Channel 4 Northern Talent Network

Alexis is a screenwriter with a passion for witty and heartfelt ensemble pieces with a particular soft spot for finding ways to showcase the landscape and people of Yorkshire. Repped at The Artists Partnership, Alexis has participated in writers’ rooms for Amazon MGM and as story consultant on series in development. She currently has projects in development with production companies and streamers. Previously, Alexis participated in ITV Original Voices at Emmerdale, Screen Yorkshire FLEX and the BBC Writers’ Access Group Digital Programme and has been longlisted for the Alfred Bradley Bursary 2023 alongside two consecutive semi-final placements in the Nicholl Fellowship. Alexis’ day job is as Head of Development at Brazen Productions, working to improve inclusivity at all stages of television production both on screen and off.

Alice is a writer, theatremaker and producer from Leeds. Her first writing credit was for We Are Outlaws (2018) for Front Room Productions, commissioned by the Centenary Cities. The next was Whodunnit at the Coliseum? (2021), an interactive murder mystery commissioned by Oldham Coliseum Theatre that fused theatre, film and video game. In 2022, she wrote Seize the Day for Red Ladder Theatre Company – originally written as a stage piece, and then captured as a short film. She received a Developing Your Creative Practice grant to develop her writing under the mentorship of then Chair of the Writers’ Guild, Lisa Holdsworth. She authored The V Word, a new musical taking the taboo topic of pelvic pain and covering it in glitter, which is in development with composers Claire O’Connor and Bay Bryan. She was shortlisted for the Kay Mellor Fellowship (2023) and Channel 4 Writing for Television Awards (2024).

John is a script writer, script reader and script editor based in Sheffield and a proud alumni of Sheffield Theatres’ Artist Development programme and Screen Yorkshire’s FLEX scheme. His theatre writing has been performed at the Crucible, Barbican, Lowry and Singapore Arts Festival as well as many venues where you wouldn’t normally find theatre. He has also written content for several CBBC online games – even getting to write in-game dialogue for Dick & Dom. John works as a freelance reader for a number of TV and film production companies, has script edited independent horror and animated family feature films and works directly with writers in the UK and USA to develop new projects. Most of his own stories have a ghost or robot in them. But not all of them.

Kurban recently received his MA in writing for Stage and Broadcast Media at the Royal Central Speech and Drama (Merit). He has various projects in active development. An original TV proposal has been optioned by one of the country’s top film and television companies, his interactive game is currently in development with Wales Interactive and he was recently shortlisted for the 2024 Bold Playwrights Award. He is also currently shortlisted for the latest BBC Radio 4 drama commissioning round with award winning audio drama company Naked Productions. Earlier in his career, Kurban gained a screenwriting credit for co-writing The Hungry, a modern-day adaptation of Titus Andronicus set in Northern India. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and was released globally via Amazon Prime Video. Prior to that, he was part of the Royal Court Young Writers Programme and came second in the Soho Theatre’s former Westminster Prize.

Lynsey is a working-class, queer writer who strives to tell female and LGBTQ+ stories. In 2023, she was selected for Edinburgh TV Festival’s access programme The Network and was both a Thousand Films and Shore Scripts finalist the following year. She has two short films in post-production: Biology (a queer couple argue over a sperm donor) and Shanice (a misunderstanding makes a driving instructor panic) with director Oz Arshad. She has won Arts Council funding for her play KIDS (a queer couple try to start a family) and has had dozens of short plays staged, including Prove It (a woman struggles to prove she’s gay to claim asylum) with Green Carnation Theatre Company and GREEDY (a woman in her thirties comes out to her friends) with Hive North (Hope Mill Theatre, Manchester). Lynsey has a PhD in the History of Medicine and is a Wellcome Trust Research Fellow at the University of Warwick.

Nisola Jegede earned her first degree in English and Literary Studies from Federal University Oye-Ekiti. After graduating, she worked as a script reader and editor in the Nollywood film industry, working across several film projects. In addition to scripts, she also writes short stories. One of her stories, ‘Unwilled’, won a writing competition in 2020. She also holds a Master’s degree in scriptwriting from Bournemouth University. A passionate reader of African mythology, she is currently developing an African mythology-cli-fi project, fusing traditional storytelling with contemporary environmental issues.

Nora (she/her) is a writer and performer based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire. With roots in poetry, her passion for storytelling led her to screenwriting, earning a bursary to study at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in 2022. Since then, Nora has been selected for programs like The Network at Edinburgh TV Festival 2023, Screen Yorkshire’s ScriptEd, the New Writing North Script Hub 2024, and Film Hub North and BFI Network’s Script Lab 2024. Nora’s current projects span from a quirky comedy-horror set in the LARP community to a heartwarming football-based family drama. She was shortlisted for the Channel 4 Writing for TV Award and her comedy-drama pilot Tube Socks — which centres around the competitive world of roller derby — was longlisted for the Funny Women Comedy Writing Award. When she isn’t writing, Nora enjoys rollerskating, boxing, and belting out Cher hits at karaoke.

Paul is a working-class writer from the Wirral, whose work explores the human condition, often focussing on flawed, relatable characters in heightened worlds. In 2022, Paul was selected to take part in the BBC’s Write Across Liverpool development programme, producing a TV pilot from scratch, The Quiet World. A year earlier Paul’s first ever script, Maladaptive, reached the shortlist stage of the BBC Writers Room Comedy Script Room. In 2023, Paul was part of a writing team that created Scuttled, an original audio drama for Bamalam Productions, in collaboration with the Museum of London Archaeology, released in 2024. The Quiet World has since secured Paul a place on BBC Scripted (formerly Drama Room) 23/24. More recently, he has been selected for Dancing Ledge Productions’ 2025 Screenwriting Mentorship Scheme, writing an original TV Pilot under the mentorship of writer Helen Black.

Sammy Ali is a British-Pakistani writer/actor based in Liverpool. Having recently graduated from medical school, he balances creative work with his day job as a resident doctor, finding it to be a great source of inspiration. Churning out everything from short stories to TV scripts, and even musicals, Sammy worked on the Everyman Playhouse’s Young Writers’ Programme whilst completing his medical training, having many original pieces performed along the way. He has also held starring roles in several community theatre productions.