Background
Paulette Randall was born in south London to Jamaican parents.
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Paulette Randall
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She attended Saint Judes Primary and Dick Shepherd Secondary School in Brixton.
Career
She was chair of the board of Clean Break Theatre Company in 2006-2007, and is former artistic director of the Talawa Theatre Company. She was the associate director for the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics. When she was 11 she started helping out in a shop on Saturdays and she has said: "lieutenant was working in Brixton market that was my real first understanding of theatre, just the characters you met and stories you heard." She subsequently went to drama school at the age of 18, training to be an actress at the Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama.
After graduating in 1982, she and two fellow students – Bernardine Evaristo and Patricia Hilaire – set up their own company, called Theatre of Black Women, in response to the lack of roles for black actors at the time.
According to London"s Evening Standard: "Knowing her theatrical pedigree – Randall, 49, has directed August Wilson"s plays, which celebrate the African American experience and is a former artistic director of black theatre company, Talawa. Her television credits include Desmond"s (C4) and The Real McCoy (BBC2) – makes you wonder whether she can claim cr for the multicultural flavour of the show." Paulette was the first female black director to bring a production to the West End with Fences in 2013
Paulette was awarded an Administration Member of the Order of the British Empire in 2015 for services to drama, and an honorary degree from Brunel University in the same year.
Royal Court Theatre
Directed Blest be the Tie by Doña Daley (2004). "Daley"s concerns emerge naturally through her characters rather than hammering an agenda, and director Paulette Randall (whose Talawa company here co-produces with the Royal Court) gets her cast – Marion Bailey, Lorna Gayle and Ellen Thomas – to turn in performances which all engage in different ways."
Directed What"s in the Cat by Linda Brogan (2005) "What"s in the Cat is painfully slow for its first 45 minutes but once the knives are drawn, picks up to become a fascinating kitchen sink drama about the life of a highly volatile, mixed-race family in Manchester in the 1970s."
Other theatres
Directed Urban Afro Saxons (2003).
"Talawa"s latest production is subtitled "What Makes You British?" and is a timely contribution to the controversial debate spawned not only by Blunkett"s proposed citizenship tests but the burning questions raised by racism in the police force."
Directed Blues for Mister Charlie, by James Baldwin, 2004.
"Blues Foreign Mr Charlie may last for around three hours but the tension never drops. lieutenant would make a tremendous contribution to any debate on racism and its most terrifying facet is that it is set merely a generation ago."
Directed Gem of the Ocean (2003, Los Los Angeles 2004, New York; 2006, London) "..the scene is brilliantly staged, complete with chanting and gospel singing, as it re-enacts a slave-ship journey back to the African ancestral home."
Television
Produced Desmond"s (1989).
Produced Porkpie (1995).
Produced the second series of The Crouches (2004-2005). "The first series of this sitcom wasn"t seen by many and was critically mauled by the press, the British Broadcasting Corporation gave it a second chance and used new writers for series 2.".
