Kae Tempest (born Kate Esther Calvert in London in 1985) is a British poet, playwright, novelist, and recording artist of Jewish descent. They studied at the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology and read English Literature at Goldsmiths, University of London. Tempest’s work includes poetry collections, albums, long poems, and the plays Wasted (2013), Glasshouse (2014), and Hopelessly Devoted (2014).

They were nominated for the Mercury Music Prize for the albums Everybody Down (2014) and Let Them Eat Chaos (2016). Tempest also received the Ted Hughes Award and a Herald Angel Award for their work Brand New Ancients (2012). The Poetry Book Society named Tempest a Next Generation poet, and in 2018 they were nominated as Best British Female Solo Artist at the Brit Awards. Tempest’s best-selling debut novel The Bricks That Built the Houses (2016) won the 2017 Books Are My Bag Readers Award for Breakthrough Author. Premiering at the National Theatre, in 2021, was Tempest’s modern adaptation of a Greek Classic, Philoctetes, by Sophocles.

Kae Tempest is one of the many UK-based artists to sign APUK’s (Artists for Palestine UK) pledge to boycott Israel culturally or professionally and has received threats for supporting Palestinian Rights.

Plays

—. Wasted. London: Methuen Drama, 2013.

—. Hopelessly Devoted. London: Methuen Drama, 2015.