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Marcelo is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter who grew up in Sydney, Rio and London. In 2022 he won a Scotsman Fringe First for Excellence in New Writing and was selected for The Stage 100 – Rising Stars category. He recently won the Critics Circle Theatre Award – ‘Most Promising Playwright’ for Backstairs Billy (2024).
His latest play Backstairs Billy opened at the Duke of York’s Theatre, in London’s West End in November 2023 directed by Michael Grandage, starring Penelope Wilton and Luke Evans. “The best royal drama in a decade. Perfect.” ***** Daily Telegraph; “Gleefully subversive” **** Time Out; “An early festive delight” **** The Independent;” A frisky royal tale of mistress and servant” **** The Observer; “Nothing has made me laugh more this year” **** The Sunday Times.
Key credits include: Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible Is Going To Happen (Francesca Moody Productions, Roundabout August 2022 & Bush Theatre, London, Autumn/Winter 2023 – Scotsman Fringe First Award for New Writing); Subverts (Royal Court Theatre – Living Newspaper); Lionboy (adaptation for Complicite, UK/World tour); New Labour (RADA); Trigger Warning (created with Natasha Nixon at Camden People’s Theatre); The End of History (High Hearted Theatre & Soho Theatre); Cheer up This is Only the Beginning (co writer, Liverpool Playhouse); Moshing Lying Down (Shunt/Festivals tour); Lovers Walk (co-writer, Southwark Playhouse).
Previously he has been a writer-on-attachment at the National Theatre, Bush Theatre, HighTide Festival Theatre as well as the Royal Court Theatre where he was also part of their writing ‘super group’. Marcelo was a member of the prestigious BBC Drama Room scheme (2019/20).
He is also developing TV projects with Avalon TV and Drama Republic. Marcelo is represented by Simon Blakey at The Agency.
Praise for Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible Is Going To Happen:
***** The Telegraph, Whatsonstage, The Skinny, Three Weeks
**** The Guardian, The Times, The Independent, The Stage, The Scotsman
“Blending dark humour, pathos and a hearty dose of millennial angst…deserves to be the next Fleabag…Big questions about identity and intimacy leap out like jack in the boxes – but it’s the attention detail that captivates. The gag count is ridiculously high and the writing has a Bennettian-finesse… it’s enviably accomplished” ***** The Telegraph
“It’s a very funny show, but also a telling one and it confirms Dos Santos (who wrote Lionboy for Complicité) as a really interesting writer, using an examination of the mechanisms of comedy to peer closely into the workings of the human heart” ***** Whatsonstage
“A frank, funny and occasionally filthy portrait of a man who habitually hides behind humour, neatly structured around a stand-up set.” **** The Independent
“a compelling and troubling character study with some killer punchlines” **** The Guardian
Photo: Mike Massaro
Marcelo Dos Santos 