Alastair Curtis (b. 1996) is a writer and director “hellbent on developing current and future generations’ knowledge of queer history by championing the voices we’ve lost” (Interview). He wrote and executive produced Sweetheart, a “Sundance 2025 breakout” (i-D) set in a Molly House in eighteenth-century London’s queer underground and starring Eben Figueiredo, Thomas Flynn and Ian Gelder. After playing at the Iris Prize and Aesthetica Film Festival, it is now streaming on Channel 4.

He is the founder of The AIDS Plays Project, a campaign rediscovering queer writers who passed away due to HIV/AIDS, reviving their plays, and “reshaping the queer theatrical canon” (Financial Times). Since it started in 2023, this “momentum-building” project (Evening Standard) has brought together dozens of actors and performers from London’s drag and night-life scenes for sold-out, one-off rehearsed readings featured by the BBC, TANK, The Stage, Exeunt, The Face, HERO, Frieze, and Interview. Now in its third season at London Performance Studios, it has left “the next generation of theater gays gagging for more” (BUTT).

He is currently editing a play anthology for Bloomsbury/Methuen Drama. His writing on art and culture has previously been shortlisted for The Guardian’s Arts Writing Prize and appeared in The Observer, The Economist, Prospect, frieze and AnOther, amongst others. He is developing several film and TV projects and is represented by Abby Singer and CJ Rock at Casarotto Ramsay.

Contact

Abby Singer and CJ Rock
(Writing, TV & Film)
Casarotto Ramsay

The AIDS Plays Project
alastair@theaidsplaysproject.com

Portrait by Elijah Horne