Actor & Writer
Jack is an award-winning actor and writer who trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. He’s an alumnus of the Royal Court Introduction to Playwriting Course and the Channel 4 Screenwriting Course. He has been on attachment at the National Theatre Studio and his screenplay ‘REVOLTING’ was selected for the BRIT LIST 2025.
His debut play, CRUISE, was nominated for the Olivier Award for Best New Play 2022. His follow-up, KENREX, co-written with Ed Stambollouian, was nominated for six Olivier Awards, with Jack winning Best Actor, as well as the UK Theatre Award for Best Performer in a Play. It played at The Other Palace London in Winter 2025/26 and ran at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, New York, in Spring 2026.
Jack’s adaptation of Alan Hollinghurst’s THE LINE OF BEAUTY, directed by Michael Grandage, played a sell-out run at the Almeida Theatre in October 2025.
Jack is developing multiple stage and screen projects with a range of production companies. He’s currently filming the new Warner Brothers OCEAN’S 11 prequel, written and directed by Bradley Cooper.
Jack is represented by John Hyslop at United Agents for his acting; Alec Drysdale at Independent Talent for his writing; and United Voices for his voice over work.
Jack’s US reps are Jamie Pillet, Lauren Szurgot, Erin Junkin and Michael Finkle at WME.
KENREX
Written by Jack Holden and Ed Stambollouian
With music by John Patrick Elliott
Directed by Ed Stambollouian
Performed by Jack Holden and John Patrick Elliott
Lucille Lortel Theatre, New York, 2026 | The Other Palace 2025 | Southwark Playhouse 2025 | Sheffield Theatres 2024
July 10th 1981. Skidmore, Missouri. A man is shot dead in broad daylight. There are sixty witnesses - but no one saw a thing.
Part True Crime, part Western, with a foot stomping live Americana soundtrack, KENREX is a gritty, gripping thriller which asks if its ever right to take the law into your own hands.
WINNER: Olivier Awards 2026 - Best Actor - Jack Holden, Best Sound Design - Giles Thomas; UK Theatre Awards Best Actor in a Play - Jack Holden
NOMINATIONS: Olivier Awards 2026 - Best New Play, Best Actor, Best Director, Outstanding Musical contribution, Best Sound Design, Best Lighting Design; Drama Desk Awards - Outstanding Solo Performance, Outstanding Musical Composition, Outstanding Sound Design; Outer Critics Circle Award (USA) - Outstanding Solo Performance; Critics Circle Theatre Award - Best New Play; Off West End Awards - Best Creation, Production, Performance, Design and Sound & Music; Whatsonstage Awards - Best Studio Show
“A masterclass in acting and storytelling” – ★★★★★ The Sunday Times
“Western swagger meets true crime in a five-star triumph” – ★★★★★ Financial Times
“Brilliantly theatrical, exhilarating and terrifying” – ★★★★★ Daily Telegraph
The Line of Beauty
Based on the novel by Alan Hollinghurst
Adapted by Jack Holden
Directed by Michael Grandage
Almeida Theatre 2025
London. Summer, 1983.
Nick Guest moves into the grand Notting Hill home of his university friend Toby — and into the dazzling world of Toby’s father Gerald, a newly elected Tory MP, his elegant wife Rachel, and their troubled daughter Cat. From private gardens to country estates, glittering parties to political dinners, Nick is swept up in a world of money, power and privilege. A world that promises everything — and exacts a cost.
As he pursues beauty in all its forms Nick finds himself caught between the freedoms of desire and the rigid boundaries of class, sexuality and public image in a rapidly changing Britain.
The Line of Beauty is a captivating portrait of Thatcher’s Britain at its most decadent and divisive, based on the Booker Prize-winning novel by “one of the greatest writers of our time” (The Guardian) Alan Hollinghurst. Olivier Award nominee Jack Holden’s (Cruise; Kenrex) new adaptation of this poignant book is directed by Tony Award winner Michael Grandage.
“Writer Jack Holden and director Michael Grandage have created a piece that is supremely polished”
★ ★ ★ ★★ Metro
“A captivating portrait of Thatcher’s Britain”
★ ★ ★ ★ Financial Times
“Hard not to be seduced”
★ ★ ★ ★ Telegraph
“Deliciously witty”
★ ★ ★ ★Independent
“Jack Holden has achieved something remarkable”
★ ★ ★ ★ WhatsOnStage
Cruise
Written and performed by Jack Holden
Music written and performed by John Patrick Elliott
Directed by Bronagh Lagan
Duchess Theatre 2021 | Apollo Theatre 2022 | HOME Manchester 2023 | South Africa 2024 | Australia & Mexico 2025
Soho, London. 1980. Michael arrives in the bright lights of London and begins an odyssey through the pubs and clubs of Soho where he finds friends, foes and lovers. But as the clouds of the AIDS crisis gather, Michael’s life—and community—is turned upside down. Handed a death sentence by a nurse, Michael faces a choice: fade away quietly or go out with a bang. A life-affirming story of love, loss and dancing in the face of terror.
WINNER: Stage Debut Award Best Sound Design/Composition - John Patrick Elliott
NOMINATION: Olivier Awards 2022 - Best New Play
‘Life affirming and as searingly honest as It’s A Sin... A tour de force, the toast of the town.’
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ The Telegraph
‘A masterful display of physical and linguistic shapeshifting from Holden.’
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ The Evening Standard
‘Stunningly funny, joyful and wholeheartedly life-grabbing. Holden is enchanting.’
★ ★ ★ ★ The Guardian
Club NVRLND
Book by Jack Holden
Conceiver and Director Steven Kunis
Choreographed by Ashley Nottingham
Vaults Waterloo from November 14th 2026
Peter Pan is throwing London’s greatest night out: a pop-filled theatrical adventure soundtracked by the songs you grew up with — and never grew out of!
Leave your worries at the door and lose yourself on the dancefloor in a nostalgia-fuelled world of music and mischief - featuring the biggest 2000s anthems from Britney, Rihanna, P!nk, Coldplay and many more!
When runaway bride Wendy Darling stumbles back into Peter's world, she's forced to question everything she thought she wanted. Offered the chance to rewrite her story, Wendy's thrown back into a world of intoxicating fun and reckless adventure.
Fresh from a sold-out run at the Edinburgh Festival, Club NVRLND lands at The Vaults Waterloo for a strictly limited season. Written by Olivier Award-winner Jack Holden (Cruise, KENREX), with concept and direction by Steven Kunis (Hir, Straight White Men), this nightclub musical event is an irreverent, high-energy, immersive party where fairy dust is in the air, the drinks flow, and the night is always young.
SAFARI
Jack’s debut short film as writer-director, SAFARI tells the story of a chance meeting in a night club between two men - one who is on a new recreational drug, the other who isn’t…
Produced by My Accomplice, coming soon.
Starring Eloka Ivo, Alexander Holley and Lydia Larson.
Produced by Sychelle-Kristina Yanda & Dorottya Székely.
Executive Producers: Jamie Clark, Aleksandra Bilić & Cordell Campbell.
