THE CREATIVE TRIBE: BREAK INTO SCREENWRITING
Join Award-winning writers GEMMA, KIM and BELLA as they discuss HOW THEY GOT THEIR FIRST COMMISSION, NABBED AN AGENT, AND LAUNCHED THEIR CAREERS.
Sign up for the event here!
BELLA HEESOM
Bella wrote episode 7 of SEX EDUCATION season 4 for Netflix. She currently has TV projects in paid development with the BBC, NBCUniversal and Studio Lambert. She was one of 11 writers selected for the BBC TV Drama Writers Programme 2020.
Bella began her creative career as an actor. After studying philosophy at the University of Cambridge, she trained at LAMDA, and has enjoyed lead roles and ensemble work in theatre, film and TV projects. In 2016, she founded theatre company All About You with Olivier Award-winning director and dramaturg Donnacadh O’Briain.
She’s written two critically acclaimed plays: My World Has Exploded A Little Bit and Rejoicing At Her Wondrous Vulva The Young Woman Applauded Herself (★★★★ ‘the glittering poetry in Heesom’s script, so vivid and visceral that sometimes the stagecraft feels redundant in comparison to the glory and guts of the words’ ‑ The Guardian). They are published in a single volume by Bloomsbury.
Find out more at bellaheesom.com or follow @bellaheesom on Instagram.
GEMMA MUSHINGTON
Gemma Mushington is a screenwriter, represented by Casarotto Ramsay and Associates and a Screenwriting Lecturer at Central Film School, in London. She earned a First Class BA in Film and TV, specialising in Screenwriting, at Royal Holloway, University of London in 2018 and is currently studying her MA in Film Studies at Birkbeck, University of London.
She was a recipient of the Neal Street Productions Screenwriting Bursary in 2021, has written for CBBC's The Dumping Ground, was a speaker at 2024's London Screenwriters' Festival and is also pursuing stand-up comedy on the side. Her writing focuses on character-led comedy drama with a genre twist.
Follow her on Instagram: @gemma_ym
KIM TAYLOR
Kim Taylor is a former secondary school teacher who pursued her passion to write for the stage and screen with a Masters degree in Creative Writing: Playwriting and Screenwriting from City University London. She writes strong diverse female leads in stories on family, social and environmental issues, women’s rights and mental health in our current and future world. She is a drama writer who loves blending genres from gripping crime and supernatural thrillers to poignant dark comedies and sci-fi.
Her crime thriller TV pilot ‘THE WATCHER’ was one of six to win the Bisha K. Ali's Netflix and Sky Screenwriters Fellowship 2021 and was previously finalist for the BBC Studios ScriptWorks and Thousand Films Competition 2021. Kim's play SOMEBODY CHILE reached the shortlist in BBC Writers Open Call 2024. Her play MY BROTHER's KEEPER was shortlisted for The Women's Prize for Playwriting 2020 with EKP and Paines Plough.
Kim writes and produces short films with six produced films to date. Her commissioned short NO ENTRY - on the Windrush Injustice - with Goldsmiths University of London & MA Filmmaking Students 2020, was selected for Academy, BAFTA and Canadian Screen Award Qualifying festivals in 2021/22. It has won awards including best student film and best screenplay and was streamed on American Airlines on board entertainment 2022-23. Her script THE DRAFT - on friendship and the choice of motherhood - won the 2020 International Women’s Day - EQUAL short screenplay competition by ProcamTV and the Farm Group. THE DRAFT was fully funded and shot entirely on Virtual Production. It is streaming on Gunpowder & Sky’s DUST Youtube sci-fi channel with more than 69,000 views to date.
Watch THE DRAFT here.