Kwame Kwei-Armah OBE, born Ian Roberts, is a British actor, playwright, singer and broadcaster. In 2005 he became the second black Briton to have a play staged in the West End. Kwei-Armah's award-winning piece Elmina's Kitchen transferred to the Garrick Theatre in 2005. He voiced Mtambo in The Lorax. Brought up in Southall, he changed his name at the age of 19 after tracing his family history, through the slave trade back to his ancestral African roots in Ghana. His parents were born in Grenada. He has four children. On 1 July 2011, he became Artistic Director of Center Stage in Baltimore, MD, succeeding Irene Lewis. He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2012 Birthday Honours for services to drama. He became the Chancellor of the University of the Arts on 7 March 2011. 

March 24th, 1967 in Hillingdon (Age 57) as Ian Roberts