation officer - and girlfriend - gets him community work teaching youngsters how to lead law-abiding lives. This displeases Sterling,as he needs the young delinquents for his bicycle stealing ring.
Drama Series - 2020, 16 episodes • as Himself
Life & Rhymes is the first show of its kind in the UK, solely dedicated to spoken word performance it celebrates the very best poetry and spoken word talent the UK has to offer.
Movie - 1994, 2h 15m • as Self
This classic Vegan Society video remains one of the most entertaining and informative introductions to veganism. Viewers will learn why avoiding meat, leather, dairy and eggs is not only the most healthy way to live but also the most compassionate. Highly recommended for both existing vegans and anyone considering becoming a vegan.
Movie - 2002, 2h 15m • as Poet
London, one year from today... The dogs of England are dying, of "Mad Dog Disease," and Rabbie Burns, young drifter and certified schizophrenic, is hearing voices again - on Underground trains, over supermarket tannoys, and on his own T.V. He has 30 hours, a last weekend, to save the world from itself, before the "Supreme Being" himself loses patience and starts over, with a new species...
Movie - 1992, 2h 15m • as Self
Benjamin Zephaniah, renowned Rastafarian poet/rapper is traveling by train from Birmingham to Cambridge to receive his Creative Arts Fellowship sharing a carriage with a racist and philistine car spares salesman played by Timothy Spall; by chance the poets Keats, Byron, Shelley and writer Mary Shelley are transported from a séance they are conducting in The Villa Como by a freak electrical storm. A battle of wits, drug taking and poetry performance ensues!
Movie - 2020, 2h 15m • as Self
Film following the acclaimed Birmingham based artist, known for his controversial satirical collages, as he embarks on a UK wide outdoor art installation.
Movie - 1996, 2h 15m • as Richard's father
"A rites of passage drama about a mixed race boy called Sunshine who leaves Guildford in [the] 1970's and moves to London." - BFI
Movie - 1982, 2h 15m • as Self
Channel 4 documentary on the rastafarian poet which marked his TV debut.
Movie - 2024, 2h 15m • as Narrator
Opening in the trenches of Flanders, a personal story unfolds in postwar industrial Birmingham as the Shelby family navigate the decisions that determine their fate, and Tommy is intoxicated by mysterious newcomer Grace. While Tommy is building his empire, Grace is operating as an undercover agent for Special Branch on a mission to get close to the heart of Tommy’s gang. As the story unfolds, hearts are broken, and revenge is sought.
Movie - 2005, 2h 15m • as Self
Poet Benjamin Zephaniah revisits the place of his birth, Birmingham, on a mission to compose a new poem, which he will then read out on the streets of the city. While there, he watches Aston Villa and revisits the approved school he went to when he was a child.
Movie - 1988, 2h 15m • as Street Corner Poet 1
Time and Judgement is a sci-fi/documentary that combines biblical prophecy with events across the African diaspora between 1980 and 1987. Archive footage includes Haile Selassie, Bob Marley, Kwame Nkrumah, Maurice Bishop, Walter Rodney, Kwame Toure, Bernie Grant.
Movie - 1983, 2h 15m • Main Cast Role
Who Killed Colin Roach? is Isaac Julien's first film, which reflects upon the death of Colin Roach, a 23 year old who was shot at the entrance of a police station in East London, in 1982. Even though the police claimed Roach had commited suicide, evidence showed otherwise. Isaac Julien says that this work is essentially a response to the riots, an answer to certain fixed ways of looking at black cultures, but also at those ways we might feel about ourselves.
Movie - 1985, 2h 15m • as Himself
This documentary is constructed in two parts. Part one deals with the suppression of other ‘minority’ cultures, part two looks at the ways these cultures are fighting back. The film includes contributions from Prof. Stuart Hall (The Open University), Prof, Bikkhu Parekh (Commission for Racial Equality), Prof. Gwyn Williams (Historian/Author), Benjamin Zephaniah (Poet), teachers and children, with experiences of Gujarati, Caribbean, Creole and Welsh.