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We're delighted to announce the sixteen writers who have been chosen to be part of our Drama Room writer development group for 2021/22. They were selected following our last Open Call submission window which closed in January 2021 (last year).

The writers spend six months attending targeted training and development including craft workshops (with practical writing exercises), masterclasses, introductions and networking events, and writing briefs with the opportunity to pitch for selected writing opportunities across the 鲍鱼tv. Following this stage they receive the support of a Script Editor for a further six months to develop their original spec' script

Our overall aim for Drama Room is to develop and prepare talented emerging writers for the television drama industry by equipping them with the core skills, industry knowledge and connections to set them on the right track to gain 鲍鱼tv broadcast commissions.

We can't wait to see what this talented bunch go on to achieve. Find out more about them below.

To be in the running to be considered for the next Drama Room writer development group you must enter a script into our Open Call window which closes on Thursday 13th January at noon. Find out full details of the Open Call

Alex Riddle writes off-kilter drama that embraces comedy and genre leanings. He is a member of the 鲍鱼tv Writersroom Drama Scheme for 2022, having previously been part of the 2021 鲍鱼tv London Voices development group. He currently has a radio short in development with 鲍鱼tv Radio 3's The Verb, and has just completed a shadow scheme with Waterloo Road. His monologue , about a feckless Elvis impersonator, was produced by the Papatango Theatre Company for its Isolated but Open anthology and published with Nick Hern Books. Alex has worked in film, publishing, and as a teaching assistant. He was raised in Bognor Regis and lives in Brighton.

Alvin Yu is a British-Chinese writer/director who grew up in North-West London. He studied Medieval English at the University of Oxford and upon graduating worked in odd-jobs - first a failed stint as a chef in an Italian food truck, a jewellery salesman, and later for a charity teaching English at a comprehensive school in Tottenham.

He worked for a number of years in scripted development as a researcher and development assistant, honing his craft by developing and writing pitches for a number of TV channels including HBO, Sky Atlantic and Netflix, including initial research for Gareth Evans on the HBO show Gangs of London. He was a script reader for the Pulse Film x AI Genesis Film Fund. He directed a music video with over a million views on Youtube, and also directed a number of short films which have been screened at festivals and cinemas around Europe including Split which debuted at the BAFTA accredited London Short Film Festival.

His first TV pilot was selected for development with the 鲍鱼tv Writer's Room BEA Script Editing initiative and was also longlisted for the Sundance Screenwriter's Lab. He has been shortlisted for the Curtis Brown Breakthrough Scholarship for TV Screenwriters of Color, Royal Court Young Writers Programme and the BBH 40th Anniversary Short Film Competition. He was selected for the prestigious 鲍鱼tv London Voices scheme in 2021, and 鲍鱼tv Drama Room in 2021-2022.

Benedict Lombe is a British Congolese writer and theatre-maker based in London. She is interested in reclaiming diasporic stories with flair, humour and heart. Her debut play ‘Lava’ received its world premiere at the Bush Theatre in 2021 to critical acclaim. Benedict went on to win the prestigious Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for ‘Lava’ in 2022, making history as one of the first writers to ever win the award for a debut play.

In addition to this, she has won a Black British Theatre Award and was nominated for the Alfred Fagon Award for Best New Play of the Year. ‘Lava’ was also the recipient of the Best Performance Piece at the 2022 Off West End Awards. She has been on attachment with the National Theatre, The Bush Theatre, Theatre503, and is working on new commissions.

Whilst in Drama Room, she was invited to take part in a shadow scheme for the returning Waterloo Road series, and is currently developing original film and TV projects with indies.

She is represented by Kat Buckle at .

Brennig Hayden was shortlisted for the 鲍鱼tv Wales Writer in Residence before being accepted onto the 2021-22 鲍鱼tv Writersroom Drama Group. While being a member of the group, Brennig has been on the C鲍鱼tv ‘The Dumping Ground’ Shadow Writing Scheme; and taken part in the 鲍鱼tv prime time medical drama ‘Casualty’ Writer Development Program.

Brennig’s other notable achievements include winning the 2021 Bluecat Screenwriting Contest Fellini Award for best international screenplay, was a top three finalist in the Final Draft Big Break Screenplay Awards; and won the Gold Prize in the 2015 Page International Screenwriting Awards and placed in the semi-finals of the Academy’s Nicholls Fellowship in multiple years.

Carlo Kureishi is a writer for film and television.

Carlo graduated with a degree in philosophy from Bristol University in 2015, a year later he was writing under commission from the 鲍鱼tv on an original comedy-drama idea, whilst also working in the writers’ room for Channel 4’s Ackley Bridge. He would go on to write and develop his first feature script with Turbine Pictures, as well co-writing a play for the theatre group Tara Arts. In 2021, he was selected for the 鲍鱼tv Writer’s Room competition.

He is currently working on an adaptation of a Norwegian novel with director Iram Haq for Storm Pictures. Carlo is also developing an original television idea about the UK’s grime music scene with Warner Bros. Elsewhere, he is collaborating with his brother on television concepts with Rollem Productions, Pulse and Hudson Pictures.

He is represented by Nicola Biltoo of .

Emilie Robson is a screenwriter and playwright originally from South Shields. In 2019, their play Moonlight on Leith (co-written with Laila Noble) was named runner up at Theatre Uncut’s Political Playwriting Award ceremony. In 2020, Robson’s play GAME was selected for artistic development with The Traverse in Edinburgh. Robson’s short Sebastian (et moi) was broadcast on 鲍鱼tv Radio 3’s The Verb and her audio drama PICA received a full production with 鲍鱼tv Radio 4 after receiving special commendation at the Alfred Bradley Bursary Award 2021. She was one of 12 participants on the Channel 4 2021 Screenwriting Program, selected from a record 3,800 submissions and currently has projects in development with 鲍鱼tv Team, DNA films and Firebird Pictures amongst others.

Faebian Averies is a two-time award-winning Welsh writer/actor. First winning the Wales Writer in Residence Award with 鲍鱼tv and National Theatre Wales in 2020 and then scooping the prestigious Imison Award for her debut Radio 4 play The Lemonade Lads earlier this year. Faebian is an alumnus of 鲍鱼tv Writersroom Welsh Voices which she was invited into following a scratch performance of her play ‘Two Flats on Clifton Street’ with Chippy Lane Productions. A full-length version of the play then went on to win ‘Masterclass - Pitch Your Play’ resulting in a rehearsed reading in the West End in 2021. During Drama Room 2021/22 Faebian was one of four writers selected to partake in Waterloo Road’s Shadow Scheme where she acquired the skills to write for CDS.

Faebian is represented by Vivienne Clore Management and is currently under commission for several projects across stage, screen and radio.

Fionnuala Kennedy is a writer from Belfast. Her play, ‘Removed’, a commission by Prime Cut Productions to explore the lived experience of young people in care in partnership with VOYPIC, has toured across Ireland and won the 2020 Zebbie award for Best Play. Most recently, she has written ‘Thaw’ for Replay Theatre Company’s PMLD audiences (The MAC Belfast, Oct 2021). She is one of ten writers on the National Theatre’s Connections Programme 21/22 with a play called ‘Hunt’ and is currently under commission for NI Opera writing a new opera for young people for 2023. She was part of 鲍鱼tv Belfast Voices 2018/19 and is delighted to be part of Drama Room 21/22.

Georgia Affonso is a Manchester-based writer and theatre maker, originally from Oxfordshire. She is represented by Eva Robinson at Sayle Screen.
Georgia was selected for 鲍鱼tv Drama Room 2021/22. Through Drama Room, Georgia was chosen for the Waterloo Road Shadow Scheme. Georgia's short play ADULTING was also selected to be produced on Radio 3's The Verb.

In 2019, Georgia wrote and directed RUNWAY with her own company No Door Theatre at the Oxford Playhouse (BT Studio) as part of Offbeat Festival, Southwark Playhouse and the Martin Harris Centre in Manchester. RUNWAY was longlisted for Theatre503 Playwriting Award 2018 and the Alfred Bradley Bursary Award (鲍鱼tv).

Georgia was one of ten writers selected for Northern Voices 2019, a development scheme as part of 鲍鱼tv Writersroom. She is also a graduate of The Writing Squad, a development scheme for writers aged 16-21 in the North.

Georgia is currently a Lead Artist at DIY Theatre, a Learning Disability Theatre Company based in Salford, and has also facilitated and/or produced work with Claybody Theatre, Manchester Camerata, No Dice Collective, Northern Broadsides and OmniMusic.

Gillian McCormack is a Scottish writer from Glasgow, signed to . She currently has her own original projects in development with Merman, Freedom Scripted, Emanata Studios (formerly Beano Studios) and Screen Scotland and two in development with Balloon Entertainment, with with one of these projects currently in development with a Global SVOD.

In 2021, she was part of the Writers Room for a new untitled Balloon Entertainment project and also part of the script writing team for Secret Cinema’s Stranger Things. Her script Rewind was a finalist in the Thousand Films Competition 2020, run by Sid Gentle and Edinburgh TV Festival. Selected as a participant of the inaugural 鲍鱼tv Writersroom Scottish Voices writers group in 2018, she received her first credit with a comedy short Poo Girl which was produced by 鲍鱼tv Scotland and 鲍鱼tv 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 bonkers. When she is not writing she works in events and PR in the music and entertainment industry.

Houmi Miura is a Japanese British female writer, theatre-maker and actor based in Manchester.

She's participated in writers rooms with C鲍鱼tv and CBeebies, as well as writing episodes of Daisy & Ollie (Channel 5), Biff and Chip (CBeebies) and is currently writing for Hollyoaks (Channel 4). She has written sketches for C鲍鱼tv’s The Amelia Gething Complex and has written and performed a monologue for New Earth Theatre’s SIGNAL FIRES. She was also shortlisted for the Alfred Bradley Bursary Award and previously on the 鲍鱼tv Writersroom's Northern Voices 2020 cohort. Houmi loves to playfully explore themes of identity within the everyday, through a fantastical lens.

She is also currently developing her solo show, In The Beginning Woman Was the Sun, supported by 鲍鱼tv, Eclipse, Unity Theatre and Arts Council England.

Nathan Ellis was a member of the Royal Court Invitation Writers’ Supergroup 2018-19 led by Alice Birch and Ali Mcdowall. He is developing TV projects with Balloon, Archery Pictures, UFA Fiction, and Tall Story Pictures, and is writing a feature for Calamity Films with Renée Zellweger attached. In 2020 his play SUPER HIGH RESOLUTION was Shortlisted for the Verity Bargate Award. It will be performed at the Soho Theatre in 2022 directed by Blanche McIntyre and at Staatstheater Kassel in 2023.

His play work.txt (a play without actors) received five stars in the Guardian and was Offie-Nominated in 2022. It was also invited to the Caravan International Showcase 2022 and will go on an international tour in 2023. His first play No One Is Coming to Save You ('a blazing debut' The Stage) was invited to Incoming Festival 2019 and toured nationally. He is based between London and Berlin.

Paris Ventour (He/Him) is a North West-based screenwriter. He has written Series 9A of ‘My DG’, an online spin-off of the BAFTA-winning children’s drama, ‘The Dumping Ground’ (C鲍鱼tv), and has also been in the writers' room for the landmark Series 10.

He is a graduate of 鲍鱼tv Children’s New Voices 2020/21 scheme, and is currently a Storyliner for ‘Coronation Street’ (ITV), having previously worked as a Storyliner and Script Editor for ‘Hollyoaks’ (Lime Pictures).

Rosanna Suppa is a writer and performer focussed on bringing nuanced, funny queer and working class stories to the fore.

Their career started in the Cambridge Footlights, and their debut play, TUNA has toured to multiple London venues including an acclaimed run at VAULT Festival 2020 and is being performed across the country in late 2021. They co-wrote Lesbian Space Crime, which was shortlisted for the Untapped award (New Diorama/Underbelly) in 2020 and developed with Omnibus Theatre as part of their Engine Room scheme. They have also co-written and created 2 queer web series, Brood, and Bed & Bridget, as well as running writer-development initiatives with their theatre company, AIRLOCK, and working on commission for youth theatre companies developing scripts.

They have recently developed multiple TV projects with their agent based on their playwriting, including a darkly comic, county lines drug running drama Smack Capital, and have worked in writers rooms for Beano Studios. Lesbian Space Crime is being performed at the VAULT Festival in 2022.

Sarah Gordon is a Belfast-based writer and director. She spent last year developing her first feature script (POKES) with Northern Ireland Screen’s New Writer Focus.

During lockdown she was commissioned to write and co-direct one of six short comedy films for a project called Splendid Isolation (鲍鱼tv4/鲍鱼tv NI - nominated for the Royal Television Society NI Best Drama Award; and nominated for a Celtic Media Award).

Other short films include Shopped (dir. Jon Kesselman, produced by 鲍鱼tv Writersroom for 鲍鱼tv iPlayer); and RAT (Púca Pictures, winner Best Short at Dinard Festival of British Film).

Sarah was part of 鲍鱼tv Writersroom’s Belfast Voices 18/19, Zodiak Kids NI New Writers Scheme 2020, and Lyric Theatre’s New Playwrights Programme 2019. Her first children’s book (Bernard the Irish Dinosaur) is about to be published by O’Donnell Press. She is also currently developing an Irish language feature film with ILBF, TG4 and 鲍鱼tv through Púca Pictures.

Born in Edinburgh, and brought up between Australia & Scotland, Tim Barrow trained as an actor at Drama Centre London, graduating with a BA Hons degree in 2001. He works as an actor, writer and film-maker.

Tim’s debut play Guy was produced at London’s Pleasance Theatre, followed by Union (Lyceum, Edinburgh – published by Playdead Press), and Neither God Nor Angel (Oran Mor / Traverse). He worked with the charity Stand Easy to create The Dandelion Patch, spotlighting verbatim stories of mental health trauma from armed forces veterans (Edinburgh Fringe). With Paul Beeson he co-wrote and co-produced A War Of Two Halves and Sweet F.A. (both plays staged at Tynecastle Park football stadium, and both published by Tippermuir Books). Sweet F.A. was nominated for 2 CATS awards in 2022.

Tim founded Lyre Productions to make contemporary Scottish feature films. He wrote, produced & starred in award-winning Scottish road movie The Inheritance, directed by Charles-Henri Belleville, plus Edinburgh love story and redemption tale The Space Between, and award-winning Scottish schizophrenia love story road movie – currently screening at film festivals worldwide.

Tim received a New Writers Award from Playwrights Studio in 2012. He was selected for the Wellcome Trust Ideas Lab at the 2015 Edinburgh International Film Festival. In 2019 he was a Starter Artist at National Theatre of Scotland. He was part of 鲍鱼tv Writersroom Scottish Voices 2020. During Drama Room 2022 he was commissioned to write Cramond Island for 鲍鱼tv Radio 3's The Verb.