All this week we've been announcing the 72 writers who have taken part in our six Voices development groups for 2023.
For no other reason than reverse alphabetical reason, the final group are the twelve writers (including one writing pair) that we've been working with from our Belfast hub. Meet them all below.
Commissioning Executive, Heather Larmour:
"It has been such a pleasure 鈥� not to mention great fun! - working with this incredibly talented and passionate group of writers and it has been so exciting to see their ideas develop and evolve over the course of the six months of the Voices programme. They鈥檝e been an amazingly creative, inspiring, enthusiastic, and supportive group, and we can鈥檛 wait to see what brilliant things they all do next!"
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 大象传媒 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.
Sean Dalton is an award-winning screenwriter from Dublin. After completing a business degree, Sean co-wrote a few books and co-founded a publishing company. During the Covid pandemic, he switched his focus into screenwriting. Most recently, he completed an MA in Writing for Stage and Screen in UCD. While there, his short film screenplay PUB HEIST won 2023鈥檚 nationwide Student Media Award for 鈥淔ilm Script of the Year鈥�.
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His first comedy pilot THE BARISTA reached the top 12% in the 大象传媒 Writersroom Open Call 2022, the second round of the Launch Pad Pilot Competition 2022, and the Quarter Final of the Creative Screenwriting Unique Voices Competition 2022. He now has several projects in the hands of development teams at some of the country鈥檚 top production companies.
Amanda Doherty is an award-winning actor and theatre maker who makes politically engaged work. Areas of focus include working class experiences, women鈥檚 rights, and resilience.
Trained at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts, her original work has toured across Europe and the USA including the Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Reykjav铆k Fringe Festivals. Her award-winning show INHERITANCE has also played at Theatre Row, 42nd鈥疭treet, NYC. Her work EIST MORAN // CAN BEAGAN [Hear Much//Say Little] was selected for the Biennial of Emerging Artists, Bucharest.
Acting credits include:鈥�The Fall鈥�(叠叠颁),鈥�厂别补苍肠丑补铆鈥�(大象传媒 NI),鈥�厂肠煤辫鈥�(大象传媒 NI) for television;鈥疊ird About Town, Faust, Girl in the鈥疢achine for theatre, and forthcoming feature film鈥�Pulcinella. Amanda is a company member of Eight Compositions on the lives of Ukrainians for a Western Audience with Archa Theatre, Prague, currently touring across Europe.
PJ Hart is a writer and producer from North Belfast with credits in comedy, drama and children鈥檚 TV. Having studied film at Queen's University Belfast, PJ started contributing jokes to comedy panel shows and storylines to young adult drama while working in production and editorial roles. His first original script commission was the grounded sci-fi short KILL ME NOW, which was broadcast nationally on Irish TV. PJ has contributed material to award-winning sketch shows HEALTHCARE GUARANTEED and SOFT BORDER PATROL, while his original pilot EAT THE RICH played in competition at Seriesfest Colorado in 2020 and was broadcast globally as part of the Best of Seriesfest programme.
Since becoming a father in 2017, PJ has developed a keen interest in children鈥檚 television and in 2020, he was commissioned to write 5 episodes of Channel 5鈥檚 MIMI鈥橲 WORLD by BAFTA-winning showrunner Mellie Buse.
PJ writes class conscious, elevated genre with a distinctly Belfast voice. His original scripts have placed in national and international competitions and he has a number of TV and feature projects in development.
Mike Hooley and Luke Wilson Hanley's creative partnership started a decade ago in a rock band, gigging in sweaty little bars to nobody. Broke and desperate, these gluttons for punishment ventured into screenwriting together in 2017 and accidentally discovered their real passion.
Since then, they have signed a shopping agreement in the US for their feature INTERSTATE 25, and their horror film P脷CA and fantasy series JUDAS have both been Screencraft finalists.
Their 大象传媒 Voices project THE NOBODIES forces a group of everyday people to face the question, "If you had the insider knowledge to make an illegal bet that could change your life鈥� would you do it?"
Mike works in casting. His credits include 'Derry Girls', 'Game of Thrones' and 'The Northman'. He has been a member of the Casting Directors Guild since 2021.
Luke writes/directs brand campaigns for NI's largest independent creative agency. You'll unknowingly have seen his work for Lidl, Samaritans or Subway somewhere鈥�
Byddi Lee is the author of REJUVENATION a speculative fiction trilogy, first published by Castrum Press in 2020 and has published flash fiction, short stories and her novel, MARCH TO NOVEMBER (2014).
Byddi co-founded and manages Flash Fiction Armagh, shortlisted as Best Regular Spoken Word Night in the Saboteur Awards and co-edited 鈥淭he Bramley 鈥� An Anthology of Flash Fiction Armagh鈥� Volumes 1 and 2. Byddi co-wrote the play IMPACT 鈥� ARMAGH鈥橲 TRAIN DISASTER which was staged for the anniversary of the tragedy in June 2019 in the Abbey Lane Theatre in Armagh and again in the Market Place Theatre, Armagh in October 2022 and November 2023. She co-wrote ZOOMEO AND JULIET and SOCIAL BUBBLE, TOIL & TROUBLE 鈥� live plays performed on Zoom by the Armagh Theatre during the lockdown.
Byddi is an Arts Council Northern Ireland supported writer and holds professional membership at the Irish Writers Centre in Dublin.
Raised in one of Ireland's most disadvantaged areas, writer and actor Andrew Lynch channels his personal experiences into his storytelling, portraying characters often overlooked in mainstream narratives.
Andrew's journey in writing began with his play, DEATH ROW COWBOY, which had successful runs in Dublin and London. Shifting his focus to film, he scripted a mini-documentary REBIRTH and a short film BRENDA. Both were aired on RTE and received numerous awards.
Thanks to support from Screen Ireland, Andrew's debut feature film, FISHSCALE, was developed as part of the Spotlight Development Scheme. He also participated in the BFI Network x BAFTA Crew 2021/22 program, which supports the next generation of film and television talent. During his time in this program, Andrew wrote the Micro Short film MEAT MARKET. This project, created with fellow participants, received multiple awards at various film festivals worldwide.
Presently, Andrew is part of the 2023 Voices cohort, expanding his understanding of writing for television. Additionally, he is in the early stages of development with Yellow Film & TV, the largest independent studio in the Nordics, to create an original TV series.
Carley Magee is an emerging playwright, theatre maker, and screenwriter from Belfast. Her ethos is to create accessible, diverse art that is wildly exciting, and provoking, which primarily revolves around horror, magic realism, and casting a female lens on narratives. Graduating from the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School鈥檚 Drama Writing MA in 2022, she has gone on to be a recipient of Youth Theatre Ireland and Scripts Ireland鈥檚 George B. Miller Award, a recipient of Arts Council NI鈥檚 SIAP Award 2022-2023, and is currently part of Tinderbox鈥檚 Incubate programme for making new work. Youth Theatre Ireland will be producing her script SEABORNE in November 2023.
Her work has been longlisted for the RSC鈥檚 37 Plays, chosen for Prime Cut鈥檚 VERGE Season 3, and selected for the London arts festival -VAULT, 鈥淎 Pinch of Vault鈥� rehearsed readings (June 2023). Her script HAND OF GOD will have a rehearsed reading in the Naughton Studio of the Lyric Theatre Belfast in July. Carley has written numerous short films, having worked with Cinemagic and Good Relations projects to write and script edit for cross-community youth groups taking part in film-making.
Anna is a multi-disciplinary Irish artist who has performed their work internationally. Since finishing their undergrad degree in theatre and English in 2021, Anna has staged a reading of their dystopian play EXIT MUSIC (FOR OUR WORLD) as part of Galway Theatre Festival, worked on various projects with Dublin Fringe Festival and Barnstorm Theatre, and achieved a distinction in Film in Limerick鈥檚 diploma in creative producing for film.
Their current passion projects include: re-drafting their first feature-film script under the mentorship of Peter McKenna; writing the queer-coded update of GIRLS set in Galway instead of New York; manifesting funding for their first short film and; developing a site-specific promenade piece in their hometown of Kilkenny. Through the Voices programme, Anna has been working on a folk-horror pilot script re-imagining modern-day Ireland as a pagan society. You can find out more about Anna at annaecd.com
Rioghnach N铆 Ghrioghair is an award-winning writer, director and producer from Dublin, Ireland.
Based between Ireland and Germany, she is also the founder of鈥疌urveball Media LTD鈥痑nd has an experienced career in film and TV development, having been a development executive for leading Irish companies Blinder Films and Samson Films.
Winner of the 2022 Aer Lingus Discovery Award, Rioghnach鈥檚 new award-winning horror short film,鈥疍ON鈥橳 GO WHERE I CAN鈥橳 FIND YOU, was selected for SXSW 2022.
She is also the writer and director of鈥疊REAK US,鈥痺hich went to over 30 festivals internationally including Fantasia Film Festival. She produced and directed鈥疍O I KNOW YOU?鈥痑nd wrote and directed鈥疦EON.鈥�All three films were supported by Screen Ireland.
In summer 2022, Rioghnach wrote and directed鈥疊ALOR HALL, a half hour whodunnit TV film commissioned by RTE under their Storyland Scheme.
She is one of鈥疭creen International's Rising Stars 2023.
Mark Noonan is a writer and director from the midlands of Ireland. His debut feature film YOU鈥橰E UGLY TOO premiered at the 65th Berlinale and was nominated for a European Film Academy award, screened at over a hundred film festivals and won the DGA Finder's Series in Los Angeles, Best Screenplay Awards in Tokyo and Athens, Best Feature Screenplay from the Writer鈥檚 Guild of Ireland, Best Debut Feature at the Galway Film Festival and Best Breakthrough Feature at the Boston IFF.
He is an alumnus of Berlinale Talents and Toronto Film Festival Talent Lab, and been awarded writing fellowships from the Centre Culturel Irlandais Paris, the NIPKOW/Berlinale Programm in Berlin, and Pustnik Screenwriters residency in Romania.
His first original TV pilot WHEN THEY ALL VANISH has been optioned and earned him a place on 大象传媒 Writersroom Belfast Voices. He has a number of TV and film projects in active development.
Cathriona Slammon is an Irish writer/director from the West of Ireland. With a particular interest in family dysfunction, emotional complexity, repressed memories and childhood trauma, Cathriona typically writes in the vein of psychological drama, horror and the surreal.鈥疉fter completing a Master's Degree in Film Direction, she went on to direct two award-winning no-budget shorts, as well as a third short which was funded by Creative Ireland, currently in post-production.鈥� 鈥�&苍产蝉辫;
In 2022, her feature script, WHAT LITTLE GIRLS ARE MADE OF, was awarded a place on the Ard谩n/BAI Script Mentorship Scheme. More recently, her short film projects have been shortlisted for RTE Storyland and Virgin Media Discovers. She is currently working on her second feature script, a psychological horror/drama, as well as a TV Pilot 鈥� EATER - a tense drama set against the backdrop of female obesity and food fetishes. Cathriona is currently seeking representation.