About Laurence
The Story So Far
Laurence Watts is a British-born, American writer, playwright, editor and publisher.
He was born in Orsett, England, on March 8, 1978.
He attended Chadwell Primary School, then The Coopers’ Company and Coborn School, in Upminster, before graduating from Queens’ College, Cambridge University, in 1999.
After university, he moved to London, where he worked in finance while traveling to every country in Europe.
In 2005 he visited Papua New Guinea, the last country he had to see in Australasia.
In 2006, he moved to Singapore, where he lived and worked for two years while visiting every country in Asia.
On Oct 25, 2007, he was on board Singapore Airlines’ debut commercial flight of the “Superjumbo” A380 from Singapore to Sydney, which he covered for BBC News and BBC Radio Five Live.
On November 3, 2008, the day before Barack Obama was elected President, he moved to the United States.
During 2008-2009, he visited all 50 U.S. states, finding and interviewing 56 living Americans with the same names as the signers of 1776’s Declaration of Independence. In June 2009, he presented a signed copy of the Declaration to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, on the Speaker’s Balcony of Congress.
2011, he visited Haiti and Guyana, completing his travels to every country in North and South America.
On September 20, 2011, the day “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” was repealed, he penned an editorial piece for CNN covering the ongoing unfair treatment of same-sex military spouses post repeal.
Between 2011-2013 he was a Features Writer for Pink News, interviewing, among others, Perez Hilton, Bishop Gene Robinson, RuPaul, Boy George, Wanda Sykes, Melissa Etheridge, Andy Bell, Scott Mills, Russell T Davies, Armistead Maupin, Greg Louganis, Peter Tatchell, Lt. Dan Choi, Matthew Mitcham, Tabitha Coffey and Darren Hayes.
On February 15, 2012, he organized the first ever “NOH8 on the Hill” event in Washington D.C., with Adam Bouska and Jeff Parshley. Rep. Dennis Kucinich became the first ever member of the U.S. Congress to pose for a NOH8 photo and was joined by Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, Rep. Judy Chu, Rep. William Keating, Massachusetts, Rep. Earl Blumenauer, Rep. Niki Tsongas, Rep. Barbara Lee, Rep. Jackie Speier, Rep. Lynn Woolsey, and Rep. Jared Polis.
In 2017, he became a U.S. citizen, but retained his British citizenship, making him a dual national.
Later in 2017, he founded MB Books, which he named after Mark Bingham, one of the heroes who brought down United Airlines Flight 93 on 9/11, and thus averting greater tragedy.
At the end of 2017, he co-edited the final installment of Quentin Crisp’s autobiography The Last Word, published in 2017, and its companion And One More Thing, published in 2018.
In the middle of 2018, he published Life After Phillip Morris, which he co-wrote with four-time prison-escapee and conman Steven Jay Russell.
Towards the end of 2018 he journeyed to Eritrea, thus completing his travels to every country in Africa and, concurrently, every country in the world.
In 2019, he edited transgender flag creator and activist Monica Helms’ autobiography More Than Just A Flag, published in March.
In December 2019, he joined an expedition to Antarctica, visiting his seventh and final continent.
In October 2020, he published Threesome, a collection of three plays written with Kevin Burnard: Hollywood; Murder at Magpie Hall; and The Gay Divorce.
In October 2021, he published Poison & Bile at Christmas, a collection of comedic sketches and lyrics, themed around the holidays.
In April 2023, he published Mary Had a Little Lamb: A Definitive Corruption, containing two hundred adult retellings of the much-loved fable.
Later in May, he published More Mary Had A Little Lamb: A Definitive Sequel, containing yet another two hundred verses of Mary and her malnourished sheep.
In January 2024, he visited the South Pole.
Later, in February, he published Limericks, a collection of two-hundred original limericks – as seen on limericks.com – based on men’s names, women’s names, countries, U.S. cities, U.S. states, and more.
He lives in San Diego, California.