SCOTTISH VOICES 鈥� COMEDY GROUP
Brian McIver
Agent: Marc Simonsson, MMB Creative
Brian is a comedy/ drama screenwriter with years of national newspaper experience covering intriguing stories all over the world. He is now working to bring some of those influences and inspirations to television comedy and drama. He wrote a Glasgow Film Theatre commissioned comedy short, Fantasy Football, and was awarded a distinction in screenwriting from Screen Academy Scotland for a family sitcom pilot and has been in the final stages of three 91热爆 Writersroom script opportunities. As a member of 91热爆 Scottish Voices 2018/19, he has had a sketch commissioned for 91热爆 Radio Four鈥檚 Sketchtopia comedy series and an audio story produced for the 91热爆 Digital Learning Time for a Story strand called The Parrot Who Lost His Pirate. His play Fissures was broadcast on 91热爆 Radio Scotland in 2020.
Brian is currently working on several new TV comedy projects and was shortlisted for Channel 4's 4Screenwriting 2020 programme and the All3Media New Comedy Script Award at Edinburgh TV Festival's New Voice Awards 2020. His comedy drama series Careless is in development at Lime Picture having been optioned by an Emmy award-winning producer.
Colin McLaren
Agent: Emily Hickman, The Agency.
Colin is a BAFTA winning screenwriter. He wrote the film The Legend of Barney Thomson directed by Robert Carlyle and the film DONKEYS starring James Cosmo, Martin Compston & Kate Dickie and both films won Scottish BAFTAs for best film. He wrote HOME, winning the BAFTA for best short. In 2018, Colin was shortlisted for the Comedy Writer鈥檚 Programme and his radio sitcom pilot Weekend Survivalist was developed for Radio Scotland with the 91热爆 Writersroom and transmitted in Spring 2018. He is currently developing a number of films and TV projects.
Fiona Connor
A BA graduate, Fiona is an award winning playwright whose work has been performed at The Citizen鈥檚 Theatre in Glasgow. She has written a range of fantasy books and her first piece of writing for screen won The Biggest Weekend Monologue opportunity in 2018. Her monologue, Something Blue, was produced by the 91热爆 Writersroom and well received across social media. Fiona is currently working on new screenplay with a focus on strong female characters and unique comical stories and her audio story The Wee Shop of Magic was commissioned for the 91热爆 Digital Learning Time for a Story strand and is now available online via the Time for a Story page.
Gillian McCormack
Agent: Georgia Kanner, Independent Talent Group
Gillian is a Scottish writer from Glasgow, currently a participant on 91热爆 Writersroom鈥檚 Drama Room 2021/22. She has a project in development with Emanata Studios (formerly Beano Studios) and two of her own original ideas are in development with Balloon Entertainment, with one of these projects, Savage, recently optioned for further development by a Global SVOD.
In 2021, she was part of the Writer鈥檚 Room for a new untitled Balloon Entertainment project and also part of the script writing team for Secret Cinema鈥檚 Stranger Things. Her script Rewind was a finalist in the Thousand Films Competition 2021, run by Sid Gentle and Edinburgh TV Festival. Selected as a participant of the inaugural 91热爆 Writersroom Scottish Voices writers group in 2018, she received her first credit with a comedy short Poo Girl which was produced by 91热爆 Scotland and 91热爆 Writersroom and received her post grad diploma in script development from the National Film and TV School the same year.
Gillian loves telling darkly comic stories that combine people and characters who are relatable with something a little bit out of the ordinary. When she is not writing she works in events and PR in the music and entertainment industry.
Justin Lee Anderson & Juliet Cavanagh Anderson
Justin and Juliet met when they both entered the 91热爆's Last Laugh writing competition, in which Justin was a runner-up. They began writing sketches together, moving on to sitcom, drama and film scripts. Their biggest project to date was adapting Julian May's epic novel, The Many-Coloured Land, into a film script for an independent producer. In 2019 their audio story The Great Bumpkin King was commissioned and produced for the 91热爆 Digital Learning Time for a Story strand. They are currently working on an adaptation of Justin鈥檚 debut novel, Carpet Diem, which won an Audie Award for humour in 2018. The Lost War, Justin鈥檚 latest book, was published in 2019.
Taqi Nazeer & Kawser Quamer
Taqi is an accomplished stage actor and has a BA in Acting from The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Taqi began writing after being frustrated by the lack of diverse Scottish stories being told and was accepted on to the National Theatre of Scotland鈥檚 Breakthrough Writers鈥� Scheme. His first play, Rishta, a comedy about navigating the unpredictable world of an arranged marriage was a sold out success in 2017. He is currently writing a new stage play.
Kawser is an award-winning journalist and reporter, as well as an accomplished television and radio presenter, most often seen presenting for 91热爆 Scotland. Kawser is a keen comedy writer and is currently finishing her debut fictional novel.
Together, Taqi and Kawser created and produced Scotistan a very popular podcast on 91热爆 Sounds which was commissioned by The 91热爆 Asian Network, with Taqi as one of the main presenters. Most recently they have been writing sketches for 91热爆 Scotland鈥檚 comedy Scots Squad. Together with Taqi, she is currently developing an idea for a new Scottish sitcom and a screenplay for a feature film.
Kevin P Gilday
Kevin is an award-winning writer and spoken word artist from Glasgow. He is the curator and co-host of spoken word cabaret Sonnet Youth, a National Theatre of Scotland Breakthrough Writer and a 91热爆 Writersroom Scottish Voice. Kevin has performed his work all over the world at a range of major festivals including 91热爆 6Music Festival and Glastonbury, at various Fringes such as Edinburgh, Toronto, and Vancouver as well as large scale tours of the UK, Germany, Canada and the US. He has supported artists such as Akala, Saul Williams, Sage Francis, Alabaster DePlume and George the Poet. He has published four books of poetry, with his most recent - Sad Songs for White Boys (published by Speculative Books) - bringing together nearly ten years of work. His Edinburgh fringe show Suffering from Scottishness played to critical acclaim this year gaining a four star review from The Scotsman, amongst others. His theatre work has been performed at a range of Scottish venues including Oran Mor, Tron Theatre, Assembly Roxy, Lemon Tree, Byre Theatre, Beacon Arts Centre and Eden Court as well as venues further afield such as The Revue Stage (Vancouver) and Tarragon Theatre (Toronto). He has twice been shortlisted for the Scottish Short Play of the Year Award.
Kevin Walls
Agent: Peter MacFarlane, MacFarlane Chard Associates
Kevin attended the Glasgow School of Art where he wrote and directed his first short film, Identical. The science fiction film was awarded the British Academy Scotland New Talent Award for Sound in 2015. He has just graduated as student of the year on the MA TV Fiction Writing programme at Glasgow Caledonian University with a scholarship from Warner Bros. Creative Talent.
Kevin recently wrote and directed a short comedy monologue, When Pish Comes to Shove, for 91热爆 Writersroom and 91热爆 Scotland and was commissioned to script for a new Digital Drama Pilot Scheme for 91热爆 Scotland in 2019. Kevin鈥檚 short film When Abbie Met Emmy premiered at BFI Southbank for BFI Flare in 2019. He is currently co-developing a comedy-drama web series for 91热爆 Scotland and an international broadcaster.
Liam Hollywood
Liam graduated from the University of the West of Scotland with a BA (Hons) in Filmmaking and Screen Writing. His feature length screenplay 鈥楽weet Nothing鈥�, a thriller described as 鈥淭he Graduate meets Fatal Attraction鈥�, was selected by writer-director Eleanor Yule for the Best Screenplay Award at the 2014 UWS Showcase Awards. His latest short film 'Living Arrangement', a relationship drama about a father and daughter, is currently being considered by film festivals around the UK & Europe. He was shortlisted by 91热爆 Writersroom for The Biggest Weekend 2018 and has recently received credit for material featured on 91热爆 Radio 4 Extra鈥檚 Newsjack. He is currently writing a television drama pilot and developing his first written stage play.
Maryam Hamidi
Maryam鈥檚 a Scottish based writer and an experienced actor working across stage, screen and radio. Her first short film, Bloody Love, a zombie romantic drama, was developed through Scottish Film Talent Network鈥檚 while her short film script Bahar was part of the SFTN鈥檚 Scottish Shorts programme 2017. She was awarded Fire Exit鈥檚 Pyromania award for her play End of and a Playwright's Studio New Playwrights Award for her play Moonset which she is adapting for screen with Blue Iris Productions. She co-wrote Amnesty Award nominated The Chronicles of Irania which she also performed and she is co-writing a 360 degree film and live performance, Nervous: Stories to Save your Life for Unlimited Theatre and 4Pi productions.
She was one of three writers selected to take part in the Sky TV table read programme and her sitcom pilot, Slipping was read as in conjunction with GMAC. Her first radio sitcom pilot Drivetime was developed for Radio Scotland with the 91热爆 Writersroom and transmitted in Spring 2018. She has now written sketches for the radio comedy series Sketchtopia and has written multiple episodes for Series 1 & 2 of CBeebies live action Molly and Mack. Maryam was also one of 12 shortlisted writers for the 91热爆 Writersroom Comedy Writers鈥� Programme 2018. Maryam is part of the 91热爆 Writersroom Scottish Voices Comedy for 2018/19 and is currently part of various development/writers rooms for a range of shows including Scotch Production's sitcom Talibams and Molly & Mack and Biff, Chip and Kipper for CBeebies.
Morna Pearson
Agent: Charlotte Knight, Knighthall Agency
Morna Pearson is an Elgin-born Edinburgh-based playwright and screenwriter. She has been a recipient of the Channel 4 Playwright Scheme and the Meyer-Whitworth Award. Her first short film I Was Here (SFTN) was a BAFTA Scotland and an EIFF nominee for Best Short Film. Past theatre productions include plays for Traverse Theatre, National Theatre of Scotland, National Theatre Connections, Catherine Wheels, Lung Ha Theatre Company, Grid Iron, Dogstar, Frozen Charlotte, and A Play, A Pie & A Pint. She has written two radio plays for 91热爆. Current projects include a pilot sitcom script for 91热爆 Studios, and a play for the National Theatre of Scotland. Morna was also shortlisted for the Comedy Writers鈥� Programme 2018 and one of eight writers shortlisted for the Drama Pilot Scheme for 91热爆 Scotland. Most recently Morna was selected for selected for the EIFF Talent Lab 2021.
Niki Rooney
Agent: Hannah Porter & Freddie Best, United Agents
Niki started her career on Hollyoaks, where she progressed quickly through the ranks, until she was Head of the Story Department by the age of 24. She later joined the core writing team, writing 20 episodes over two years.
Since then, Niki has written 4 episodes of Nickelodeon鈥檚 Ride, for Breakthrough Entertainment and Buccaneer Media. She created all of the live shows for CBeebies Land at Alton Towers, working on live action shows and immersive interactive experiences for brands such as The Furchester, Octonauts, Postman Pat, Bing, Hey Duggee, Mike the Knight, Mr Bloom鈥檚 Garden and most recently, Teletubbies! She was also commissioned to write a tween comedy horror podcast pilot called Bump In The Night for C91热爆 and her audio story Thistle and the Circle of Champions was commissioned for 91热爆 Learning. She was also a core member of the writers room for Ben Chanan鈥檚 new Sky Atlantic show You, which is being produced by Kudos.
In 2020, Niki is writing an episode of Swashbuckle for CBeebies, and has been commissioned to write an episode of C91热爆鈥檚 flagship show The Dumping Ground after successfully participating in the Writers Room鈥檚 shadow scheme. She is also writing an episode of a brand new C91热爆 show created by Dan Berlinka and will be joining the writers room on a new YA drama for Bandit Television for Phillipa Giles. Niki has an original dark comedy drama pilot script, Swipe Right, in development with Mike Ellen at Freedom Scripted Entertainment. Niki also won the Kudos North Writers Award, resulting in her original comedy drama Spoonies being optioned. The series is now in development with 91热爆 One (pilot script stage).
Steve Lawrence
Steve is an Edinburgh based writer with credits across comedy, drama and interactive storytelling. He was selected for the 91热爆 Writersroom Comedy Room, the first 91热爆 Writersroom Scottish Voices group and is a member of the BFI Network x BAFTA Crew. Credits include 91热爆 Comedy Online, The Essay on 91热爆 Radio 3, The Leak on 91热爆 Radio Wales, Newsjack, multiple sketches for the award-winning Sketchtopia on 91热爆 Radio 4, Swashbuckle for CBeebies and a sketch starring Mel & Sue for Red Nose Day 2021.
He recently shot a series of tasters with director James Kayler (Catherine Tate鈥檚 Hard Cell) and Burning Reel Productions for a sitcom starring Kieran Hodgson, Stevie Martin and Thanyia Moore and has a couple of other projects in development with exciting comedy talent attached.
Steve also has experience in the world of interactive storytelling with creative technology company Charisma Ai, most recently writing on a demo for a major Warner Brothers property. He鈥檚 a lifelong comic book fan and has written for the character Nemesis as part of Mark Millar鈥檚 Millarworld universe.
Tom Worsley
Agent: Dominic Lord, JFL Agency
Tom is a comedy and children鈥檚 writer based in Glasgow, originally from Gloucestershire. He gained his first credits in 2008 on a Channel 4 Comedy Lab sketch pilot and the subsequent series School of Comedy. Since moving to Scotland he was later a contributor to 91热爆 Radio Scotland鈥檚 Breaking the News and in 2017 was a finalist In the Nickelodeon Writing Programme.
Tom's 15 minute radio comedy Sue & John was developed by the 91热爆 Writersroom and transmitted on 91热爆 Radio Scotland in Spring 2019. Sue & John was later nominated for a Celtic Media Festival Award 2020 in the Radio Comedy category. He has written for the latest 2 series of the CBeebies comedy gameshow Swashbuckle and was previously one of three writers commissioned to develop and write an original 10 minute script for a Children鈥檚 Podcast opportunity. He was also a commissioned story writer for 91热爆 Scotland鈥檚 comedy Scot Squad in 2019 and again in 2021. Tom is currently pursuing further writing opportunities for children鈥檚 productions.
SCOTTISH VOICES 鈥� DRAMA GROUP
Ali Taylor
Agent: Jean Kitson, Kitson Press
Ali was awarded a place on the inaugural The Writers鈥� Lab UK & Ireland 2021, part funded by Cate Blanchett鈥檚 Dirty Films. She regularly writes for 91热爆 Scotland's continuing drama, River City and was shortlisted for Sky鈥檚 Best Debut Writer Award in 2021 for her work for the show. Her Radio 4 Afternoon Play 鈥楾he Apple, The Tree鈥� was Pick of the Week and she has written two other original radio dramas, produced by Kirsty Williams as well as a radio sitcom pilot, produced through 91热爆 Writersroom. She has written for children鈥檚, including Molly & Mack, and was also a participant on the Young Film Foundation 2019. She has twice been shortlisted for the 91热爆 Writer鈥檚 Prize for Drama and continues to develop her own original work.
Apphia Campbell
Apphia is originally from Florida and after graduating from college she moved to New York where she performed Off-Broadway. In 2013 she wrote her critically acclaimed piece, Black Is The Color Of My Voice and opened in Shanghai to rave reviews before performing at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2014 where it sold out and continued to sell out on a UK wide tour.
In 2017, her new show with Meredith Yarbrough, Woke, was presented as part of the Made In Scotland Showcase, won a Scotsman Fringe First, a Highly Commended award from Amnesty International, and was shortlisted for The Filipa Bragan莽a Award and Scottish Art Club Theatre Award. In 2018, she continued to tour Woke and was featured in the guardians 50 shows to see at the fringe and Vogue鈥檚 5 shows not to miss in 2018 fringe. In 2019, she made her west end debut with Black Is The Color Of My Voice which had rave reviews and a sold-out run. She also had a London premiere of Woke at Battersea Arts Centre which had a successful run. She has recently been commissioned for an audio story for the 91热爆 Digital Learning Time for a Story strand 2019.
Charlie Ward
Agent: Katie Williams, The Agency
Charlie is a Glasgow-based writer. He is currently writing a television pilot, An Evening With鈥� for 1A Productions and developing a radio play, The Book of Jamie for 91热爆 Radio Scotland and was invited to join the 91热爆 Writersroom Drama Group for 2018/19. In 2017 he completed his feature, Out There and his play AlphaMail was included in the Tron 100 Festival at the Tron Theatre. He graduated from the MA Television Writing course in Glasgow courtesy of a scholarship from Shed Productions.
Declan Dineen
Agent : Jennifer Thomas, United Agents
Declan is a writer originally from South Wales now based in Glasgow. He is currently focussing on a varied slate of projects, including a sci-fi audio series for Echoverse, a horror TV series for World Productions, and his feature film debut Bloom which is being supported by EIFF Talent Lab Connects. He has previously written for the radio and stage, including the 91热爆 afternoon play Finding Love at the End of the world. Prior to focussing on fiction, Declan worked as a freelance writer with a diverse portfolio across multiple magazines and web sites.
He has a keen interest in technology and its role in telling stories. In 2020 he worked with Story Futures on their VR Lab, and worked with ISO design on various projects from interactive commercials to playful museum displays. This interest in tech comes largely from his love of video games, best illustrated by Checkpoints, a podcast he created and hosted from 2016 to 2019, in which he interviewed various videogame luminaries about the games that shaped their life. Because it's important to have something to fall back on, he is also a magician. He's written and performed several magic shows at the Edinburgh Fringe, and a sell out show called #meetandtweet based on an idle whim he had to meet everyone who followed him on twitter, which inexplicably became international news for a weekend in 2015.
Jane Livingstone
Jane won a BAFTA Scotland New Talent Award for Best Writer in 1996 for her screenplay Roses of Picardy, written during her 20 year career in corporate communications. She gained a Masters in Creative Writing in 2014 and her first play, Thieves of Dunfermline, was staged in the same year. She has had four commissions for A Play, A Pie and a Pint, including the award winning Jocky Wilson Said, which have been performed in Glasgow, Aberdeen and at the Edinburgh Festival. Jane received a Playwrights Studio Partnership Award to develop a full length original play, The Quarry, with an abridged version of this play being broadcast on Radio 4 in 2022. She is currently working on her first short film as writer and director.
Jaimini Jethwa
Jaimini has worked as a writer, independent filmmaker for over twenty years after graduating from film-school in London. She wrote and directed several short films including No Dowry No Date and Careless which screened at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and international screenings. Her documentary Stigmadies won the best short Documentary Film at the SEE ME Mental Health Film Festival 2007 while her documentary Teen Mum, gained over a million views on You Tube. Her theatre writing includes Last Queen of Scotland with National Theatre Scotland, Stellar Quines and Dundee Rep which sold out Edinburgh Fringe 2017. She has been short-listed for Hollyoaks, River City, and Casualty and mentored by 91热爆 Films for first feature film 鈥橠ancing Shiva鈥�. She has recently been working on the R4 sketch series, Sketchtopia, Radio drama ideas and on a new play at The Royal Lyceum. Jaimini was recently shortlisted for a Radio Scotland Comedy Opportunity.
Kate Bowen
Kate was the 2012 winner of the annual New Writer's Award (Playwright's Studio Scotland) and participant in the 2013 Traverse 50 programme at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh. She was awarded a place on the Channel 4 Playwrights鈥� Scheme in 2016 and a Starter for Ten residency from the National Theatre of Scotland in 2017. Her short plays have been performed at The Traverse Theatre (The Prize Fighter), Glasgow's Play, Pie and a Pint (The Lawyers) and on STV (Super Sunday). Her first full length play, Close Quarters, was put on by Stockroom in a co-production with Sheffield Theatres in 2018, directed by Kate Wasserberg; and was named by The Observer as one of their top ten theatre productions of 2018.
She was nominated by Stockroom for the James Tait Prize in 2019; and in the same year a production of Close Quarters was staged at RADA in London directed by Zoe Ford-Burnett. In 2020 she worked alongside Tod Productions and STV to develop a sixty minute drama pilot, Storm Warning for the 91热爆, and was awarded a grant by Playwright鈥檚 Studio Scotland to develop a new project with Director/Dramaturg Lu Kemp and Sound Designer Zoe Irvine. 2022 started with her undertaking a six week attachment at the New Work department of the National Theatre, London, to create a new stage play.
Mariem Omari
Mariem lived and worked across the Middle East and North Africa for five years, and during that time worked with refugees and survivors of violence. She has since committed to promoting stories that are not often heard to advocate for greater equality. Her first play, If I Had A Girl..., on honour violence in Asian communities in Scotland, sold-out in Glasgow in 2016, and toured nationally in 2017. She was one of the National Theatre of Scotland鈥檚 Starter for 10, selected to develop her play, One Mississippi, which showcased at the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival 2017, and will be touring Scotland in 2022.
She had three commissioned plays in 2019 鈥� The Trojans, performed by Syrian Refugees; her first children鈥檚 play, Paper Memories, which was part of the 2019 National Puppetry and Animation Festival; and Walkin鈥� the Line as part of SMHAF 2019. In 2021 she was commissioned by 91热爆 Scotland to create Breaking Point - a series of five short monologues for radio and digital platforms. Her new play, Revolution Days, about her experiences as an Aid Worker, had its world premier in November 2021. She is Co-Founder & Artistic Director of Bijli Productions, Inaugural Company in Residence at the National Theatre of Scotland.
Michael Lee Richardson
Agent: Louisa Minghella, Blake Friedmann
Michael is an award-winning writer based in Glasgow. His short film My Loneliness is Killing Me - about queer men, loneliness and hook-up culture, directed by Tim Courtney - has been shown at film festivals around the world, including EIFF, Outfest LA and BFI Flare. It won the 2018 Scottish BAFTA for Best Short Film and was commended for the Iris Prize 2019. His drama script Station Road was shortlisted for 91热爆 Writersroom鈥檚 Drama Room and C21Media鈥檚 Drama Series competition, and has since been optioned.
He is currently developing a Young Adult drama project for Kindle Entertainment. In 2019, Michael was awarded a place on the Young Films Foundation residency in the Isle of Skye, where he developed Out, a drama series about queer nightlife.In 2018, he was one of 8 writers shortlisted for the Digital Drama Pilot Scheme for 91热爆 Scotland and was invited to join the 91热爆 Writersroom Scottish Voices Drama group. His original writing has been shortlisted for 91热爆 Scotland鈥檚 Frank Deasy Award, the Trans Comedy Award and the BAFTA Rocliffe New Comedy Award. He is a Scottish Book Trust New Writer鈥檚 Award winner. His short story The Other Team appears in PROUD, and he has written children鈥檚 nonfiction for Puffin. He edited We Were Always Here, an anthology of queer Scottish writing, published by 404 Ink in January 2019. Michael鈥檚 work focuses on queer and working class characters and stories. When he isn鈥檛 writing, he is a community campaigner and works at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
Marcus McPeake
Marcus鈥檚 first feature-length screenplay, Oh, Danny Boyd is currently in development with producer, Wendy Griffin, and the Scottish Film Talent Network. His first short film, Your Picture Gets Mine (featuring Kate Dickie), was acquired by Channel 4 and screened as part of The Shooting Gallery, which lead to the channel commissioning a second short, For Gracie (featuring Gary Lewis). He was selected for the EIFF Talent Lab 2016, where he won 'Best Pitch'. Marcus is currently working on a new feature-length screenplay and a pilot script for a spec TV show. He was recently shortlisted for a Radio Scotland Comedy opportunity.
SCOTTISH VOICES 鈥� THE BREAK GROUP
Anita Vettesse
Agent : Georgina Ruffhead, The Haworth Agency
Anita co-created 91热爆 Radio 4鈥檚 crime drama, This Thing of Darkness (Winner of the British Podcast Award 2021 and nominee for Best Writer Tinniswood 2021). She has just finished writing the latest series which can be found on 91热爆 Sounds. Anita has also written Falling for 91热爆 Radio Scotland. She was recently selected for the Scottish 91热爆 Drama Writers Programme and is currently writing an original 3-part revenge thriller with 91热爆 Studios. Anita continues to be a core writer on 91热爆鈥檚 River City.
Her theatre work includes: Ringroad which was nominated for best new play at The Critics Theatre Awards; Happy Hour and From The Air for Oran Mor; Eddie and The Slumber Sisters for Catherine Wheels/National Theatre of Scotland. Anita was writer in residence at National Theatre Scotland in 2021 as part of the John Mather Trust Award and written a new dark thriller, Pick Up Point. She is also currently co-writing another musical for them. Anita has just begun writing a brand new Ghost Story for Perth Theatre to be performed later this year as well as writing the book for The Big Noise; a co pro with Dundee Rep and NTS.
Bryce Hart
Agent: Simon Blakey, The Agency
Bryce was on the 91热爆 Writersroom Comedy Room 2016 and listed on the 91热爆 New Talent Hotlist 2017. He was a Writer in Residence with the Comedy Unit in Glasgow, where he wrote and developed ideas for Scot Squad as Assistant Story Producer. He has written on Only an Excuse, the 91热爆 N.I series Soft Border Patrol, the Brexit sitcom set along the Irish border and on Wow Wales! a comedy about the Welsh tourism industry. He was one of eight writers shortlisted for The Break, Series III for 91热爆 Three. He has had sketches commissioned for FUNC a Gaelic sketch show, 91热爆 Alba and on the C91热爆 series, Class Dismissed. His teen drama Unfiltered, has also been commissioned to treatment by C91热爆. Radio work includes sketches for Pam Ayre鈥檚 Radio 4 show Ayres on the Air and he was shortlisted for 91热爆 3鈥檚 Valentine themed sketch for FaceBook. His first radio sitcom pilot Winging It was developed for Radio Scotland with the 91热爆 Writersroom and transmitted in Spring 2019. He is one of four writers on the 91热爆 Writersroom Comedy Writers鈥� Programme and is currently developing ideas with Happy Tramp North and projects with other Indies.
Grace Knight
Agent : Hannah Boulton, The Agency
Grace is a Glasgow-based writer who works across TV, theatre, radio and VR work. She is one of eight recipients of the High-end Television Levy Writers鈥� Bursary Scheme under the mentorship of Kay Mellor. Her episode of 91热爆 Three鈥檚 The Break, Gloss (2018), is currently available on iPlayer, and was nominated for a Broadcast Digital Award 2019 in the short form drama category. Grace's VR film is due to be released on the 91热爆鈥檚 new VR app. She has two Big Finish audio dramas due for release this year: a 60 minute play for their Dark Shadows range, and a 30 minute episode for their Doctor Who: Short Trips range and was recently commissioned for the Torchwood series. She has had two 91热爆 Radio commissions including After Exile, for Radio 3 starring Julie Hesmondhalgh (2017). Her first professional stage credit was How to Cheat, and Be a Winner! at Cambridge Junction Theatre (2015) and extracts from her work have been performed at the Tron Theatre and London鈥檚 Jermyn Street Theatre. She was one of ten writers on a 91热爆 Writersroom Children鈥檚 Residential in 2017 and was a member of the Scottish Book Trust鈥檚 highly competitive 91热爆 Radio Lab. She was also commissioned for an original Digital Drama Pilot for 91热爆 Scotland.
James Pearson
Agent : Georgina Carrigan, United Agents
James is an actor and writer whose acting credits include Lip Service (91热爆/Kudos), Control (Anton Corbijn) and New Town Killers for which he was nominated for a BAFTA Scotland. James has recently been commissioned to write an original comedy pilot, MY LIFE IN ART, for Channel X Hopscotch about an arts administrator in charge of making public art who doesn鈥檛 have a creative bone in her body. His feature film MAKING NOISE, about the life and work of deaf percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie, has recently attached Embankment Films for financing and global distribution and will be directed by Hope Dickson Leach.
In 2018 James was selected from across the UK to be part of the 91热爆 Writersroom's Drama Writers Programme. He has a number of projects in development: JACK, a feature film about a gay couple trying to start a family, is currently in development with FoxCub Films. ROSIE - a six-part psychological thriller in development with LA Production; and SUPERFAN - an 8-part drama in development with Balloon Entertainment about an obsessed fan who kidnaps his K-pop idol.
Omar Raza
Omar is a multi award-winning actor who was listed by 鈥楾he Scots Magazine鈥� as a 鈥楩unny Five Scot鈥� comedian alongside Kevin Bridges and Susan Calman. His 91热爆 performing credits include: Limmy鈥檚 Show!, C91热爆鈥檚 Annoying Things Adults Say and 91热爆 Radio 4鈥檚 Fags Mags and Bags' & 鈥楤eta Female. As an RTS nominated writer, Omar鈥檚 first writing was the C91热爆 co-written sketch Burn Down The House for C91热爆's Annoying Things Adults Say. Strand. His solo screenwriting debut, Soul Journey, was for the 91热爆 Three series The Break, Series III. It was shortlisted at: the 鈥楳IPCOM Diversify TV Excellence Awards 2018鈥�, the 鈥楨dinburgh TV Festival: New Voice Awards 2019鈥� and the 鈥楻oyal Television Society Awards 2019鈥�.
Samara MacLaren
Agent : Jonathan Kinnersley, The Agency
Samara is an actress and writer and was part of the 91热爆's 2018 Drama Room Scheme with 91热爆 Writersroom. Her debut play, Ailsa Benson is Missing premiered at the 2018 Edinburgh Festival and was nominated for the Scottish Theatre Awards and a Filipa Braganca Award. Her first full length television spec script, "Sabrina Healey" has been optioned by Andrea Calderwood at Potboiler Productions and her second, "East Neuk", has been optioned by Tally Garner at Mam Tor Productions.
Sophie Wu
Agent : Jessica Cooper, Curtis Brown
Sophie is an actress and talented writer for screen and stage. Her debut play, Sophie Wu Is Minging, and Looks Like She's Dead, premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and transferred to the Soho Theatre. Sophie鈥檚 short film, Franny Wong, was one of the 5 films made for The Break, Series III for 91热爆 Three. She is working with the Bush Theatre as part of their new writing programme and is developing an original TV project with Charlie Brooker's company, House of Tomorrow.
Stewart Thomson
Agent : Matthew Dench, Dench Arnold Agency
Stewart is a graduate of the National Film and Television School and his film, Bill's Visitors, was nominated for a Scottish BAFTA and a Scottish BAFTA New Talent Award as part of Channel 4鈥檚 Coming Up strand. His debut feature, Rocket Surgery, is set for production in early 2020. Beating the Drum, his second feature has been developed by 91热爆 Films and Creative Scotland. In September 2016, Stewart鈥檚 sitcom pilot, Pumped, was transmitted on 91热爆 Three and 91热爆2. Stewart's comedy pilot SKWIBS was a previous winner of the BAFTA Rocliffe New Comedy Award and was performed on stage at the New York Television Festival. Stewart was part of 91热爆 Writersroom Comedy Room 2017/18. His short film, A Vocal Minority, was produced for The Break, Series III, for 91热爆 Three and was nominated for a Celtic Media Award 2019. He is developing a new sitcom for The Comedy Unit in Glasgow and a comedy project for C91热爆. Stewart has also written for theatre, with his debut Frank's Dead premiering at Oran Mor in Glasgow where it later won their audience award for best comedy that year. His script Dash is being produced with Blazing Griffin for the Digital Drama Pilot Scheme for 91热爆 Scotland and his project Elastic has been developed by Big Talk and has recently been commissioned to script by 91热爆 Drama.