Bonnie Greer, OBE, studied theatre in Chicago under David Mamet, in New York City, at the Actors' Studio with Elia Kazan, and at the Negro Ensemble Company under the West Indian-American playwright Steve Carter.

Greer has lived in the UK since 1986 and became a citizen in 1997. She holds dual nationality.

Her plays, books and novels are concerned with the lives of minorities within majority cultures, particularly those of women. She has been Arts Council playwright-in-residence at the Soho Theatre, and at the Black Theatre Co-operative. She was awarded the Verity Bargate Award for Best Play by the Soho Theatre Company, and shortlisted for an Arts Council award for Best Play.

She is the author of two novels: Hanging by Her Teeth (1994) and Entropy (2009). In October 2009, her memoir/ music history: Obama Music, was published.

Her biography: Langston Hughes: the Value Of Contradiction was published by Arcadia in Spring 2011. She is currently working on a novel about the Pre-Raphelite poet and painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and has been commissioned to write a new work for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, with the composer Errolyn Wallen. On 1 April 2005 she was appointed to the British Museum's Board of Trustees for a period of four years. In 2008 she was reappointed as a Trustee for a second period and on 26 March 2009 she was promoted to Deputy Chairman.

She was appointed OBE in the 2010 Birthday Honours for contribution to the arts.