We sat down with Omar Khan, an International Emmy award-winning writer and actor. In 2022 he wrote and starred in an award-winning short film funded by Netflix (Queen of Diamonds). This led him to be commissioned by NYT – where he was already a member. In 2023 Samahoma Entertainment attached themselves to option Omar’s debut feature Tea Leaves. Omar recently became a International Emmy Award Winner, winning The Sir Peter Ustinov Screenwriting Award (2023) for unaired drama pilot – “POCKET MAN.” 

How did winning the International Emmy Award and the Sir Peter Ustinov Screenwriting Award influence your career and opportunities in the film and theatre industry?

I think it influenced it in a way where it made everyone want to speak to me more. So as much as you can have self belief and put yourself in rooms, and that is certainly the way to begin in this game, I think having an award like that by your name definitely makes people more interested in speaking to you. So just in terms of how it affected me, literally, it got me into a lot more rooms.

Can you share the inspiration and creative process behind your award-winning short film, Queen of Diamonds, and how it led to your collaboration with Netflix?

I wrote Queen of Diamonds based on an experience I had, as I do with many of the things I write. Writing is my form of therapy and expression. It helps me come to terms with how I feel about things.

So I wrote it based on an experience I had and then I worked with a production company called Fully Focused Productions who do a lot with young people. They’re similar to the National Youth Theatre, but they focus more on screen.

They had a bit of development funding from Netflix and the idea was to get young people to pitch for the money using their own idea and whichever the panel thought were best would get a pocket of the money. I was lucky enough to receive some of the money and off the back of that I made Queen of Diamonds and I now have quite a cool relationship with a handful of people at Netflix, which is lovely.

What themes and personal experiences did you draw upon when writing your debut feature, Tea Leaves?

I drew upon my upbringing in Forest Gate. I think a lot of television now focuses on south London and west London, for some reasonI just don’t see east London on the telly. I don’t see Woodgrange Road, I don’t see Romford Road, I don’t see, you know, the road I grew up on Brownlow Road. I just really loved the language of where I grew up, and I want to see that on screen. Forest Gate was a very diverse, multicultural area with loads of interesting people and, you hear stories and I just drew from my upbringing in Forest Gate to write to you.

And then I also drew from my experience with the people I grew up around.

I want to hear voices that I feel like are familiar to me and authentic on the telly. And I want to tell stories at this point in my career, in a very accessible and cost efficient way. I wrote a film that has few locations. It’s an ensemble cast of young people. I was very conscious, as you have to be when you have had enough of the conversations I’ve had in the first few years of my career, that money is not going to come easily to someone who’s not made something before. So if you’re going to write something, write it cheap, write it easy, and you’ll have a better chance of making a show. So that was a lot of why I put Tea Leaves to the page.

Blue Kimera seems to blend elements of comedy, thriller, and romance. How do you balance these genres, and what message do you hope to convey through this play?

I find myself very lucky in that my process of writing is that I don’t consider these things particularly pragmatically. I just want to write honest stories. So the idea of balancing these themes, I wouldn’t say I do. I don’t conceptualise it, I don’t intellectualise it. I just write. And it just so happens that my voice happens to be one that traverses multiple themes 

That used to be something that people would be like, you don’t write comedy or drama, you write comedy dramas. When I was in my early twenties it seemed like that wasn’t a good thing. And then, funnily enough, around that time, Fleabag comes out and then Martin McDonagh’s work starts winning Oscars and it’s like, this is what people want, they just want honest stuff. I don’t think people are confined by the idea of this is funny or this is dramatic. They just want to watch something that feels real, feels honest and feels lived. I would say that I’m just very lucky in the voice that I have and I’ve stood by that voice, which traverses these themes.

Is there a message? The main thing I want to convey with Blue Kimera is presence. I think I’ve learnt a lot about dealing with anxiety and stress and all the things that come in life  A lot of my stress came from the future or the past. I’d be worried about what’s to happen. I worried about what had happened and it’s like, when I live in this moment, when I sit in what is now. It’s amazing. With Blue Kimera, the lead learns that when he’s with this woman, he embraces every moment with her and he tries to be present with her and he realises when he is present with her, there isn’t much to stress about until there is. And I feel that’s a beautiful thing.

What can audiences expect from the staged performances of Blue Kimera at the National Youth Theatre, and how do you think the play’s themes will resonate with audiences?

I think doing it in the round is a very exciting decision, because I think it makes it more engrossing and it adds more to the idea that I’ve always had in my writing, which is that as an audience you are peering into something you maybe shouldn’t be. I think it will feel really visceral.  

I don’t know if the story is like anything that I’ve ever seen before on stage. In my generation, with therapy and all these words that get thrown around it’s nice to see someone go, middle finger to all of that, I’m going to do it my way. you got to figure out what works for you in this life.It’s easy to lean on people in terms of what they think works for you, but they will never truly know you. It’s not like the job of a character to be, like, morally right or wrong or acceptable or not, you know? And I really have that approach when I write. I never judge my characters because you can’t, they are who they are for a reason. [Look out for when the play next runs] and make your decision as to what you think about the characters, but they’ve made the decisions for themselves. And I think everyone can relate to that.

Blue Kimera presented staged performances at the National Youth Theatre’s north London base on 2nd and 8th August. Keep an eye out for when it returns to the stage!