Nina Raine is an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 theatre director and playwright

Playwright

A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...

, and the only daughter of the poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

 Craig Raine

Craig Raine

Craig Raine is an English poet and critic born in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, England. Along with Christopher Reid, he is the best-known exponent of Martian poetry.-Life:...

.

She graduated from Christ Church, Oxford

Christ Church, Oxford

Christ Church or house of Christ, and thus sometimes known as The House), is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...

 in 1998 with a First in English Literature

English literature

English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....

.

Career

She won the Channel Four/Jerwood Spaces Young Regional Theatre Director bursary in 2000 to train as a director at the Royal Court Theatre

Royal Court Theatre

The Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre on Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is noted for its contributions to modern theatre...

 where she assisted on a number of plays including My Zinc Bed, Mouth to Mouth, Presence and Fucking Games.

She has directed plays in several other theatres since then, including Unprotected at the Liverpool Everyman and the Edinburgh Festival in 2006, for which she won the TMA

TMA Awards

The TMA Awards, established in 1991, are presented annually by the Theatrical Management Association in recognition of creative excellence and outstanding work in United Kingdom theatres...

 Best Director Award, and Shades by Alia Bano

Alia Bano

Alia Bano is a British playwright of Pashtun origin. A graduate of Queen Mary, University of London, she currently works as a schoolteacher in London. Bano is a product of the Royal Court Theatre's programme for young playwrights, and her debut play Shades was staged at the Court in early 2009. The...

 as part of the Royal Court Theatre's Young Writers' Festival in 2009.

Rabbit, Raine's first work as a dramatist, premiered at the Old Red Lion Theatre

Old Red Lion Theatre

The Old Red Lion Theatre is a fringe theatre, situated above a pub at The Angel, in the London Borough of Islington.It was founded in 1948 as the Old Red Lion Theatre Club.-Construction:...

 in London in summer 2006. The play, which she also directed, transferred to the Trafalgar Studios

Trafalgar Studios

Trafalgar Studios, formerly The Whitehall Theatre until 2004, is a West End theatre in Whitehall, near Trafalgar Square, in the City of Westminster, London....

 later that autumn.

She won both the 2006 Evening Standard

Evening Standard Awards

The Evening Standard Theatre Awards, established in 1955, are presented annually for outstanding achievements in London Theatre. Sponsored by the Evening Standard newspaper, they are announced in late November or early December...

's Charles Wintour

Charles Wintour

Charles Vere Wintour, CBE, MBE was a British newspaper editor and was the father of Editor-in-Chief of Vogue magazine, Anna Wintour.-Biography:...

 Award for Most Promising Playwright and Most Promising Playwright Award at the 2006 Critics' Circle Theatre Awards.

Rabbit was performed in New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 in June 2007 at the Brits off Broadway Festival. Meanwhile, Raine has completed her second play Tribes, which was produced by the Royal Court Theatre in London, in October 2010, and has written another play Tiger Country, commissioned by Hampstead Theatre, produced by Alcove Entertainment

Alcove Entertainment

Alcove Entertainment is an independent film production and finance company, based in the UK and the UAE. Alcove Entertainment has occasionally acted as a distributor for its own films. The company was founded by Amina Dasmal and Robin Fox in 2005.-Company:...

and opening in January 2011.

She directed and dramaturged Behind the Image by Alia Bano, which premiered at the Royal Court's 2008 Rough Cuts Season.