Kate Tempest grew up in South-East London, where she still lives. She started out as a rapper, toured the spoken word circuit for a number of years, and now works as a poet and playwright too. Her work includes ‘Balance’, her first album with her band Sound of Rum, ‘Everything Speaks in its Own Way’, her first collection of poems, published on her own imprint Zingaro, which comes with a CD and DVD of live performance; ‘GlassHouse’, a forum theatre play for Cardboard Citizens; and the plays ‘WASTED’ (Published by Methuen Drama) and ‘Hopelessly Devoted’ for new writing theatre company Paines Plough.