Kae Tempest

Kae Tempest (formerly Kate Tempest) is an English spoken word performer, poet, recording artist, novelist and playwright.

At the age of 16, Tempest was accepted into the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology in Croydon. In 2013, he won the Ted Hughes Award for his work Brand New Ancients. He was named a Next Generation Poet by the Poetry Book Society, a once-a-decade accolade. Tempest's albums Everybody Down and Let Them Eat Chaos have been nominated for the Mercury Music Prize. An accompanying poetry book for the latter album (also titled Let Them Eat Chaos) was nominated for the Costa Book of the Year in the Poetry Category. His 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. He was nominated as Best Female Solo Performer at the 2018 Brit Awards. Tempest came out as non-binary in 2020, then as a trans man in 2025.

Personal life

Kae Tempest grew up in Brockley, South East London, as one of five children, with a father who was a corporate media lawyer, and a mother who was a teacher. Tempest worked in a record shop from age 14 to 18. He went to Thomas Tallis School, leaving at 16 to study at the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology in Croydon. He went on to graduate in English Literature from Goldsmiths, University of London. Tempest first performed at 16, at open mic nights at Deal Real, a small hip-hop store in Carnaby Street in London's West End. He went on to support acts such as John Cooper Clarke, Billy Bragg and Benjamin Zephaniah. Tempest toured internationally with their band Sound of Rum until the band disbanded in 2012.