In 1998, Zephaniah was a winner of the BBC Young Playwrights Festival Award with his first ever radio play Hurricane Dub.[1][25][89]
In 1999, he was the subject of an illustrated biographical children's book by Verna Wilkins, entitled Benjamin Zephaniah: A Profile, published in the Black Stars Series of Tamarind Books.[90]
Zephaniah was awarded at least 16 honorary doctorates,[91] by institutions including the University of North London (in 1998),[1] the University of Central England (1999), Staffordshire University (2001),[92] London South Bank University (2003), the University of Exeter, the Open University (2004),[93] the University of Westminster (2006), the University of Birmingham (2008)[94] and the University of Hull (DLitt, 2010).[95]
In 2008, he was listed at 48 in The Times list of 50 greatest post-war writers.[96] A ward at Ealing Hospital was named in his honour.[91]
He was awarded Best Original Song in the Hancocks 2008, Talkawhile Awards for Folk Music (as voted by members of Talkawhile.co.uk[97]) for "Tam Lyn Retold", recorded with The Imagined Village project on their eponymous 2007 album. He collected the award at The Cambridge Folk Festival on 2 August 2008, describing himself as a "Rasta Folkie".[98]
To mark National Poetry Day in 2009, the BBC ran an online poll to find the nation's favourite poet, with Zephaniah taking third place in the public vote, behind T. S. Eliot and John Donne, and being the only living poet to be named in the top 10.[99][100]
Zephaniah's 2020 reality television series Life & Rhymes, on Sky Arts, celebrating spoken-word performances,[101][102] won a British Academy Television Award (BAFTA), the Lew Grade Award for Best Entertainment Programme, in 2021.[103][104][3][40]
