birth_place awards nationality notableworks birth_date article_title name occupation
suffolk , england bristol award uk film council script award old vic/htv playwriting award thames television best play british rag mamma mia ! through the wire doll dead sheep too much too young shang-a-lang 14 october 1957 catherine johnson -lrb- playwright -rrb-
 catherine johnson playwright , screenwriter
catherine johnson -lrb- playwright -rrb-

catherine johnson -lrb- born 14 october 1957 -rrb- is a british playwright , producing works for stage and television .
she is best known for her script for the musical mamma mia !
and screenplay for the film of the same name , which became the highest grossing uk film of all time and the biggest selling uk dvd of all time in january 2009 .
johnson grew up in wickwar near wotton-under-edge and attended katharine lady berkeley 's school in wotton .
she was expelled from school at 16 , married at 18 and divorced by the age of 24 .
she moved to bristol and finding herself unemployed and with one child to support and another on the way she spotted a notice in the local paper for the bristol old vic/htv west playwriting competition .
she wrote `` rag doll '' , using the pseudonym `` maxwell smart '' , a play about incest and child abuse , which won the competition and was staged by the bristol old vic .
further plays for the bush theatre in london , bristol old vic and show of strength followed along with work on television series including `` casualty '' , `` love hurts '' and `` byker grove '' .
johnson lives in bristol and also owns a house in pimlico , london .
in 2007 johnson instituted the catherine johnson award for best play written by the five pearson playwrights ' scheme bursary winners from the previous year .
catherine won a bursary from the scheme in 1991 .
catherine is a patron of the wotton electric picture house in wotton-under-edge , bristol 's myrtle theatre company and `` arts and community '' in thornbury .
