Born in Rathcoole, north Belfast, in 1965, Gary Mitchell left school at 15. Initially interested in acting, he joined a drama group, but found hard to find a play about his Protestant community . Mitchell consequently set about writing such plays, and his first play for radio, The World, the Flesh and the Devil, won the BBC Young Playwrights Competition in 1991. This was followed by A Tearful of Dreams for BBC Radio 4 in 1993.
Mitchell’s first stage play, Independent Voice, was produced by Belfast theatre company Tinderbox in 1993. A piece about two ambitious young journalists who get caught up in a story which threatens their business, friendship and lives,. Soon after, Mitchell became both the first Protestant and the first Northern Irish writer to win the Stewart Parker BBC Radio Drama Award (in 1993).
The theater play In a Little World of Our Own (1997) proved to be Mitchell’s national breakthrough. Lauded for its representation of the Protestant loyalist working class, it was premiered by Dublin’s National Theatre Society/Abbey Theatre amid allegations and denials that theatres in Northern Ireland considered it too contentious.
Mitchell's political thrillers have satirised the paralimitaries who hold power within their community. In 2005 Mitchell's home was attacked by . The paramilitaries had been enraged by his plays and sought to silence him. Mitchell now lives in a secret location.
Radio plays[]
- Tubes (2020) RTÉ radio1
- Fighting Cowardice (2014) RTÉ Radio 1
- Ulster Volunteers (2014) RTÉ Radio 1
- Loves Worst Day (2013) BBC Radio 4
- Babies (2012) RTÉ Radio 1
- Freedom of Poverty (2011) RTÉ Radio 1
- Ian Really Likes Mary (2010) RTÉ Radio 1
- Echoes of War (2009) BBC Radio 3
- Forgotten People Part Two (2009) RTÉ Radio 1
- Forgotten People Part One (2009) RTÉ Radio 1
- Just 'Cause (2008) RTÉ Radio 1
- Loyal Women (2003) BBC Radio 4
- The Force of Change (2002) BBC Radio 4
- As the Beast Sleeps (2001) BBC Radio 4
- At the Base of the Pyramid (1997) BBC Radio 4
- Drumcree (1996) BBC Radio 4
- Dividing Force Episode Three: Useless Tools (1995) BBC Radio 4
- Dividing Force Episode Two: Raising the Standard (1995) BBC Radio 4
- Dividing Force Episode One: Above the Law (1995) BBC Radio 4
- Stranded (1995) BBC Radio 3
- Mandarin Lime (1995) with Jimmy Murphy BBC Radio 3
- Poison Hearts (1994) BBC Radio 4
- Independent Voice (1993) BBC Radio 4
- A Tearful of Dreams (1993) BBC Radio 4
- The World, the Flesh and the Devil (1991) BBC Radio 4