I’m a comedy drama writer for theatre, TV and film.
After working for nearly a decade as a BBC journalist and producer, I became Professor of English at the University of Monaco. I then won the Vice-Chancellor’s Scholarship for Academic Excellence for the MA Dramatic Writing course at Drama Centre London. I made a comedy drama with John Yorke, a short film with Philip Shelley, a verbatim film for the British Library’s Comica Festival and a digital media project for the Soho Theatre. I was also a story advisor for an English National Opera animation and producer for the first In Battalions Festival with Fin Kennedy.
I have just finished ‘Operation Neptune’, a site-specific promenade play which was performed in Trebah Gardens, Cornwall. It was exceptionally well received, selling out almost immediately and got coverage across the BBC in the South West. You can find a review of it here and watch a news report on BBC Spotlight here.
Last year I worked with Manchester’s Red Bobble Theatre on ‘If I Should Fall’ – a play based on letters my grandmother received from a soldier fighting in the Battle of the Somme just before he died. After it received Arts Council funding it toured around the North including Oldham Coliseum, Oldham Library, Theatre Royal Wakefield, Cast in Doncaster and Touchstones in Rochdale. Find out more here.
I had two plays performed at the Old Operating Theatre in Southwark, London; The Academy of Melancholy and Surgeon to the Dead. My play I Don’t Care was shortlisted from 400 scripts to be one of 8 short plays which were performed at Little Pieces of Gold at the Cockpit Theatre. It was also performed at the Residence, Clapton. Find out more here and read a review here. My monologue ‘The Sickest Thing I’ve Ever Done’ about British girls going to fight in Syria was performed at the Brave New Word Festival and the Just Do Right Festival both in Islington. It has since been used as an audition piece for the National Youth Theatre.
I Don’t Care was rewritten, extended and performed as part of Femage a Trois which was previewed at the Vaults in Waterloo and the Hackney Showrooms. It transferred to The Space at the Edinburgh Festival where it received a four star review. It was performed at Theatre503 in Battersea where I also did a Q&A about my writing process.
I hold three degrees – BA Humanities and MA Film and Visual Media from the University of London, and the MA Dramatic Writing from Drama Centre London.