Graeme Phillips, Liverpool Unity Theatre's outgoing artistic director and well-respected member of Liverpool's artistic community, has been awarded an MBE for services to the arts in Liverpool in the New Year's Honours.
Graeme trained at Central School of Speech and Drama in London before working extensively throughout the country including Ipswich, Leeds, London and Crewe.
In 1982, he joined The Merseyside Unity Theatre (which later became Unity Theatre), becoming artistic director in the early 1990s. He presided over two capital redevelopments which transformed a leaky-roofed old synagogue into a state-of-the-art, small-scale theatre that has established itself as an asset to both the city and national theatre portfolio.