Paul Ashton - is the Development Manager at BBC writersroom where he finds, nurtures and promotes new writing talent for drama and comedy across all BBC platforms and networks. He oversees the BBC unsolicited script system, writing competitions, development and promotion of new writers, professional training schemes, partnerships with the wider creative industries and the writersroom website.

Paul previously freelanced in script and writer development, including work for various BBC departments, FilmFour, Spice Factory, Arts Council, Lighthouse Media/UKFC, and was Literary Associate at Theatre & Beyond. He has taught scriptwriting for University of Sussex, NAW and Pier Playwrights, and directed new work for Liverpool Everyman, Paines Plough and Theatre & Beyond. His short film, Hard Hat, has recently been produced, he has a feature film in development, and has been produced by Half Moon Theatre and Warehouse Croydon.

Julian Fellowes - (Actor, Screenwriter and Producer) - Julian was educated at Ampleforth, Magdalene College, Cambridge and The Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. He trained in repertory theatre at Northampton and Harrogate before appearing in the West End production of ‘A Touch of Spring’ by Sam Taylor at the Comedy Theatre. As an actor, he is probably best known for his portrayal of the incorrigible Lord Kilwillie in the BBC’s popular Sunday night series, ‘Monarch of the Glen’. On the big screen, he has been seen in many films, including Shadowlands with Anthony Hopkins, ‘Damage’ with Jeremy Irons, ‘Place Vendome’ with Catherine Deneuve and ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’ with Pierce Brosnan. As a writer for television, he is responsible for the scripts of ‘Little Lord Fauntleroy’ (winner of an International EMMY, 1995) and ‘The Prince and the Pauper’ (nominated for a BAFTA, 1997) which he also produced. His first screenplay for the cinema was ‘Gosford Park’, directed by the late Robert Altman, which won a plethora of prizes, not least the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Recently he has written ‘Vanity Fair’, as well as 'Seperate Lives’ which he wrote and directed. Julian was also one of the patrons of last year's Festival.

Sarah Gavron - Brick Lane is Sarah Gavron's eagerly anticipated debut feature. She began her career in documentaries and is a graduate of the NFTS. In 2003 Gavron directed her first full length drama, the Dennis Potter Award winning This Little Life for BBC TV. The film also won two BAFTAs for Best Writer (Rosemary Kay) and Best New Director, three RTS awards and WIFTV Award for Sarah for Best Newcomer and she was selected as one of Variety's Ten Directors to Watch at the Sundance International Film Festival. Further to this, Gavron was nominated for the Douglas Hickox Best Directorial Debut Award.

Gavron has made many short films which have screened internationally and won major awards. Her films include The Girl in the Lay-by (2000), and Losing Touch (2000), which won the Young Jury Award at the Clermont Ferrand Film Festival, Best Film Award at the London Royal Television Society Awards and Best International Short at the Foyle Film Festival.

Gavron is currently developing future feature projects with the UK Film Council and Film4.

Michael Goldenberg - (Screenwriter) - Michael's screenwriting credits include the film 'Contact', adapted from the Carl Sagan novel and directed by Robert Zemeckis, as well as 'Peter Pan', directed by P.J. Hogan. He also wrote and directed the romantic drama 'Bed of Roses', starring Christian Slater and Mary Stuart Masterson. Most recently he adapted Maurice Sendak's 'Where the Wild Things Are', directed by Spike Jonze, and wrote the screenplay for 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix', directed by David Yates.

Tony Grisoni - (Screenwriter) - Born in London in 1952, Tony Grisoni worked in many different areas of film making before turning to screenwriting. 'Queen of Hearts', 1989 was his award winning first feature directed by Jon Amiel. He has worked closely with a number of directors including John Boorman and Terry Gilliam, on 'Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas' and last years 'Tideland'. Grisoni is also proud to count himself amongst the crew on board the ship of fools: 'The Man Who Killed Don Quixote'. His most recent script, co-written with Brian Ward, has just wrapped production, 'Death Defying Acts', directed by Gillian Armstrong, is about escapist extrodinare Harry Houdini, and will be released in theatres later this year.

Rahila Gupta - is a writer and campaigner. Her first screenplay, Provoked, which she co-wrote, was released in cinemas in Britain and India in April 2007. It was dubbed into 6 languages. The film is based on her book, Circle of Light: the Story of Kiranjit Ahluwalia, (now reissued as Provoked) a battered Asian woman who set her brutal husband on fire after 10 years. Her new book, Enslaved: The New British Slavery will be published in September 2007 by Portobello Books. She has written for radio and theatre.

Anthony Horowitz - (Novellist and Screenwriter) - Anthony is perhaps the busiest writer in England. He has been writing since the age of eight, and professionally since the age of twenty. He writes in a comfortable shed in his garden for up to ten hours per day. In addition to the highly successful Alex Rider books, he has also written episodes of several popular TV crime series, including ‘Poirot’, ‘Murder in Mind’, ‘Midsomer Murder’s’ and ‘Murder Most Horrid’. He has written a television series ‘Foyle's War’, which recently aired in the United States, and he has written the libretto of a Broadway musical adapted from Dr. Seuss's book, ‘The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T’. As well as the script for ‘Stormbreaker’, he also wrote ‘The Gathering’ and ‘Just ask for Diamond’

Simon Hunter - was born in 1969; he made his first film at seven year old. ‘Spaceman’ Starring his parents and his dog, the 3 minute film told the story of a spaceman flying down to earth and reeking havoc on s remote cottage in the Scottish Highlands.

Simon went on to make nearly fifty short films, mostly while at school in Dumfrieshire, Scotland.

At the age of eighteen he backpacked off to Central Africa and shot a documentary. The twelve-minute documentary "Zaire, an African River Journey" charted the progress of the hundreds of people that plow up and down the Zaire River each month. The film won Simon a place at film school. At film school Hunter won several awards for his graduation film ‘CLICK" which tells the harrowing tale of a clearer who gets their hand stuck in a waste disposal unit and has to be rescued.

After graduating from Film school in 1993 Simon went on to write and direct a handful of short films - one of which, ‘Wired’, impressed British screen so much that they immediately invested in ‘Lighthouse’ a $2.5m feature film. Quoted as having written and directed ‘one of the scariest low-budget movies of the year’ (The New York Post called it "as suspenseful as anything in recent history")

Simon recently signed with Infinity Productions in London and has completed his first commercial, a clever take on Sony Playstation’s ‘Double Life’ for The Lothian Health Board. Entitled ‘Power of Experience’ it was conceived by The Union Advertising Agency in Edinburgh. It has since been recognized by Shots for its strong impact, so much so they featured it in their ‘New Directors Showcase’.

Also in Cannes 2001 Simon’s previous work from ‘Lighthouse’ attracted the eye of Bob Isherwood, the creative director of Saatchi and Saatchi. Isherwood selected Hunter for the Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors Showcase. This prestigious honour is awarded to the twenty-five most promising directors in the world. Isherwood admired Lighthouse, saying, "few films demonstrate so clearly how tension gets attention. The tension is dynamic".

Whilst directing commercials Simon started to specialize in using in visual effects to enhance rather than dominate his work. Simon and his producing partner Tim Dennison approached Ed Pressman, producer of “The Crow and Judge Dread” to finance a short 7 minute mood film for a sci fi movie entitled “Mutant Chronicles.”

Simon spent five days shooting the mood film almost all against blue screen. Nearly five months of postproduction followed. The entirely film was shot with out the use of any facility house and the effects were done on a couple of work stations and the film was graded in an edit facility that Simon has in his garden.

Simon spent the next few months screening the teaser all over Hollywood. In the spring of 2006 financing of Mutant chronicles began. The production process would involve nearly 2000 visual effects shots, a British record and take nearly two years to complete. By the end of 2007 Simon will have worked on Mutant for three years.

Simon regularly lectures on digital technology and directing. Robert Newman represents him at the Endeavor agency in Los Angeles.

Tony Jordan - was a street trader for many years, before writing his first script in 1990. His first job was on BBC 1's long running drama "EastEnders". He went on to write over 250 episodes - and become the Series Consultant - before going on to write for diverse other shows and eventually creating his own formats including highly successful BBC show "Hustle" and co-creating "Life On Mars".

Tony recently founded Red Planet Pictures, a new television production company, whose first commission "Holby Blue" is currently showing on BBC1. "Moving Wallpaper" and "Echo Beach", created by Tony and co-produced with Kudos Film and Television, will soon go into production for transmission on ITV.

He is 49 years old and lives with wife Tracy in Bedfordshire, they have six children.

William Nicholson - (Screenwriter and Novelist) - As a screenwriter William has written such screenplays as, for TV, 'Shadowlands', 'Life Story', both of which won BAFTA's for Best Television Drama in their year, as well as 'Sweet as you Are' and 'The March', as well as the stage play adaptation of Tony award winning play, 'Shadowlands', and wrote the screenwplay for the movie version starring Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger which was directed by Richard Attenborough. He has written other such features as 'Sarafina!', 'First Knight', 'Grey Owl', co-wrote 'Gladiator' and wrote and directed 'Firelight'. His most recent feature has just finished production, 'The Golden Age', the much anticipated sequel to 'Elizabeth', and will be out in theatres later this year. Also, a series of his widly successful novels, 'The Wind Singer' trilogy have been optioned to be made into feature films with himself writing the scripts.

Diana Ossana - (Screenwriter and Producer) - After a successful law career, Diana began a writing collaboration with Larry McMurtry, which continues to this day and resulted in the Oscar winning script for 'Brokeback Mountain'. Diana also served as Producer on the film and earned a Golden Globe for Best Dramatic Feature. As a team they have written two novels together, 'Pretty Boy Floyd' and 'Zeke and Ned', as well as adapting two of Larry's novels, 'Streets of Laredo' and 'Dead Man's Walk', into highly acclaimed mini-series, which they also exec-produced. Upcoming projects include 'Comanche Moon', a six hour mini-series for CBS, an ensemble TV drama 'Sheriff Luke' for ABC and an adaptation of another of Larry's novels, 'Boones Lick' for Universal Pictures and Tom Hanks.

Raj Persaud - (Psychiatrist) - Raj is a Consultant Psychiatrist at The Maudsley Hospital in South London and is Gresham Professor for Public Understanding of Psychiatry, he presents 'All in the Mind' on BBC Radio 4 and has written many books on self help including ‘Simply Irresistable’, ‘Staying Sane’ and ‘From the Edge of the Couch’.

Keith Potter - Keith joined Dan Films in 2005 as their Head of Development. Before this he worked as a freelance script editor, script researcher and coverage writer for companies such as Pathe, Redwave Films, Haystack Productions, Momentum Pictures, Yorkshire Television, the UK Film Council’s Development Fund and Dan Films. He attended the Script Naked workshops in Brighton and the Media-funded Script + Pitch European script initiative. Keith has an MA in Film and Television Drama from Sheffield’s Northern Media School, where he produced and wrote short films. He has also worked on documentaries as a researcher/associate producer with director Michael Grigsby. Prior to entering film, Keith worked for The Economist newspaper. Keith develops Dan Films' roster of projects, working with writers on their scripts and also looks out for new material to add to the company's slate. He attends film festivals and conferences/workshops on behalf of the company and is on the advisory board of the UK Screenwriter's Festival. Keith is a lso responsible for bringing new talent to the company, meeting with writers, directors and agents.

Kate Rowland - the BBC's Creative Director of New Writing for Drama, Entertainment and Children's programmes, created BBC writersroom to develop the BBC's new writing strategy and initiate opportunities for original and diverse talents across television, radio and film. Kate commissions two key new writing strands on Radio 3 and Radio 4, and chairs the Diversity Action group for BBC Vision.

Kate was Head of BBC Radio Drama from 1997 - 2001. Productions include Spoonface Steinberg (which became a film), Carandiru (recorded in a notorious prison in Brazil), Donna Love Bite (with young people in Hull) and Superblock (a project with the tenants of Liverpool high rise tower blocks). Most recently she made a drama doc in Cambodia, The Violence of Silence.

A multi award winning director and producer for theatre and radio, she has also directed Khiddhaar! for YCTV with young people in Bradford, and was Executive Producer for Bollywood Shorts for BBC4 and Torn for BBC3.

She joined the BBC in 1992 following extensive experience in education and theatre, including Manchester University, Altered States Theatre Company (which she founded), and the Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse Theatres where she ran the studio and new writing policy.

Robyn Slovo – (Producer) - Robyn is Producer and Head of Film at Company Pictures, with a background in theatre writing/producing and reading/story editing for film, in 1993 Robyn became Executive in charge of all Development for BBC Single Drama/Films. While at the BBC, Robyn worked on a diverse slate of feature films and TV singles. Robyn left the BBC to work for The Bridge (a London-based production company funded by Sony/Canal Plus). In 1997 Robyn joined George Faber and Charlie Pattinson at the inception of Company Pictures. Robyn’s recent producer credits include ‘Catch A Fire’ directed by Phillip Noyce for Working Title Films/Mirage , ‘Morvern Callar’ directed by Lynne Ramsay, ‘The Statement’, directed by Norman Jewison, ‘Mischief Night’ (Exec prod) written and directed by Penny Woodcock and ‘Alpha Male’, (Exec prod) written and directed by Dan Wilde.

Shawn Slovo. In 1987, her first screenplay and first film, A WORLD APART, directed by Chris Menges, won the Jury Prize, and the Ecumenical and Best Actress Awards at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival, and the 1988 BAFTA Best Original Screenplay Award. Since then, she has been working on adaptations and re-writes, both in the UK and US. She has worked with directors Shekar Kapur, Roger Michell, Michael Mann, Agnieska Holland, Mike Newell, amongst others.

Her adaptation for Working Title/Universal of CAPTAIN CORELLI’S MANDOLIN was directed by John Madden in 2000. Her original screenplay, CATCH A FIRE, directed by Phillip Noyce, was released in 2005.

She is currently adapting BOBBY FISCHER GOES TO WAR, for Working Title Films, with director Kevin Macdonald.

Chris Smith - (Screenwriter and Director) - Chris graduated from Bristol University with an MA in Film Production in 1998. He then combined making his own films with working as Assistant Producer, Director and Researcher on Barry Norman's ‘Film Night’ for Sky Television. His first feature, ‘Creep’, a horror starring Franka Potente and Sean Harris, premiered in the 'Midnight Madness' section of the 2004 Toronto Film Festival, was released in the UK in January 2005 (Pathe distributing), and will be distributed in the US by Lion's Gate. His second horror feature, ‘Severance’, was released in the UK in August 2006 and stars Danny Dyer and Laura Harris. It also premiered in the Midnight Madness section of the 2006 Toronto Film Festival.

David Thompson began his career at the BBC as a documentary maker. He began producing drama while working for the BBC’s Everyman documentary series, where he produced the original Shadowlands, which won the British Academy Award for Best Drama and an International Emmy. Subsequent productions included the British Academy Award winning Safe, directed by Antonia Bird, Alan Clarke’s The Firm and Road.

Appointed Head of BBC Films in May 1997, he has overseen a slate of films for cinema and television, include the acclaimed Mrs Brown; Stephen Daldry's Billy Elliot; the Academy award-winning Iris; Stephen Frears' Dirty Pretty Things; Roger Michell's acclaimed The Mother; and Debbie Isitts' Confetti. Recent releases include The History Boys, directed by Nicholas Hytner and adapted from Alan Bennett's award-winning stage play; The Cannes Prix du Jury prize winning Red Road, Andrea Arnold’s first feature; Miss Potter, the enchanting love story of Beatrix Potter, starring Renee Zellweger and Ewan McGregor; and Notes on a Scandal, adapted from Zoe Heller’s novel by Patrick Marber, starring Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench.

As an executive producer, his numerous television credits include A Rather English Marriage, Stephen Poliakoff's Perfect Strangers and The Lost Prince, Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning Conspiracy and The Gathering Storm starring Vanessa Redgrave and Albert Finney.

Simon van der Borgh - Simon studied screenwriting at the National Film & Television School and was the first UK writer to be selected on the script development programme at the Binger Film Institute in Amsterdam in 1996. He has written 12 feature film screenplays and a full-length theatre play. He wrote the script for THE ALCHEMIST OF HAPPINESS, an award-winning film by Ovidio Salazar that has played at festivals worldwide.

Simon is also one of the UK's leading screenwriting teachers, working for film agencies and development organisations such as Arista, North by Northwest, Screen Yorkshire, North West Vision, LMU, Lighthouse and Goldsmiths. He consults on feature scripts in Europe & the USA; projects include KIDULTHOOD (2006), Justin Kerrigan's screenplay I KNOW YOU KNOW, LARMAN REGISTER (producer Sally Hibbin), and TEAH (2007).

Simon's script of IN TRANZIT for Thema Production S.A. was filmed in St. Petersburg in 2006. Starring John Malkovich, Thomas Kretschmann, Vera Farmiga, Daniel Bruhl and Natalie Press, and directed by Tom Roberts, it is due for release in Autumn 2007. Simon recently completed RIDING THE FIRE, inspired by the story of Yuri Gagarin, for Thema and is currently working on commissions for Warp Films and APT Films.

Jake West - (Screenwriter and Director) - Jake has worked extensively as a writer/director in the film/TV industry since 1993 in features, TV, short films, promos and commercials for companies including Sony Entertainment, Warner Bros., FIFA, Motorola, MTV Europe, Burger King and the Sci-Fi Channel. Also Jake works as an editor for commercials, trailers and promos. His feature films include ‘Razor Blade Smile’, ‘Evil Aliens’ and most recently for the Sci-Fi channel, ‘Pumpkinhead III: Ashes to Ashes’

Jurgen Wolff - is a writer and creativity coach and lecturer. He has written over 100 episodes of television, including "Relic Hunter," "Family Ties," and "Benson," TV movies including the Olsen Twins' "Double, Double, Toil and Trouble," the mini-series, "Midnight Man" starring Rob Lowe, and the feature film, "The Real Howard Spitz," starring Kelsey Grammer. His new book is "Your Writing Coach," (Nicholas Brealey, London, 2007) and his website is www.yourwritingcoach.com. He also has a podcast available on his website, and a writing blog, www.timetowrite.blogs.com. He is a certified hypnotherapist and NLP and Time Line practitioner.