Voices 2024 - England South (2024)

"It is our enormous pleasure to tell you about this year’s Voices cohort from the Southeast & Southwest Group.

"For the past six months, along with my colleagues, Philip Mattison and Paddy Clarke, I have had the privilege of working with these extraordinarily talented and exciting creatives.Each writer (and writing partnership) has been working incredibly hard to create a compelling, distinctive and exciting series outline for Television drama.

At the same time, they have been developing their craft skills and knowledge through masterclasses and workshops with some of the industry’s most talented professionals.Using these building-blocks to hone and perfect their story ideas, they have created a wide-ranging body of work which covers a myriad of genres, themes and styles; yet each one has a distinct focus reflecting the writer’s authorial individuality.

I’d like to thank them for their persistence, hard work and dedication and I can’t wait to see what each of this year’s writers does next in their careers."

Simon Nelson, Development Executive BBC Writers

Ruby Abbiss

Born in Wales and raised in Watford, Ruby Abbiss is a writer/director and a recent graduate of the National Film and Television School's MA in Screenwriting for Film and TV. Informed by her  experience as a single mother and queer, neurodivergent woman, Ruby's work often explores themes of social justice, belonging and community.

Together, Ruby and Penelope create outlandish stories to torment, horrify and titillate. Their snail body horror feature, 'Crawl To Me' is their slimy piece de resistance and has caused much disgust and questions, like, are they okay?

Penelope Yeulet

Penelope Yeulet knows the full alphabet and some of the best orders to put those letters in. She is a writer, director, and actor. Her style is often described as anarchic and brimming with snark, drawn to the slimier, darker parts of the world she has a particular penchant for all things horrifying. Her BFI comedy/horror short film SANDRA GETS A NEW FRINGE recently screened at LSFF and she is currently writing her debut novel, a queer coming of age told through a cannibalistic lens, after being awarded a DYCP grant from the Arts Council.

Together, Ruby and Penelope create outlandish stories to torment, horrify and titillate. Their snail body horror feature, 'Crawl To Me' is their slimy piece de resistance and has caused much disgust and questions, like, are they okay?

Marlek al-Habib and Neet Mohan

Marlek al-Habib and Neet Mohan first met on the set of BBC One’s Casualty, where you can find Neet playing the role of Dr. Rash Masum and Marlek as a costume designer. Discovering a mutual passion for film and writing led the pair to pen a pilot episode for their supernatural series Palm Trees For Peckham, which was longlisted in the Studio21 Drama Series Script Competition in 2022. Since then they have been working together on a number of new projects.

Separately, Marlek is an award-winning writer and director of short film, winning the Best South-West Film award at The Plymouth Film Festival for his film Penny From Heaven. His film The Lift, starring Anita Dobson, was has screened at BAFTA and his horror film Cry Baby Blue was selected at multiple film festivals globally. His grounded sci-fi drama series 777 was optioned in 2022 to The Development Partnership and he is currently working on several of new projects. His work fluctuates between the dichotomy of David Nicholls and Stephen King, always with the burning questions of what makes us truly tick.

Neet previously developed a comedy-drama series with Hat Trick Productions. His acting credits include Ready Player One, Line of Duty, Fresh Meat and Doctor Who. 

Irshad Ashraf

Irshad Ashraf writes drama inspired by corporate conspiracies and corrupt governments. From state complicity in drug trafficking to death squads hired by boardrooms, Irshad’s interest in writing about the blurred edges of the moral spectrum comes from twenty five years making documentaries and realising some stories work better as drama.

Many of his stories are conspiracy thrillers exploring loyalty, relationships, betrayal, friendships, attachment and need. Conflicts stem from his own experiences as a northerner living in the south, of invisible systems of privilege camouflaged as meritocracy, and the polite racism of the bourgeoisie. Characters are riven by urges to either fit in quietly or to destroy their surroundings.

Having made over thirty hour long and half hour documentaries working with Richard Linklater, Peter Kosminsky, Melvyn Bragg, Reggie Yates and Ross Kemp, Irshad began writing drama while directing reconstructions on crime shows.

Accolades for his original scripts include commendations from Francis Ford Coppola & Zoetrope, Academy Nicholl and Austin Film Festival. Irshad’s original series 606, about a city trader blackmailed by police to inform on her drug boss brother, was a Netflix Screenwriting Fellowship finalist and optioned by Studio 21.

Irshad is developing a series he created on BBC Voices. His agent is Amanda Davis at Curtis Brown.

Lee Daniel

Lee is an emergent screenwriter and short filmmaker who hails from Harlesden, London and has Scottish roots. Growing up, her family life was chaotic which resulted in her being expelled from school and leaving home aged sixteen.

As a mature student, she attended UCL to study visual arts and philosophy. And later went on to become a primary school teacher before setting up her own dance business. Lee has a long term health condition/ disability that led to her discovery of screenwriting. She has since studied advanced story structure with John Yorke, and attended a filmmaking course with Julian Kerridge (at Brighton Screen and Film School).

Her first script, about an abused girl, was placed in the top 20% (BBC Academy). The following year, her matriarchal Scottish film script was placed in the 1% category (BBC Open Call). She has made a few micro films, about a range of subjects including: schizophrenia, seances and mortality. She is currently based in Brighton and is part of a female filmmaking community.

She is drawn to rich story worlds, full of ordinary extraordinaries. And likes to shine a light into dark places and infuse bleak narratives with hope, humour and universal truths.

Dave Florez

Writing across comedy and drama, Dave Florez enjoys dissecting the off-kilter aspects of the human condition; following morally ambiguous characters traversing ethical minefields.

His Hampstead Theatre play EXPERIENCE was shortlisted for the Nick Darke Award. Dave then adapted it into the psychological drama EMBERS, which was part of a BFI London Film Festival showcase, before being nominated for Best UK Feature at Raindance Film Festival. It was also selected for Belfast and RiverRun Film Festivals. His thriller feature SINS IN THE FAMILY premiered on Lifetime/Paramount+. Dave is a BAFTA Connect Member, a BBC New Talent Hotlister, and his comedy SHOCK JOCK aired on Radio 4. His dramedy CHOSEN was optioned by Hat Trick, his drama ACCIDENT optioned by LA Productions, and he was commissioned to write the film POSTMASTER for Tiger Aspect. He has also developed series with Red Productions and Rollem.

Dave has had several plays at the Edinburgh Festival, including SOMEWHERE BENEATH, winner of a Fringe First Award. His shorts have been produced at Royal Court, Soho Theatre and the Criterion; and his plays are published by Bloomsbury. Dave can be found most wet Saturday afternoons lovingly cursing Stevenage FC.

Alistair Hall

Alistair Hall is a writer and actor from Chippenham, now based in London. His debut play DECLAN, a queer thriller set in rural Wiltshire, premiered at Edinburgh Fringe in 2023 and was a winner of the Keep it Fringe Award- led by Phoebe-Waller Bridge.

DECLAN was originally presented online during lockdown and featured on The Guardian’s ‘Best Online Theatre’.

Alistair’s writing has been shortlisted for the Bristol Old Vic x Pleasance Partnership Award and the Papatango Prize. He has a new play in development and is currently adapting DECLAN for television.

He is drawn to creating characters that exist on the edges of our society. His interest is in unexpected stories that present human behaviour in an unsanitised way.

Nepa Khatun

Nepa Khatun has always had a passion for storytelling from a young age. She particularly enjoys writing coming-of-age comedy-dramas rooted in literary realism. Whether that’s from the lens of an impoverished background, gritty violence, a cannibal in the making or ill-fated lovers. She’s no stranger to writing across genres, exploring internal conflict with sardonic flair.

Nepa was a quarterfinalist for Screencraft Comedy Competition (2021), a semi-finalist for Final Draft Big Break (2021), semi-finalist for Screencraft TV Pilot Competition (2022), a second rounder for Launch Pad Pilot Competition (2022), top 10% for BBC Open Call (2022), top 3% for BBC Open Call (2023) where she was selected to be part of the BBC Voices programme (2024) and longlisted for the Pillars Arist Fellowship (2024).

Alexis Kirke

Alexis Kirke is a writer based in the southwest of the UK, focused on drama, elevated horror and grounded sci-fi. He has developed three sci-fi pilots with producer Paul Brett (THE KING’S SPEECH, WOLF HALL), and is currently developing a US sci-fi feature with Paul. His drama pilot AN ANALYTICAL MARXIST IN MAYFAIR secured him his place on BBC Voices.

Alexis is a graduate of Metfilm School’s Screenwriting program, where his sci-fi horror feature script TRANQUILLITY achieved a near perfect scoring on the US Black List website. His drama short film MANY WORLDS won a Media Innovation Award and was presented at a specially organised BBC Media City event. His drama short BUDDHA OF SUPERPOSITION was picked up by Hughes Films and distributed to Amazon and Apple.

Alexis is a poet who was invited to perform at GLASTONBURY and edited the UK’s first online poetry magazine BRINK. He won a Media Innovation award for the documentary MUSIC, MEMORIES AND MAKING RADIO on Alzheimer’s and music, which he co-wrote and co-presented for BBC Radio Devon. Alexis previously attained a PhD in Artificial Intelligence and created the world’s first music-performing quantum A.I.

Martha Loader

Martha is a playwright, actor and producer from Ipswich. Previous work has been presented by HighTide, Mercury Theatre, Cambridge Junction, and INK. She is an associate artist of the New Wolsey Theatre (supported by the Peggy Ramsay Foundation and Film4), and is currently working on commissions from Menagerie Theatre Company, and the Almeida Theatre as part of the ‘Genesis New Playwrights, Big Plays Programme’. This year she has been selected for both the Channel 4 Screenwriting and BBC Voices schemes. Her play Bindweed won the Judges Award at the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting 2022. Produced by Mercury Theatre, New Wolsey Theatre and HighTide, in association with Royal Exchange Theatre, Bindweed will tour in summer 2024, and will be published by Nick Hern Books.

Chase Olivarius-McAllister

Chase studied at Yale, where she majored in history, excelled at feminist protest, and won the White Prize for the best senior essay in American history. Upon graduating, Chase became a reporter for the Durango Herald, a small but excellent newspaper in America's southwest.

More recently, Chase graduated from NFTS's MA screenwriting program in 2023. And, since moving on from working in short film, Chase has been working on telling culture’s most compelling stories in the TV form.

In 2024, Chase was selected for the BBC Voices England South group, where she developed her TV idea Dead Sober.

Abby Vicky-Russell

Abby Vicky-Russell is a writer, actor and character comic from Sheffield. Her work focuses on finding unique ways into a narrative, telling stories that lead with compassion, honesty and most importantly, humour.

As part of the Bank Cohort, Abby was the Resident Artist at The Crucible. She was then selected for Soho Theatre’s Writers Lab, where alongside further development at The Crucible, she wrote ‘GUSH’ which was shortlisted for the Tony Craze Award at Soho Theatre and was subsequently nominated for the BBC Popcorn Award at The Edinburgh Fringe, described as "The Underdog of this Year’s Fringe" 2023.

Abby’s writing her debut TV pilot, “Cold Turkeys” as part of BBC Voices. This dark comedy follows a young woman's recovery from addiction (not to turkey sandwiches) Abby is looking forward to continuing the development of her drama. She is represented by 42 Management.

Judy Upton

In 2023, Judy was selected for the BBC/Climate Spring Hothouse Development Lab with a TV comedy drama series idea. Other TV includes ALL IN THE MIND produced for BBC1 Brief Encounters. She’s had seven plays on BBC Radio 4 including 2019 ‘Play Of The Week’ THE BULBUL WAS SINGING.

Judy’s won the George Devine Award and Verity Bargate Award for playwriting. Stage plays include: ASHES AND SAND, Royal Court; BRUISES, Royal Court; SUNSPOTS, BAC; PEOPLE ON THE RIVER, The Finborough; CONFIDENCE, Birmingham Rep; SLIDING WITH SUZANNE, Royal Court; TEAM SPIRIT, National Theatre; THE GIRLZ, Richmond Orange Tree; GABY GOES GLOBAL, New Wimbledon; NOCTROPIA, Hampstead Theatre; LAZARUS, Durham Gala.

Her first feature film ASHES AND SAND (adapted from her play) was produced by Open Road Films/Matador Pictures and second, MY IMPRISONED HEART, winner of ‘Cobravision: Make Your Mark In Film, by Sci-Fi London. Short films include EXPOSED (Screen South) and MILK (Arts Ed).

Judy has recently started writing mystery thrillers and her published novels are: WHAT MAISIE DIDN’T KNOW (Wrecking Ball Press), OUT OF THE FRYING PAN, SNIFF THEM OUT, BROWNLOW! and BROWNLOW CHECKS IN (all Hobart Books).

Judy is represented by Julia Kreitman at The Agency.