Allie Esiri
Allie Esiri (previously Byrne) read Modern and Medieval Languages at St Catharine's College, Cambridge. She is a former English stage, film, and television actress, now a writer. She created iF Poems, an educational poetry app, the accompanying hardback anthology iF: A Treasury of Poems for Almost Every Possibility, published by Canongate and The Love Book, both an interactive literary app on iOS and Android and a hardback book, published by Square Peg, Random House, of best-loved poems, quotations, and letters on the theme of love. She has hosted poetry events at The Times/Sunday Times Cheltenham Literary Festival, The Sunday Times Education Festival and The Oldie Soho Literary Festival. Previously she was on the Development Board of the Royal Court theatre in London. In 2014 she joined the Advisory Board and became the Poetry Advisor to The Times/Sunday Times Cheltenham Literature Festival. She launched her new series of events: Allie Esiri Poetry Corner with readings by amongst others, Damian Lewis, Helen McCrory, Nathanial Parker and Sophie Turner Game of Thrones. She is a member, alongside Antonia Byatt and Carol Ann Duffy, of the Poetry Book Society UK Children's Poetry Summit. Alongside Roger McGough, Tony Mitton and Tony Bradman, Allie Esiri judged the CLIPPA 2015 Poetry Award, which was announced at a ceremony at The National Theatre on July 16 2015.
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Acting career
Allie acted in numerous productions whilst at Cambridge University, including an acclaimed production of Cyrano de Bergerac, directed by Sam Mendes, starring Tom Hollander and which also featured future Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg. Byrne's first major television role was in the Agatha Christie's Poirot adaptation of The Mysterious Affair at Styles in 1990. In 1992 she was Olivia in an English Shakespeare Company production of Twelfth Night directed by Michael Pennington.[1] She later appeared in episodes of The Bill, Goodnight Sweetheart, Men Behaving Badly, A Touch of Frost and Van der Valk. In 1995, she played Lady Kiely in the television movie Sharpe's Battle, alongside Sean Bean and Hugh Fraser, with whom she had previously appeared in the Agatha Christie's Poirot adaptation of The Mysterious Affair at Styles. She played one of the lead parts in the ITV series Call Red (1996). She also appeared in the Merchant Ivory Productions film, Howard's End and the Kenneth Branagh film In the Bleak Midwinter. In 1999 she played Teri Riley in the film Doomwatch: Winter Angel. Other acting credits include Dr Faustus at Greenwich Theatre.
iF Poems and The Love Book
Byrne stopped acting in 1999 and wrote freelance articles for publications such as American Vogue, The New York Times, and London's Evening Standard ES magazine, and now works in the world of poetry and technology. Under her married name of Allie Esiri she has co-created the successful poetry app, "iF Poems"[2] and edited the hardback anthology "iF, A Treasury of Poems for Almost Every Possibility".[3] Allie conceived "iF Poems" as an educational poetry app for children of any age. It was chosen to be in The Sunday Times Best 500 Apps of the year list[4] and in The Spectator's top ten ibooks of the year.[5] It runs on the IOS platform for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. Poems are read aloud on the app by Helena Bonham Carter, Bill Nighy, Harry Enfield, and Tom Hiddleston. The apps and the book are illustrated by Natasha Law. Allie has also created "The Love Book App"[6] available on iOs platform for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch and Android devices. It has 300 poems, quotes, letters and short stories on the theme of love, read by Helena Bonham Carter, Emma Watson, Damian Lewis, Tom Hiddleston, Helen McCrory and Gina Bellman. The app is illustrated by Kate Moross. There is a book of The Love Book, edited by Allie Esiri, published by Square Peg, an imprint of Random House on 6 February 2014.
Selected television credits
- Doomwatch: Winter Angel (1999) - as Teri Riley
- The Bill - as D.S. Hunt (1998)
- Goodnight Sweetheart 1 episode - as Kate (1997)
- Call Red - as Alyson Butler (1996)
- Men Behaving Badly 1 episode - as Jill (1995)
- Sharpe's Battle - as Lady Kiely (1995)
- A Touch of Frost - as Ruth Ormrod (1995)
- Van der Valk, The Ties That Bind - as Petra van Leurink (1992)
- Minder The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Entrepreneur and Three Cons Make A Mountain - as Lucy (1991)
- Agatha Christie's Poirot - The Mysterious Affair at Styles - Cynthia Murdoch (1990)
References
- ↑ Theater Week, vol. 5 (1992), p. 18
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