We are delighted to announce this year鈥檚 London Voices 鈥� a group of dynamic writers from all across London. Their original voices reflect the diversity and vibrancy of the Capital, bringing together writers from all backgrounds and walks of life. All at early stages of their careers, the group was chosen from writers whose work we have come across through readings and plays as well as recommendations of industry experts including Jane Fallowfield from Talawa Theatre Company.
The writers are all keen to get to grips with writing for television and radio 鈥� which we hope they will do through London Voices. The ten week scheme is designed to demystify the world of television and radio, giving the writers clear guidance on what it takes to make it as a working writer for broadcast and making the industry feel accessible and open.
You can find out more about the group below.
Mina Barber
Mina is a part of the Young Vic Directors Programme and recently took part in the Young Vic鈥檚 鈥楩resh Direction鈥� an initiative for emerging Directors, which culminated in a professional sharing of work at the Young Vic in July. Mina also recently directed a play by Guleranna Mir for the Rightful Place Theatre Company, a community company of 14 bengali women in East London. Mina is an award-winning playwright, winning the Angle Theatre Company competition for her play 鈥楥ommercial Rd鈥�. This year Mina was short-listed for the 大象传媒 Writersroom Drama Room Scheme 2018 and is currently working on a 1 hour pilot with a script editor. Mina has worked on three Tamasha Theatre Company projects as a Writer, Dramaturg, and Director in the last few years, which include the Barbican Box Project for 2017/18 for schools as part of a team of writers, working with the National Youth Theatre and Titi Dawudu (Producer and Curator) on a project called 鈥楬ear Me Now鈥� to develop audition monologues for artists of colour as a Writer and Dramaturg, and on the Re-Fuel schools project with Hampstead School as a Director.
Joseph Barnes-Phillips
Joseph is a highly engaging and versatile actor and writer. He has most recently been touring Big Foot, his one-man show, which he both wrote and performed. A semi-autobiographical coming of age tale, Big Foot is a raw and highly passionate play that challenges masculinity within the Young Black Male stereotype in an honest and humorous way. He is currently working on a new play commissioned by Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds. Building on themes explored in Big Foot, this project sees Joseph delivering an engagement program with men at Highpoint Prison, exploring racial stereotyping, being a man and becoming an adult.
Babirye Bukilwa
Babirye Bukilwa (formerly known as Vanessa Babirye) is known as a stage actress. Acting professionally since the age of 16 Babirye has developed her multidisciplinary talents across the board. Her credits include the National Theatre, The Royal Court, the Hampstead, Soho Theatre, 大象传媒, Channel 4, the ICA and even the New York Times. Known more recently as half of the hilarious duo that is by Cecile Emeke. Babirye has been noted as 1 of 10 female creatives by Newspaper 2018. An outspoken feminist Babirye has co founded the internationally loved radio show 'Sistren' with a documentary about her show premiering in New York this Autumn.
Ryan Calais Cameron
Ryan is the winner of the 2018 Off West End Adopt A Playwright Award for his play RHAPSODY. He is an alumnus of the Royal Court writer鈥檚 programme 2017 and the Soho Young Company 2016/17.
He is currently represented by Julia Tyrrell Management
Emma Dennis-Edwards
Emma is a writer and performer of Jamaican and Trinidadian heritage. She has been part of a number of prestigious writing programmes with theatres such as the Royal Court, Soho theatre and Lyric Hammersmith. Her work has been performed at The Tricycle, Arcola, Royal Court and Oval House. Emma鈥檚 latest play Funeral Flowers was commissioned by Power Play Theatre Activists in association with the Pleasance Theatre and was part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and won the Scotsman鈥檚 Fringe First Award. Emma is represented by Kat Buckle at Curtis Brown.
Dominic Garfield
Dominic is the co-artistic director of HighRise Theatre and an associate artist with live experience gurus CONEY. As a writer for theatre his style is musical and colloquial using poetry, rap and heavy baselines to aid authentic stories from hidden underworlds. His latest work Lil.Miss.Lady explores the history of grime culture through the eyes of a formidable female MC and has been described by Exuent magazine as 鈥榓 show packed with so much passion, smarts, rage and joy鈥�.
Other writing credits include critically acclaimed shows: The Concrete Jungle Book, a Hip Hop musical based on the characters from Rudyard Kipling's classic, exploring homelessness and fatherhood, Merryville, a political guide to grime revolution co-written with his lyrical sparring partner Gerel Falconer & My Generation written for the Orange Tree Youth Theatre which explores systemic racism through poetry.
AJ Yi
AJ Yi is a writer, performer and comedic rapper currently working in London. Their debut one-person show, Love Songs, was developed through the Soho Theatre Writer鈥檚 Lab 2018, and supported by Camden People鈥檚 Theatre and Chinese Arts Now. After premiering at Underbelly as part of this year鈥檚 Edinburgh Fringe, Love Songs was shortlisted for two Edinburgh Fringe Comedy Awards and longlisted for the Tony Craze Award. It is soon due for a London transfer, where it will continue to raise money for the legal charity Rights of Women.
Aside from writing and performing work about their own mixed identity, AJ is one-half of British South and East Asian theatre company Trip Hazards. Staging work in theatres everywhere from The Tristan Bates to The Yard, Trip Hazards aim to create experimental, autobiographical yet accessible shows which break away from the more traditional explorations of such communities in Western art.
As well as working on their second full-length play and an upcoming web series, AJ is currently a member of the Soho Theatre Stand Up Lab.
Lettie Precious
Lettie Precious is a British playwright, poet, author and artist. They won the best new artist award at Museum of the Mind in 2016. In a short space of time, after quitting their job as a nurse to concentrate on their writing, Lettie Precious has been very active within the theatre and writing industry having become a published author in 2018.
In 2015 they worked with Team Angela productions to produce a play at the Theatre Royal Stratford East and produced their own show at the Arcola in 2017. Currently, Lettie Precious is working with Graeae Theatre Company as part of their Write to Play programme in partnership with the Soho Theatre, Talawa Theatre Company, the Oval Playhouse, the Bush Theatre and Tamasha. Through this, they have had a showcase at Soho Theatre and the Oval Playhouse.
Ashna Raberu
Ashna has just graduated from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama on the BA Acting course. Her television credits include Indian Summers for Channel 4 and Is This Thing On? For 大象传媒 Three. She has just come back from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival where she played the part of Farrah in the multi award winning play Trojan Horse with Lung Theatre company in association with Leeds Playhouse. Her play 鈥淐hips鈥� was shortlisted for the Heretic voices award at the Arcola Theatre last year. Ashna has a passion for stories and is thrilled to be joining the London Voices group.
Ashna is represented by Katie McCord at Eamonn Bedford Agency.
Ibrahim Salawu
Ibrahim Salawu is a London-based scriptwriter with a passion for film and TV. in 2016, he gained a Master鈥檚 degree in scriptwriting at Goldsmiths University, and he has also completed Soho Theatre鈥檚 writer鈥檚 lab course. Presently, he is turning his MA script into a TV series pitch with Tigerlily Productions.
After submitting a spec script to 大象传媒 Writersroom's open submission Script Room, Ibrahim was selected to pitch TV ideas to 大象传媒 Three. He is currently working on a new spec script with the assistance of 大象传媒 Writersroom.
Danusia Samal
Danusia is an actress, writer, and singer/songwriter, notable for her roles at the Royal Court, RSC, and Soho Theatre, as well as feature film Ghost in the Shell. An alumna of Tamasha's playwright scheme and Soho Theatre's Writer's Lab, this year Danusia wrote and performed Busking It, an semi-autobiographical story of her experiences busking on the Underground. The music/theatre was commissioned by Shoreditch Town Hall and co-produced by HighTide. Other writing credits include Conditionally (Soho Theatre/Oxford School of Drama), Langthorne Stories (Soho Theatre, Waltham Forest) and Las Americas Above (Chaskis Theatre).
Naomi Soneye-Thomas
Naomi is an actor and writer from London. She took part in the Soho Theatre's Writers Lab 2015/16 and has since written and produced a number of short films. Her first short 'Born Evil' premiered at Sitges, an Oscar qualifying film festival in Spain. She co-created a short animation called 'The Integration Game' which screened at the Roundhouse in 2017. She is currently working on her first play called 'Flux' which was performed at 'From the Forest Festival' in June 2018. As an actor, she has performed at festivals such as Bestival and Latitude and was a member of the National Youth Theatre.
Tom Wentworth
Tom Wentworth's recent writing credits include: Burke and Hare, performed at Newbury鈥檚 Watermill Theatre and will transfer to London鈥檚 Jermyn Street Theatre in November/December 2018; Bee Happy (Old Red Lion) and Windy Old Fossils (Pentabus.) He is currently under commission to Graeae, National Theatre Wales and Pentabus and has recently completed the Bush Theatre鈥檚 Emerging Writers' Group and was part of the inaugural year of Graeae鈥檚 Write To Play programme. He鈥檚 delighted to be part of London Voices and getting the chance to explore writing for other mediums. Tom is represented by Nick Quinn at The Agency.
Rachael Young
Rachael Young is an award-winning artist whose interdisciplinary performance exists on the boundaries between live art, dance, contemporary theatre and socially engaged practice. Her work creates spaces for intersectional realities to be explored and celebrated and for alternative narratives and forms to evolve and be heard.
Rachael鈥檚 most recent shows OUT and NIGHTCLUBBING received critical acclaim; with OUT winning the 2017 South East Dance 鈥楢 Space to Dance鈥� Brighton Fringe Award and gaining a nomination for the 鈥楾otal Theatre & The Place Award for Dance鈥� at Edinburgh Fringe. She鈥檚 currently touring these works nationally and internationally.