All this week we're announcing the 72 writers who have taken part in our six Voices development groups for 2023.
Today meet the 12 writers based in our London hub. Find out more about them below and what they've been up to.
Development Producer, Zahra Al-Sultani:
"We are so pleased to announce our super talented London Voices 2023 cohort, who we鈥檝e had the pleasure of working with over the last 6 months. Between them there鈥檚 such a range of exciting ideas and voices, which we鈥檝e enjoyed refining with them throughout the process. They鈥檝e also been developing their craft skills and industry knowledge, to best prepare them for their next steps 鈥� which we can鈥檛 wait to see!"
If you would like any further details on any of the Voices 2023 writers, then please don鈥檛 hesitate to get in touch with the 麻豆约拍 Writersroom team: writersroom@bbc.co.uk
You can find out more about Voices and how to gain a place in the group on our Voices page.
Amarjit Bassan has a passion for telling commercial and accessible stories about communities, particularly little-known stories from British Asian communities. He recently completed the 4Screenwriting course, where he developed his pilot IZZAT (Punjabi for 鈥渉onour鈥�); a character-driven TV drama about the role of women in British Punjabi and Sikh society, set against a backdrop of corruption and modern-day slavery.
He has been shortlisted twice for the 麻豆约拍 Writers Academies and Pilot scheme and was one of 10 attendees selected from hundreds for David Higham Associates鈥� inaugural Open Day for Scriptwriters of Under-Represented Backgrounds. Most recently, he has made it to the final selection for the 麻豆约拍 Pilot 2022 scheme.
As a stage writer, he was selected for the RIFCO Associate Artists Scheme, under which his play SOUTHALL PARK was commissioned, with support from the Arts Council, as part of the British Asian Festival and performed at Watford Palace and the Bloomsbury Theatre in London. Among other awards, the script for his short film LALIT鈥橲 VOICE won the scriptwriting award at The British Urban Film Festival. He is a graduate of Royal Holloway and Screenwriting MA.
Isabella Culver is a Writer-Director from South-East London, her short film SEVEN SISTERSis premiering on Sky Arts and Now TV. It follows the character of Juliet who seeks out an 鈥榓lternative鈥� healer after a traumatic sexual assault. It is a tale of recovery, self-discovery and reckoning with the darker parts of the psyche.
Isabella also directed short film THESE FOUR WALLS about male mental health in the time of lockdown. Isabella kick started her career in theatre when she won The Bristol Old Vic Open Session playwriting competition for her debut play THE DISSOCIATION OF SHIRLEY MASON. Over the course of a year Isabella worked with the Writing Department at The Bristol Old Vic to develop her work. It is a psychological thriller focussing on mental health in the 1950鈥檚, was staged at The Bristol Old Vic as part of their New Plays in Rep season and received a five-star review from A Younger Theatre. During her time working with The Bristol Old Vic Isabella completed an R&D for her new play FLORIDA SNOW a coming-of-age tale set in Daytona Beach Florida, where her American family live.
Isabella has completed writers rooms with Vertigo Films and SLNda for a TV series created by Ashely Walter鈥檚 and Bryncoed Productions for youth-based drama series AS DEAD AS IT GETS. In her writing Isabella enjoys bringing in elements of pop-culture and current affairs. With a focus on Magical Realism and mental health Isabella鈥檚 work centres on surprising stories with a supernatural twist.
Isabella is represented by at
Dwayne Gumbs is a writer/director from London who's enthusiastic about telling engaging, compelling and diverse stories. His BFI Network funded short comedy , was screened at the BFI London Film Festival 2018 and the London Short Film Festival 2019. This led to him being commissioned by 麻豆约拍 Film to develop an original concept for a feature titled BPM, with this screenplay of Dwayne鈥檚 recently shortlisted for the 2022-2023 showcase.
Having a passion for the arts from a young age, Dwayne started a charitable organisation called , that for the past 13 years has been dedicated to making arts based opportunities accessible for all young people. In his role as Artistic Director he has written and directed various educational films and theatre pieces that address hard-hitting topics affecting the most vulnerable young people.
Keen to continue building his professional experience writing and directing, Dwayne鈥檚 looking for opportunities to collaborate on other projects, whilst developing the exciting and commercial ideas he has for screen.
Rhianna Ilube is a playwright and events curator from London. Her debut play, SAMUEL TAKES A BREAK鈥�, was Highly Commended for the Soho Theatre鈥檚 Verity Bargate Award, and shortlisted for the Women鈥檚 Prize for Playwriting. She has been a member of the Royal Court Intro Group, Oxford Playmakers, Omnibus Engine Room, and is currently part of the Soho Six. She also recently completed her first TV pilot with Expanded Media for a Sky Table Read. Rhianna previously worked for game and interactive theatre-makers Coney as an Associate Director, and is a film programmer for BFI Flare. She has an MA in Writing for Performance and Dramaturgy from Goldsmiths University.
Contact: at ITG
Eloka Ivo is a British-Nigerian actor and writer. After studying Philosophy at the University of Bristol, he joined the 2019 cohort of the NYT Rep Company. His recent acting credits include BLACK SUPERHERO (Royal Court) and FOUR MOTHERS (Port Pictures).
As a means of passing time during the second lockdown, Eloka began to write his own work. He was one of the first winners of The Soho House Scripted Competition in 2021, the award for which included a table read of his pilot script OYINBO to a panel of industry professionals.
With his feet now firmly in both acting and writing, Eloka is currently developing an original idea for TV surrounding the "currency of shame" in Nigeria called DON鈥橳 COME AND DISGRACE US, as well as preparing for his West End debut this autumn.
Eloka hopes that his work will contribute to the growing canon of thought-provoking storytelling from historically minoritised communities, and bring a radically honest and refreshing perspective to uplift those who have been left out of the cultural conversation for too long.
Joe Kerridge is a writer from South East London. His work has been performed at Sheffield Theatres, MAC Birmingham, STYX and VAULT Festival, where he won an Innovation Award. He has also been longlisted for the Verity Bargate Award, Theatre 503 International Playwriting Award, Papatango Prize, and is a graduate of the Royal Court Theatre Writers' Programme.
Hartley Lloyd-Pack is a lyricist and writer who has worked at Hackney's Children and Families service since 2014. His work in Hackney has inspired him to create RAW GODS, which authentically captures the complex realities of life in care, using original music compositions and frank storytelling to combine hyper-realism with a sense of other-worldliness. In 2022, in partnership with Fully Focused, Hartley released a taster of RAW GODS on YouTube. The film was produced in collaboration with care-experienced young people from Hackney, and has been picked up by the 麻豆约拍 for development.
In 2018, Hartley launched the podcast Mixtape Assembly, whose guests have included Benjamin Zephaniah and Jimmy Akingbola, both of whom have gone on to support the development of RAW GODS.
Hartley has a background in poetry and rap, and is interested in creating stories that use language in heightened ways to elevate key narrative beats. In 2016, Hartley released an album, Sixteen Sunsets, in response to the loss of his father, the actor Roger Lloyd Pack.
Hartley is represented by at Peach House.
Nadya Menuhin is a writer from London. She holds a BA in Humanities from UCL and took part in the Royal Court Writer鈥檚 Group and Kiln Artist Development. Her writing includes THE SECOND RULE (2020, Mercury Theatre), TREMORS (2021, Bitter Pill Theatre) and I, MOTHER (2022, Fuel Residency, Druid Theatre). Her humour writing has been published by McSweeney鈥檚 and Points in Case.
Her short film IN THE NIGHT TIME is in development with The Corps Ensemble, Dublin. She is currently writing a stage adaptation of the novel THE MAN WHO TOOK TRAINS and developing a comedy-drama series.
She鈥檚 interested in the way people change over time and sometimes quite abruptly. She loves sad stories, dark stories and funny stories, the best being when all three of these elements come together to make chaotic babies.
Himanshu Ojha attempted to be like Shakespeare by starting out as a frustrated actor from the West Midlands. Very much not like Shakespeare, he switched to journalism, studying for a Masters degree from Columbia University.
He worked for the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and Reuters, where he was a data reporter on the investigations and enterprise desk in the US and UK for five years, covering a range of topics from income inequality to corruption in the Russian railway industry to the migration crisis.
Since going freelance, he has enjoyed pursuing stories in very different ways. As a storyteller he has adapted and told Ovid鈥檚 TALE OF BAUCIS AND PHILEMON. For the theatre, he has written THE HAND OF HOZAN, one of the stories chosen to be part of James Graham鈥檚 Sketching, and ANTECHAMBER, a short play that ran in the White Bear鈥檚 Only Human festival in 2020. As a member of the Criterion New Writing programme, he has been able to hone his craft in the company of kinder, better writers. This culminated in his play THE FORGER鈥橲 TALE, an extract of which was performed at the Criterion Theatre in 2022.
He is particularly drawn to character-driven genre stories that resonate with the kind of topics he reported on as a journalist.
Pavan Patel's TV pilot, THE EMPIRE'S JEWEL, achieved significant recognition, being shortlisted for the Netflix Screenwriters' Fellowship and placing in the top 3% for the 麻豆约拍 Open Call 2022. Additionally, Pavan is among the eight writers selected for the prestigious 麻豆约拍 Studio's Writer's Academy 2022-2023, receiving mentorship from John Yorke. His feature script, CAMEL BOY, reached the Top 10% for the Academy Nicholls Fellowships 2022.
Pavan is represented by from Nick Turner Management.
Helen Simmons is a writer, producer and Screen Star of Tomorrow. She has produced six feature films, including KLOKKENLUIDER starring Jenna Coleman and Tom Burke, BONUS TRACK starring Susan Wokoma, Jack Davenport and Josh O鈥機onnor, and HOARD starring Hayley Squires and Joseph Quinn. She runs Erebus Pictures alongside Stephanie Aspin, and recently co-directed a BFI Network short starring Callie Cookie and Lydia Rose Bewley. As a writer, Helen has written on shows for Audible and Sky, and her first feature film as co-writer, produced by Caviar, is currently in post-production. She began writing with the short film F*CK, starring Brett Goldstein and Esther Smith, which gained her nominations for best screenwriter and was a Vimeo Staff Pick. She is currently writing Film & TV projects for companies including Netflix, Moonriver Content, World Productions, and Kinetic Content.
Contact: at ITG
Jenny Takahashi Stark is a London-based screenwriter of English-Japanese ancestry with a love for character-driven drama, comedy-drama, and stories that open doors into unusual worlds. She is currently developing original TV projects with Merman and Banijay, and was selected for the Channel 4 Screenwriting Course 2023, 麻豆约拍 London Voices 2023 and Film London's Breaking The Glass Ceiling Programme 2023. She is also Winner of the All3Media New Voices Drama Award 2022, Richmond International Film Festival Finalist 2022 and writer on the IFT Creative Corridor Transatlantic Diversity Programme 2022. Jenny鈥檚 theatre plays have been performed at Cheltenham Everyman, Theatre 503 and Southwark Playhouse.
She is represented by at Curtis Brown.