Matilda Feyiṣayọ Ibini is a Nigerian-British playwright and screenwriter.[1][2][3]
Ibini has a BA in English literature and creative writing (2013) from London Metropolitan University,[4] and an MA, with distinction, in playwriting and screen writing from City University, for which she was awarded a scholarship from BAFTA and Warner Bros.[3]
Ibini's first play Muscovado was performed at Theatre503 in 2015; it is set in Barbados in 1808 and Time Out described it as "A small but satisfying drama about the British involvement in the slave trade".[5][6][7] The play was one of three winners of the Audience Award of the Alfred Fagon Award for 2015.[8]
Little Miss Burden was performed at The Bunker in 2019, telling the story of three Nigerian sisters, one of whom uses a wheelchair. The Stage's reviewer called it "a gem of a play".[9][10]
The Unexpected Expert was broadcast by BBC Four in May 2020 as part of its series Unprecedented of plays written during and about COVID-19 lockdown. It shows a disabled influencer being told by a council worker that her support will be cut during lockdown.[11][12][13]
Her 2020 Caring, cowritten with Gabriel Bisset-Smith, is "A horror-comedy about a disabled woman who finally finds a good carer — only to discover the carer is a serial killer.", and was among the 14 scripts (from 246 entrants) which were selected for the 2020 Brit List of the year's best unproduced scripts.[14] In 2020 it was reported that shooting was planned for summer 2021.[3]
Ibini describes herself as bionic and Queer, explaining: "I adopted the term 'bionic' when I became a full-time wheelchair user and had metal implanted into my leg after a traumatic fracture, even though the term encompasses my experiences from birth, that I have always needed some form of technology, equipment, or adaptation to live."[15] She has Limb–girdle muscular dystrophy.[15]