Lauren Beukes attended Roedean school from 1986 through to Matric in 1993 Lauren says ‘I was lucky to have inspiring teachers like Miss Thorn, Mrs Edwards, Mrs Moelwyn-Hughes and the kick-ass librarian Mrs Todd in an environment that encouraged creativity and engaging in issues.’
Lauren Beukes is now a novelist, TV scriptwriter, documentary maker, comics writer and occasional journalist. She won the 2011 Arthur C Clarke Award for her novel Zoo City, set in a fantastical Johannesburg where guilt manifests as spirit animal familiars and dark things lurk beneath the surface of the pop music industry. Her previous works include Moxyland, a political dystopian future thriller set in Cape Town under corporate apartheid and the rollicking non-fiction, Maverick: Extraordinary Women From South Africa’s Past.
As a TV scriptwriter, she written on kids TV shows Florrie’s Dragons for Disney and Mouk for Millimages in France and was a co-creator on South Africa’s first half hour animated show, URBO: The Adventures of Pax Afrika which ran for 104 episodes over three years on SABC3. She co-wrote the pilot for the political puppet satire show, Z-News and several episodes of The South African Story with Desmond Tutu.
Her first documentary, Glitterboys & Ganglands about South Africa’s biggest female impersonation pageant, Miss Gay Western Cape, premiered at the Encounters Documentary Festival in 2011.
She’s won awards for her journalism and also written short stories, alternate reality games and cell phone novels.
www.laurenbeukes.com
Achievements
- Zoo City – Winner of the 2011 Arthur C Clarke Award
- Zoo City – Winner of the 2010 Kitschies Award fro Best Novel
- Zoo City – Shortlisted for the University of Johannesburg Prize
- Zoo City – Shortlisted for the Mnet Literary Awards
- Featured in Mail & Guardian’s Book of Women 2010 and 2011
- Featured as one of the Mail & Guardian’s Top Young South Africans 2009
- Winner Best Columnist Western Cape in the Vodacom Journalist of the Year Awards in 2007 and 2008
Interests
- Lauren enjoys writing, reading, going to the movies and watching great TV like The Wire.
- Spending time with friends is a must.
- Lauren is inspired and takes great interest in Apartheid’s legacy as well as Social divides and injustices.