The Birmingham Youth Theatre was founded in 1971 in Birmingham

Birmingham

Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

, England by local teachers Derek Nicholls and Ray Speakman, and was based at the Midlands Arts Centre and Birmingham Repertory Theatre

Birmingham Repertory Theatre

Birmingham Repertory Theatre is a theatre and theatre company based on Centenary Square in Birmingham, England...

. From 1984 it was also run by teacher and director Malcolm Cleland, who also ran the Central Junior Television Workshop

Central Junior Television Workshop

The Central Junior Television Workshop is a British organization that offers free training for young people in performance skills for television, film, radio and theatre...

 in Birmingham.

The company was funded by Birmingham City Council

Birmingham City Council

The Birmingham City Council is the body responsible for the governance of the City of Birmingham in England, which has been a metropolitan district since 1974. It is the most populated local authority in the United Kingdom with, following a reorganisation of boundaries in June 2004, 120 Birmingham...

 and West Midlands Arts

Arts Council England

Arts Council England was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council of Great Britain was divided into three separate bodies for England, Scotland and Wales. It is a non-departmental public body of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport...

 for the purpose of giving 16 to 23 year olds from the wider local community access to drama and the theatre arts. Many successful actors and actresses began their careers in the youth theatre, most notably:

Andrew Tiernan

Andrew Tiernan

Andrew James Tiernan is an English actor.-Theatre:Tiernan began acting with the Birmingham Youth Theatre and moved to London in 1984 to study a three-year Diploma in Acting at the Drama Centre London run by Christopher Fettes and Yat Malmgren...

,

Adrian Lester

Adrian Lester

-Personal life:Lester was born in Birmingham, England, the son of Jamaican immigrants Monica, a medical secretary, and Reginald, a manager for a contract cleaning company. He sang as a boy treble in the choir of St. Chad's Cathedral, Birmingham...

,

Tony Armatrading,

Lorna Laidlaw, Doctors (2000 TV series),

Nicolas Tennant, who has performed with the Royal National Theatre

Royal National Theatre

The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...

 and the Royal Shakespeare Company

Royal Shakespeare Company

The Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...

,

Joe Dixon (actor)

Joe Dixon (actor)

Joe Dixon is a British television and film actor who is perhaps best known for his role as Jacques in The Mummy Returns.-Biography:Joe was born in Birmingham, England in 1965...

,

Roy Mitchell, creator, scripwriter and producer of the BBC series New Tricks,

Richard Thomas., writer of 'Jerry Springer the Opera',

Stuart Blackburn, Writer and Series Producer of ITV soap opera Emmerdale

Emmerdale

Emmerdale, is a long-running British soap opera set in Emmerdale , a fictional village in the Yorkshire Dales. Created by Kevin Laffan, Emmerdale was first broadcast on 16 October 1972...

.
As of 2009, Derek Nicholls is now the Chief Executive of Qdos Entertainment plc's HQ Theatres division.
Due to problems with funding, the company ceased to exist in 1987. It has no association with any company currently using the same name.