Genesis Almeida New Playwrights, Big Plays Programme

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 Royal Court, Soho theatre and Lyric Hammersmith. Her work has been performed at The Tricycle, Arcola, Royal Court and Oval House. Her latest piece which she has written and stars in, Funeral Flowers, premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe 2018 and was a Fringe First Winnner. It transferred to the Bunker Theatre and then more recently to the Roundhouse. The play is published by Samuel French. Emma was recently chosen as one of the Old Vic 12 Playwrights and recently wrote a Young Vic Community play in 2019. For screen, Emma is developing original comedy and drama projects and is part of the BBC Writers Academy with John Yorke this year.

Phoebe Eclair-Powell is a writer from South East London. Her recent play SHED: EXPLODED VIEW won the prestigious Bruntwood Award for 2019. In 2015 Phoebe’s debut play WINK at Theatre 503 received rave reviews and four Off West End Nominations including ‘Most Promising New Playwright’. Her play Fury, was runner up for the Verity Bargate Award 2015, and subsequently won the Soho Young Writer’s Award, it also received an Offie nomination for ‘Best New Play’.

For 2016-17 Phoebe was the resident playwright at Soho Theatre through the Channel 4 Playwright scheme. During which she had two Edinburgh shows, TORCH with Jess Edwards (Underbelly, New Diorama), and Epic Love and Pop Songs (Pleasance Theatre). In 2017 Phoebe adapted The Picture of Dorian Gray for the Watermill Theatre, which toured schools and village halls. In 2018 Phoebe’s play These Bridges was part of the National Theatre Connections Festival.

Prior to this Phoebe completed the Channel 4 Screenwriting course. She was also on the Soho Writers’ Lab for 2014/15. Phoebe was a previous member of the RCYW and the Royal Court invited group under Alice Birch. Phoebe has completed the BBC writersroom drama programme with Sid Gentle Films, and took part in Nick Frost and Simon Pegg’s YA incubator at their company Stolen Picture. Phoebe has written for award winning Channel 4 Continuing Drama Hollyoaks and an episode of Sky comedy Two Weeks To Live with Maisie Williams. Phoebe is currently under commission with Reading Rep, Newcastle Live Theatre, Paines Plough Roundabout and The Bush Theatre, and working with Finnish TV company GUTSY and Taika Waititi’s company PIKI Films.

Yasmin Joseph’s debut play J’Ouvert premiered at Theatre503 in 2019 and she was nominated for the Evening Standard’s Most Promising Playwright Award. Yasmin is the current writer-in-residence at Sister Pictures and is on attachment at the Royal Court Theatre as a winner of the Channel 4 Playwrights scheme.

Carmen is a British-Lebanese playwright. In 2017 she was awarded the Channel 4 Playwright’s Scheme alongside a year-long residency at the Finborough Theatre, where she remains a playwright in residence. Her first play The House of My Father was long listed for the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting in 2015.

In 2017, her debut play Dubailand, received a production at the Finborough Theatre, and Carmen was nominated for an Off West End Award for Most Promising New Playwright.

Her plays include Let Kilburn Shake in 2019 at the Kiln Theatre, written for their Young Company. Her latest play The Climbers was due to open in the main stage of Theatre by the Lake as part of it’s 2020 Summer Season, directed by Guy Jones.

Carmen has been a member of the Orange Tree’s talent development programme, the Writers Collective, and the Royal Court’s Playwriting group and holds an MA in Playwriting from Royal Holloway University of London.

Molly Taylor is a playwright and theatre-maker from Liverpool. Her plays for young people include; The Wave (Almeida Theatre), What Was Left (Southwark Playhouse), Cacophony (Almeida Theatre and The Yard). Her play Extinguished Things enjoyed a sell-out run at the Edinburgh Fringe 2018, and won a Critics Circle Award at the Adelaide Fringe 2019.

Molly has worked extensively in the participatory sector, making original performances inspired by the everyday. Projects include; See Me Now (Young Vic), Philoxenia (Bush Theatre), Me for the World (Young Vic Taking Part).

Other plays include; Shell and Davey at the Start and the End (VAULT Festival), Love Letters to the Public Transport System (National Theatre of Scotland).

She is currently under commission for NT Connections and the Liverpool Everyman.

Temi Wilkey is an actor, playwright & writer from North London. She studied English at Cambridge before training with the National Youth Theatre REP company in 2014. Her theatre credits include the National, the RSC and the Manchester Royal Exchange.

Temi was a member of the Royal Court’s Young Writers Group in 2017 and wrote her debut play, The High Table, at the course’s culmination. It was produced at the Bush in Lynette Linton's debut season, in a co-production with Birmingham Rep. Temi is currently under commission from the Royal Court Theatre and has developed her first pilot under the Screen Skills Bursary scheme with Dancing Ledge under the mentorship of Lucy Prebble.