Script Lab is underway! Our 2024 participants have been refining their ideas, redrafting their scripts, and improving their short-form screenwriting skills following the first of our collaborative writing workshops.

Script Lab is our annual writer development programme, supporting emerging filmmakers in the North of England to develop a short film from an early-stage idea to a completed script. 

Our 2024 cohort bring a range of creative experience to the Lab - from comedy to theatre, fine art to performance. We’re excited to introduce them below, and can’t wait to see how their projects will grow over the course of the programme.

Amina is a Manchester-based multidisciplinary artist, writer, director, producer, filmmaker, DJ and facilitator, working to use her platform to change the social and political discourse around the representation of Muslim women. Her play my mum told me not to marry an atheist was performed as R&D at Contact Theatre and Islington Mill, and whilst Hope New Mill which was performed at Leicester Curve Theatre as R&D with Kali Theatre. Her short film/TV Pilot Daytimers was released at Contact Theatre in July 2024.

Rhianne is an emerging writer with a passion for telling stories that are immersed in the human connection. As a writer on the inaugural WTFV Kay Mellor Screenwriters Lab in 2023 and part of the Channel 4 New Writers Scheme, she's looking forward to continuing to grow her storytelling skills and collaborating with other creatives.

Dan is a playwright and screenwriter from Stoke-on-Trent, based in Salford. He won two awards for his showToxic and was supported by Arts Council England for his play Daily Bread and its work with foodbanks in Yorkshire. He has two additional plays due to be staged in late 2024. As a screenwriter, his first short Marching On Together was released in November 2023, and he has two other shorts in pre-production.

Nora is a writer who grew up in the West Midlands, but for the last nine years has considered Sheffield her home. She wants to tell stories that are darkly comedic, female-led, gritty and vulnerable, and reflective of the diverse world around us. She gained a bursary to study the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama’s Introduction to Screenwriting course in 2022, and since then has been selected for The Network talent scheme at Edinburgh TV Festival in 2023 and Screen Yorkshire’s 2023 ScriptEd programme. Her TV pilot Tube Socks, which centres around the competitive world of roller derby, was long-listed for a Funny Women Comedy Writing award.

Emma's writing portfolio spans games, theatre, TV, and XR projects. Her collaborations include partners such as ITV, where she worked on storylining for Emmerdale; Charisma AI, contributing to a video game adaptation of John Wyndham's The Kraken Wakes; and The National Youth Theatre, for which she created NEST for LEEDS 2023. She also developed an interactive story for the release of His Dark Materials in partnership with the BBC. Emma has been selected for Screen Yorkshire’s FLEX scheme, the European Creators Lab, BAFTA Connect, and the Future of Film cohort.

Chris is an emerging screenwriter based in Sheffield. In recent years he has been on writer development programmes with the BBC (Northern Voices) and Sky TV/New Writing North (Sky Writes). He has also been part of a theatre writing development programme with Freedom Studios's Street Voices 5. He enjoys writing comedy-drama and has covered issues like mental health and neurodiversity.

Karen is a Scottish theatre director and actor, living in the North East of England. She has worked extensively across theatre, radio and television over the past three decades.

Si Beckwith is a stand-up comedian and writer from Newcastle Upon Tyne. As a comic, Si has been tour support for Carl Hutchinson, Janine Harouni, Nabil Abdulrashid, Sukh Ojla and Erin Neumann, was a Harrogate Comedian of the Year finalist and has written and performed in a number of sketches for BBC Newcastle. Si was awarded Arts Council England DYCP funding in 2023 to develop as a new writer for theatre and his first theatre show (co-written with Gavin Webster) comes to Laurel’s Theatre at the end of 2024.

Chess is a queer, Geordie writer/performer, living with chronic pain. A proper barrel of laughs. They received their first commission to be one of BBC Comedy’s Laugh Lessons 2021 comedians, filming Becoming a Karen, produced by Storymade and NECHH. This was then nominated for an RTS Comedy and Entertainment award 2022, but Chess didn't win and got drunk instead. Chess has projects in development with established and indie production companies and is recipient of DYCP ACE, Screen Skills, NES Open Horizons and Comedy 50:50 bursaries. 

Lee is a working-class writer for screen, audio, and stage from Liverpool. He has written for and worked on Jimmy McGovern’s Moving On, Father Brown, and Casualty. He received a special commendation from the Alfred Bradley Bursary Award 2024 and writes for the Wondery podcast Terribly Famous.

Yonatan is an artist and designer based in Newcastle upon Tyne. His creative practice involves developing collaborative visual projects that span research, installation, moving images, sound, and photography, presented as exhibitions and books. He holds a BA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths College and an MA in Sculpture from the Royal College of Art.