We are excited to announce the 10 creatives taking part in Scratch Me this year. Scratch Me 2022 is a 5-month character development lab being delivered by the Film Hub North’s BFI NETWORK team in partnership with Fulwell 73 and North East Screen.

This group of writers and directors based across the North of England came together for the first time at the Scratch Me launch event in Newcastle on Tuesday 28 June. There, they met with reps from Fulwell 73 who will have the first option to take the scratch monologue film they will be creating as part of the lab onto their slate for further development. We cannot wait to get to know them all over the course of the programme and watch them develop characters with the potential to lead to a TV series, feature film or radio show.

And as part of Scratch Me, there is a public programme of industry sessions on character development led by top Film & TV industry talent open to anyone who is interested in making their characters more irresistible. Find out more here.

Now, let’s meet our 2022 cohort!

Jennifer is a writer, performer graduate from Salford University. Whose credits include Peaky Blinders, Casualty and 4 O’Clock Club. She also writes, performs and edits satirical sketches based around the world of casting with her comedy partner. When writing personal projects, Jennifer takes inspiration from growing up in a progressive Jew...ish household and the naturally comical and often bizarre situations that arose from this. Jennifer aims to create more work that reflects this often underrepresented but always pretty fun and very wholesome way of life.

Jessie Brooks is a comedy writer, performer and voiceover artist with a background in devised theatre and community arts. Jessie writes and performs character comedy as well as improv and is particularly interested in spoof, satire and integrating audio/voiceover in live performance as well as countering humour with darker, deeper societal themes. She is one half of You Need Help, a comedy duo delivering comedy seminars, funded by both Arts Council England and Leeds International Festival. She is currently developing one woman show ‘Under the Mumfluence’, exploring pregnancy and motherhood in the age of social me.

Lucie Browne is a Manchester-based writer, actor and much like her pop star spirit mammal, Puff Daddy, a misunderstood Scorpio. Her comedy idols include Ruby Wax, Hyacinth Bucket and Nigel Farage. Aged 10, she created an alter ego who would perform very un-inspired parody scenes at Primary School assemblies (Michael Jackson’s ‘Earth Song’ music video and Baywatch being some highlights). The reviews were savage, but, from that blossomed an enduring love for the most defiant, tongue-in-cheek and uncomfortable comedy.

Makeda Matheson is a Writer and Director from Huddersfield. Makeda’s directing projects span documentary (her latest film ALIVE received its world premiere at Sheffield Doc/Fest 2021) and commercial film (Chanel, CNN et al). In her scripted work, she uses her background as a documentarian to delve into different worlds and to explore the rich tapestry of stories that exist in the north of England.

Meghan is an actor, director and theatre maker from Newcastle upon Tyne. As an actor Meghan has worked with the RSC, Northern Stage, Live Theatre, Channel 4, Film4, Duffel Films and BBC Radio 4. As a theatre maker and director she has worked with Royal Court, RSC, The Lowry, Northern Stage, Live Theatre and National Youth Theatre of Great Britain. She is currently a mentee of Emma Rice and Wise Children. Meghan is Co-Artistic Director of The Letter Room - a national touring theatre company of Actor Musicians creating musical/gig theatre. She is also a singer/song-writer and her love of music often informs the work she makes.

Andy is a director and writer from Stockton-on-Tees. He co-founded the award-winning Arden Theatre Company at the age of 16 before attending the Met Film School in Ealing. In 2015 he made BFI/Creative England funded iShort ‘A Six & Two Threes’ which played festivals around the world and made the BIFA long-list. In 2018 he made the similarly funded ‘Elsewhere’ with Molly Windsor and Mark Addy. Other credits include a BBC Laugh Lesson, a few music videos, the odd TVC and countless corporate films. He’s passionate about humour, hope and stories concerned with how we be, do & feel better.

Emma is a director and producer from Newcastle. She has directed shortform comedy for C4 and BBC3. She was a selected attendee of the 2021 BFI network weekender and recipient of North East Comedy Hot House’s development producer bursary with Tiger Aspect. Emma’s career began as a theatre director working in new writing, this underpins her screen development skills and performance led approach to directing. Much of her work has been with and for young people and emerging talent, she is passionate about championing and working with new and authentic voices.

Katja grew up on the film sets of Amber Film and Photography Collective, which is where her passion for filmmaking was born. She co-founded Meerkat Films in 2007 and as in-house director has 15 years’ experience writing and directing short drama, observational documentaries, campaign films and factual entertainment. Her work has reached audiences through the BBC, National Geographic, online platforms and film festivals around the world. She has won festival awards for short drama ‘The Ball’ and a Royal Television Society award for a drama doc that explored the impact of the Work Capability Assessments. Katja is also a multi-camera director and editor and works closely with theatre teams to create innovative digital content, often with a focus on social change. She is currently working on a number of short drama projects.

Lee Armstrong is a working class Writer, Actor and Director based in Newcastle Upon Tyne. As a writer he won the 2019 BAFTA Rocliffe award and in 2021 was shortlisted for the BBC Drama writer’s programme and in 2022 commissioned on the BFI Early Development Fund. His short films have been Official Selected and shown at Foyle Film Festival, Norwich Film Festival, Leeds Film Festival, Lift Off film festival, British Independent Film Festival and London International Film festival. In the past Lee has worked as a script editor, acting tutor and short film director at East 15 Acting School. Lee is currently working with New Writing North, to encourage underprivileged kids to tell stories. Furthermore, for the last 9 years Lee has worked successfully as an actor, he has been fortunate enough to work with top film and TV directors like Christopher Nolan and Joss Whedon, and in theatre TONY and Olivier award winners Tom Morris and Marianne Elliott. It was working with and quietly watching these legends of their craft which inspired Lee to begin directing himself.

Originally from Yorkshire, now residing in Manchester. A writer-director who’s interested in the spaces between factual and fiction story-telling, I’m interested in the underbelly of society, the quiet unknown hidden deep within. The under-represented and the marginalised, the forgotten past that shapes the future and the everyday injustices that befall those without the means of economic impunity. I seek to further understand the world and my place within it through telling stories about those around me.