Trish Cooke


Trish Cooke is a British playwright, actress, television presenter, scriptwriter and children's author. She also wrote under the pseudonym Roselia John Baptiste.

Life

Trish Cooke was born in Bradford. Her parents were from Dominica, part of the Windrush generation. She gained a BA in Performing Arts from Leeds Polytechnic before moving to London in 1984 to pursue an acting career. She worked as a stage manager for the Black Theatre Co-Operative for six months, and after receiving her Equity card worked as an actor in London and regionally, In 1988 she received a Thames Television Writers Bursary and began a writing residency at the Liverpool Playhouse. Between 1988 and 1996 she was a presenter and scriptwriter for Playdays on Children's BBC.She also write scripts for EastEnders, Doctors, The Real McCoy and Brothers and Sisters. In 1989 the company Temba staged her play 'Back Street Mammy, which explored adolescent sexuality and the dilemmas of unplanned pregnancy. In Running Dream a woman returns to Dominica to find both differences and close ties between her and the sisters she left behind there. Both plays use a chorus to comment on the action.
Cooke's children's book So Much won the 0–5 category of the Smarties Book Prize, the She/WH Smith’s Under-Fives Book Prize and the Kurt Maschler Award. It was also Highly Commended for the Kate Greenaway Medal and was shortlisted for both the Sheffield Children’s Book Award and the Nottinghamshire Children’s Book Award.
Her series of inter-racial adaptations of children's fairy tales have been popular at the Theatre Royal Stratford East. Cinderella'' was the first pantomime to win an Olivier Award.

Works

Plays