Profile
Born in Kingston Jamaica, Yvonne Brewster went to the UK to study Speech, Drama and Mime at the Rose Bruford College and the Royal Academy of Music. She holds Licentiates from the Royal Academy of Music and Rose Bruford College.
Yvonne is Founder of the Barn - Jamaica's first professional theatre company and Talawa Theatre Britain's flagship theatre company for whom she directed a succession of ground-breaking productions including Britain's first all black production of The Importance of Being Earnest.
She has worked on many films, among them Jamaica's The Harder They Come, Smile Orange and The Marijuana Affair,
And in TV
The Fight Against Slavery, My Father Son Son Johnson. Maybury with Patrick Stewart, Doctors, The Bill, EastEnders Family Affairs, ITV's Rose and Maloney among others including Romeo and Juliet for the BBC which won 2 Baftas and a Royal Television Award.
Her Autobiography The Undertaker's Daughter was published late in 2004.
She is a Fellow of Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama, of the Royal Society of Arts, The Central School of Speech and Drama and was conferred with an Honorary Doctorate from The Open University..
A recipient of the Living Legend Award from the National Black Theatre Festival in the USA, an Arts Council Woman of Achievement Award, she received the Heritage Award from the European Federation of BlackBusiness Owners in 2001.
In the 1993 New Year's Honours list, Yvonne received the Order of the British Empire from Her Majesty the Queen for Services to the Arts
