Krishnendu Majumdar

Doctor of Letters

Thursday 16 July 2026 - Orator: Dr Rayna Denison

Vice-Chancellor,

At the University of Bristol, we challenge our students to confront society head-on; to challenge its norms, to change the world for the better. Today, I have the great honour of presenting someone who embodies those values to his core: Krishnendu Kumar Majumdar.

Krish Majumdar has worked relentlessly to expand the horizons of film and television. In his final speech as the Chair of BAFTA, the UK’s premiere screen industry institution and awards body, Krish reflected on the sweeping review he led, making 120 revisions to BAFTA’s composition and awards, work done to ensure, as he puts it, ‘the cinema is a place to dream’ for us all.

Across his career as a successful journalist, director, producer and long-standing member of BAFTA, Krish has fought to put the diverse communities of the UK on screen. Krish grasps the urgency for inclusive representation in his bones, drawing as he does on his Bengali heritage and his Welsh upbringing. As his family, some of whom are here with us today, will attest, Krish has made the most of his unusual perspective, fundamentally reshaping our national screen imagination.

Krish has always thought across categories and beyond expectations. This began with theatre in his school days and into his time as a student here at Bristol studying English and Drama. Whether dancing in a fellow student’s physical theatre piece called Losing Wonderland, taken to the Edinburgh Fringe, or directing Christopher Hampton’s Total Eclipse, Krish has long worked to mould fictional worlds to inclusive ends. Krish also immersed himself in Bristolian culture, from the 1990s trip-hop music scene to Bristol’s stand-up circuit, as well as befriending the regulars at the Mexican restaurant where he worked. These experiences were Krish’s first steps on a lifelong journey exploring our shared communities.

Krish was drawn into a career in journalism by this restless impulse to represent diverse stories. Krish won a scholarship to study at the University of Cardiff before becoming the only person ever to take up both the prestigious ITN News and the BBC Production training schemes.

Krish’s early work may have been in serious documentaries ranging from a major BBC political profile of Michael Howard to his first BAFTA nomination for a fiery polemic on racism with Darcus Howe for Channel 4, but he also has a mischievous streak. Krish’s talent for comedy is exemplified by his BAFTA-nominated global hit series An Idiot Abroad, which he co-created and produced with Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington, and also by Krish’s co-creation and production of the international Emmy-winning comedy Hoff The Record, with each show challenging audiences to think about what being British means in distinctive ways.

That same impulse propelled Krish to the summit of BAFTA. He joined in 2004, and over 15 years rose through the elected ranks of its committees to become Chair in 2020. When appointed, Krish was the youngest chair in 35 years and BAFTA’s first Chair who was a person of colour.

As Krish has stated, when he was appointed to Chair of BAFTA the screen industries were reeling from the impact of the pandemic, but Krish met this situation with a provocation of his own, arguing that: ‘A moment like this comes rarely, where you think the world is changing and turning on its axis. We’ve got to rise to it. And I feel the industry is rising to it. You need a more diverse range of voices.’

So Krish set about remaking BAFTA’s foundations, diversifying its voting membership and reshaping its awards to ‘level the playing field’, ensuring greater inclusivity.

He has carried that same work far beyond BAFTA. Through Me+You Productions, the company he founded with Richard Yee. Krish has become a champion of bold, authored storytelling, producing Dominic Savage’s acclaimed, women-centred Channel 4 drama series I Am, which includes Kate Winslet’s double BAFTA, and Royal Television Society award-winning I Am Ruth.

For 25 years Krish has worked to rethink whose stories belong on our screens. In recognition, the American publication Variety has four times named Krish among its V500 global entertainment leaders. And, on his appointment as Chair of the Bush Theatre, Artistic Director Taio Lawson observed that Krish is ‘an industry titan with a passion for innovation and platforming marginalised voices’. Krish’s life’s work is, therefore, a provocation to us all to elevate those who have gone unseen and unheard in our society, and to hand them the authorship of their own stories.

Vice-Chancellor, I present to you Krishnendu Kumar Majumdar as eminently worthy of the degree of Doctor of Letters, honoris causa.