James Graham is a playwright and screenwriter. 

His Olivier award winning play Dear England, about Gareth Southgate’s transformation of the national team had a sold out run at the National in 2023, transferred to the West End and was broadcast on NT Live. An updated version returned to the National Theatre before a national tour this Spring, and it is being adapted for TV with the BBC. His play Punch, opened at the Nottingham Playhouse in 2024 to rave reviews, and transferred to the Young Vic in March 2025. It will be opening on the West End and Broadway this autumn. His new play, Make it Happen, starring Brian Cox, previewed at Dundee Rep in July 2025, before its world premiere at the Edinburgh International Festival. Other work includes Tammy Faye, having originally opened at the Almeida Theatre in 2022, it opened on Broadway in 2024, and Ink, originally performed in 2017 at the Almeida Theatre, which then transferred to the West End and Broadway in 2019 where it was nominated for six Tony Awards. James's breakout play This House – also at the National Theatre- went on to have an Olivier-nominated sell-out revival in the West End in 2017 and it was chosen by popular vote as the best play of the 2010’s for the major theatre publisher Methuen.

James’s TV drama Sherwood – set in the Red Wall community of Ashfield where he is from –won the Royal Television Society Award for Best Drama and won 2 BAFTAS. It’s critically acclaimed second season aired in 2024, and its third season is coming soon. 

Other TV includes Quiz (ITV and AMC) in 2020, directed by Stephen Frears, which was one of the most watched UK television dramas of the year. And Brexit: An Uncivil War, broadcast on Channel 4 and HBO was nominated for an Emmy and a BAFTA.