Penhall's first major play,
Some Voices, premiered at the
Royal Court Theatre's upstairs playing space in London in 1994. It was very well-received, winning the
John Whiting Award, and has since been played off-Broadway twice. In 2000 Penhall adapted the play for
a film with the same name directed by
Simon Cellan Jones, starring
Daniel Craig and
Kelly Macdonald, which premiered at the Cannes
Directors' Fortnight. Penhall returned to the
Royal Court Theatre with his second full-length play
Pale Horse, which also played in the Theatre Upstairs and featured
Ray Winstone, who had starred in
Some Voices. A dark play,
Pale Horse tells the story of a bar keeper coming to terms with the sudden death of his wife. Penhall adapted
Ian McEwan's novel
Enduring Love in 2004 to
film starring
Rhys Ifans and
Daniel Craig. That same year he also wrote the screenplay for BBC2's
BAFTA-nominated dramatisation of
Jake Arnott's novel
The Long Firm (1999), starring
Mark Strong. In 2000 Penhall's play
Blue/Orange began its run at the
National Theatre, directed by
Roger Michell and starring
Bill Nighy,
Andrew Lincoln and
Chiwetel Ejiofor. The play centres on two NHS doctors trying to deal with a sectioned young black schizophrenic patient; it was a huge success, winning Best New Play at the
Evening Standard Theatre Awards,
Laurence Olivier Awards, and at the
Critics' Circle. It transferred to the West End at the
Duchess Theatre the following year. Penhall
adapted this play in 2005 for TV with a new cast. That same year he wrote and directed
The Undertaker, his first short film, starring
Rhys Ifans and premiering at the London Film Festival. Penhall's follow-up play
Dumb Show was staged at the
Royal Court Theatre in 2004, focusing on tabloid journalism. It was directed by
Terry Johnson. Penhall has called this a "small light play" as opposed to the "huge dark play"
Blue/Orange.
Landscape With Weapon, about the invention of a weapon of mass destruction, was first performed at the
National Theatre in 2007, directed again by
Roger Michell and starring
Tom Hollander and
Julian Rhind-Tutt. Penhall spent six years working on
The Last King of Scotland, even flying to
Uganda and meeting
Idi Amin's henchmen; however, he requested his name be removed from the film after other writers were brought on board. Penhall adapted
Cormac McCarthy's book
The Road in 2009 for
a film starring
Viggo Mortensen; for this he received wide praise, scoring a 74% rating on
Rotten Tomatoes, and was named by Variety Magazine as one of their Top Ten Screenwriters to watch. In 2009 Penhall's detective drama
Moses Jones, where he also served as executive producer, was shown on the
BBC, winning a BAFTA for make-up design and Best Screenplay at the Roma Film Festival in 2009. In 2011 Penhall returned to the theatre with two plays:
Haunted Child, staged at the
Royal Court Theatre with
Sophie Okonedo, and
Birthday, starring
Stephen Mangan and directed by long-term collaborator
Roger Michell. Penhall's first stage musical,
Sunny Afternoon, with music and lyrics by
Ray Davies, premiered at the
Hampstead Theatre in May 2014, before transferring to
London's
West End. The musical won four Laurence Olivier Awards in 2015, including for
Best New Musical. In 2017, Penhall created the
Netflix series
Mindhunter, directed by
David Fincher. In 2018, Penhall's play
Mood Music premiered at
The Old Vic, directed by
Roger Michell and starring
Ben Chaplin. In 2023, Penhall was revealed to have been attached to write the
third Sherlock Holmes film with star
Robert Downey Jr. and director
Dexter Fletcher before its
development hell due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. In 2024, Penhall's play
The Constituent premiered at
The Old Vic, directed by
Matthew Warchus and starring
James Corden and
Anna Maxwell Martin. ==Personal life==