All this week we've been announcing the names of the 69 writers who have been part of our Voices development groups for 2022. The final group (for purely alphabetical reasons) are the 13 Welsh Voices. Meet them all below and find out more.
"It’s a real treat to be able to announce our Welsh Voices 2022. I hope these writers go on to do amazing things, because not only are they extremely talented, they’re a lovely bunch of human beings. Seeing their TV skills and ideas develop over the last few months has been a pleasure and a privilege. I’m excited to see what the future holds for these Welsh screenwriters of tomorrow."
Helen Perry (Assistant Commissioner for Wales, Â鶹ԼÅÄ Writersroom and Â鶹ԼÅÄ Drama)
Azuka is a playwright and screenwriter, born and raised in London, she has lived in Cardiff since 2012.
She has been a participant in the Royal Court Writers programme and is currently a part of the Sherman Theatre's inaugural Unheard Voices Writers development programme.
Her first full length play ‘The Last Bastion’ has been commissioned by the Other Room Theatre and was shortlisted for Â鶹ԼÅÄ Writersroom Drama Room 2021, making it to the top 1% of the 5167 scripts submitted. She has also had a screenplay longlisted for the Â鶹ԼÅÄ Studios/Thousand Films Thousand Stories competition.
Azuka is passionate about telling stories that centre complex women and shine alight on underrepresented, marginalised communities in both contemporary and historical settings.
Sam Burns a playwright, was born in Cardiff. She worked for several years as an editor for a small publishing company, and more recently as an assistant to a gardener and a freelance transcriber. Her produced work includes a piece in Paines Plough’s Come to Where I’m From, ‘Two Bears’ for Sixty-Six Books at the Bush Theatre, ‘Amnesty’ in Agent 160 Presents Agent 160 and The Ostrich, a 15-minute play for Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio Wales’ Dylan Thomas season in late 2014. ​​
Her first full-length play, Not the Worst Place, was produced by Paines Plough, Theatr Clwyd and Sherman Cymru in April-May 2014, and was shortlisted for the Susan Smith Blackburn Award in 2011. Her radio play Floor 13 aired on Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 4’s Afternoon Drama slot in late May 2017. She lives in the Shetland Islands.
Ross Simon Eccleston is a Cardiff based screenwriter from North Wales. Ross studied theatre and film at Bangor University before being accepted onto the MA Screenwriting course at the Screen Academy Scotland where his short comedy film ‘A Trifling Matter’ was produced by the BFI Academy. ​​
His drama script ‘The Hidden’ was shortlisted for the Â鶹ԼÅÄ Drama Room and he is currently writing his first play. Ross draws inspiration from his own experiences and hopes to bring a unique perspective to themes of grief, community, home and family dynamics.
Katie Elin-Salt is a writer from Bridgend, South Wales, living and working in Cardiff. After a decade as an actor working across mediums, Katie developed an interest in writing whilst working with Paines Plough and subsequently gained a successful mentorship as a new writer under the Royal Courts’ playwriting programme. ​​
Her latest play CELEBRATED VIRGINS will premiere at Theatr Clwyd in May 2022. Katie’s one-woman show SPRINKLES was developed with Dirty Protest and ran for a Christmas 2021 production. As a playwright, she has been commissioned by Sherman Theatre, Chippy Lane, RWCMD, Iris Theatre, Out of Joint and Far Away Plays. Katie is a current member of Soho Theatre Writers’ lab. She was a Theatr Clwyd Writer in Residence 2020/21, and is a proud member of the Chippy Lane Welsh Female Writers’ group. ​​
Katie was shortlisted for Â鶹ԼÅÄ Wales Writer in Residence 2020 and Â鶹ԼÅÄ Comedy/Drama Room 2021. She is now carving out her voice as a Welsh, queer, working-class, female TV writer in Wales. Katie is passionate about female-led​
Zia Holloway is a 23-year-old emerging television screenwriter who specialises in writing drama, magical-realism and sci-fi to create rich, characterful worlds, and authentic stories. She is a Script Angel scholar and the winner of the World Productions Welsh Writers award and has original series in development with The Forge, ​The Ink Factory, Studio 21 and World Productions. She has gained experience across a range of mediums including television, animation, and theatre.​
Samantha O’Rourke is a northern writer/director based in North Wales. Recent screen projects include short film Jelly (Ffilm Cymru/Â鶹ԼÅÄ Wales/Mad as Birds), winner of the Chapter Queer Film Prize and original comedy drama Mincemeat for Channel 4’s On the Edge series. Sam was Writer on Attachment for Liverpool’s Everyman Playhouse and part of artist led project Future Forms at the Donmar Warehouse. Other theatre credits include Theatr Clwyd, Volcano Theatre, Boundless Theatre and Dirty Protest.​​
Sam is currently developing her debut feature supported by Ffilm Cymru and a comedy drama series for Channel 4 Drama. Her play Our Town Needs a Nandos will premiere summer 2022 at Liverpool’s Everyman Playhouse. She was also recently selected as a BFI Flare x BAFTA mentee.​
Ruth and Joe Ollman are siblings from Powys, before moving to Cardiff at a young age. Joseph is a multi-award winning Writer/Director, having gained early acclaim for his films, including Meat on Bones, which earned a BAFTA Cymru nomination and Bitter Sky, which was broadcast on Â鶹ԼÅÄ Two Wales. Ruth studied acting at the Guildhall School for Music and Drama before moving into writing. Her previous work includes the play The Blue Hour, which she performed at the GSMD and later TV series The Panic, which was developed with Hillbilly Productions.​ ​
They’ve recently started writing in partnership, with their first script All Poor Creatures selected for the Celtic Screen Talent Showcase at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. The script later gained interest from World Productions, before they were selected for the Â鶹ԼÅÄ Voices programme. They’ve found they make a well balanced writing duo, with Joseph’s understanding of story structure and Ruth’s comprehension of the psychology of characters.​
Richard Pask was selected from nearly 4,000 writers for the Â鶹ԼÅÄ WRITERSROOM COMEDY ROOM 2020/2021. As part of the scheme, he developed Griff Duff, a poignant but heart-warming comedy-drama based on his own real-life experiences.​
Richard is a former BAFTA INTERNATIONAL NEW TALENT and BRITISH COUNCIL WALES INTERNATIONAL YOUNG ARTIST AWARD shortlistee. His short films have been screened on Â鶹ԼÅÄ Wales and the iPlayer, S4C, Sky, and at numerous film festivals around the world.​​
He has worked extensively in film and television production – firstly as a child actor, but primarily as a script supervisor. Recently, he directed the second unit of the Â鶹ԼÅÄ Wales sitcom The Tuckers.​​
Richard is originally from Caerphilly, but now lives in Cardiff. In his writing, he tries to find a bittersweet vein of humour in painful situations. He is also a passionate advocate of authentic working-class voices; particularly his own.​
Martha Reed is a young Welsh female writer for TV and theatre. She is currently developing original comedy drama for TV with Objective Fiction and Tall Story Pictures, and she recently worked in the writers room as a shadow writer for an upcoming Â鶹ԼÅÄ drama. She was one of 12 writers on the Channel 4 Screenwriting Course 2021, selected from a record 3880 applicants.​​
Martha is one of five writers-in-residence at Theatre503. She recently wrote and directed season two BAFTA-nominated crime drama game DEAD MAN’S PHONE. Her debut play EXISTENTIAL FISH AND DREAD toured from The Cockpit (London) to Chapter Arts Centre (Cardiff) and the Exeter Phoenix in 2021-2022. Her second play, THE GHOST OF YOU, placed in the top 10% of a record 5167 submissions to Â鶹ԼÅÄ Script Room 2021, and was longlisted for development at the Traverse. She was Chippy Lane Productions’ Writing Apprentice to BAFTA-winning writer Alan Harris, a position funded by Arts Council Wales. Her previous credits include short plays VERA JONES at The Old Red Lion and HOW LOAN CAN YOU GO? at The Pleasance, Islington. Martha’s work champions underrepresented voices, putting women centre stage and sharing working-class stories.​
Owen Lloyd Richards is a screenwriter and playwright, born in Cardiff and now living in north Wales.​​
In 2021, Owen was selected for Channel 4’s 4Screenwriting scheme from over 3,880 applicants, where he developed a drama pilot titled ANTISOCIAL. His short film OVERS was broadcast on Â鶹ԼÅÄ Two Wales in 2019, produced via It’s My Shout.​​
Owen most recently worked on the UK-wide immersive storytelling experience StoryTrails with Â鶹ԼÅÄ, BFI and StoryFutures Academy. He’s currently working with Next Door But One theatre company to develop a theatre piece about foetal alcohol spectrum disorder.​
Previously, Owen spent 10 years as a digital storyteller in the social care sector. This experience has inspired the stories he tells: social realism that finds light in the dark, and truth in the complex.​
Carol Vine is a screenwriter and playwright, based in Powys. Her screenplays have been shortlisted for the Â鶹ԼÅÄ Talent Sitcom Writing Initiative and the Â鶹ԼÅÄ Story2K2 Competition. Her recent screenplay, Immaculate, was one of the runners up in the Thousand Films Screenwriting Competition and her latest screenplay, Moose Moose Alpaca Unicorn, was selected as a quarter finalist in the international Screen and Story Film Festival, as well as reaching the top 2% in the Â鶹ԼÅÄ Writersroom for drama comedy submissions. It was also shortlisted for the Â鶹ԼÅÄ Wales World Productions Award.
As a playwright, Carol’s successes have included Rigor Mortis (performed at the Finborough Theatre as one of the runners up for the Papatango Prize) and The Spring Tide, produced at the Old Red Lion Theatre. Her play Borderland was selected for Write Now 3 at the Jack Studio Theatre and the Â鶹ԼÅÄ Writersroom 10. Carol’s latest play, Sugar and Spice, earned its way to the longlist for the Welsh Writer in Residence.
Henry Waddon is a 22-year-old writer, actor and medical student from Cardiff. He is currently partaking in Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru’s Young Playwrights Programme, as well as Pentabus Theatre’s Young Writers National Programme. In 2021, Henry co-created and performed in an original piece of verbatim theatre, ‘HOME’, for the National Student Drama Festival, as part of the 2020-21 NDSF Writers’ Lab.​​
Henry’s writing has led him to be shortlisted for schemes such as Â鶹ԼÅÄ Writersroom Drama Room and The Oxford Playhouse Playmaker Residency, in addition to being longlisted for the Royal Court’s Playwrights Group. His debut play, ‘PLAGUED’ was a recipient of the Best New Play award at the 2019 Oxford University New Writing Festival. As an actor, Henry has performed at venues such as the Arcola Theatre, The New Theatre, Cardiff and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, in addition to featuring in TV commercials. Henry wants to create accessible TV that champions Welsh artists and the Welsh language, and that shines a light on issues surrounding our health and its fragility.​