KAE TEMPEST

Kae Tempest is an English spoken word performer, poet, recording artist, novelist, and playwright. Tempest was accepted into the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology in Croydon at age 16. In 2013, they won the Ted Hughes Award for their work Brand New Ancients. Tempest was named a Next Generation Poet by the Poetry Book Society. Their albums Everybody Down and Let Them Eat Chaos were nominated for the Mercury Music Prize. An accompanying poetry book for Let Them Eat Chaos was nominated for the Costa Book of the Year in the Poetry Category. Their debut novel, The Bricks That Built the Houses, was a Sunday Times best-seller and won the 2017 Books Are My Bag Readers Award for Breakthrough Author. Tempest was nominated as Best Female Solo Performer at the 2018 Brit Awards. They came out as non-binary in 2020 and as a trans man in 2025. In 2025, Tempest released their fifth studio album Self Titled via Island Records. Their forthcoming novel, Having Spent Life Seeking, is scheduled for release on 30 April 2026.