I’ve spent my whole life telling stories. After journalism school, I got my first job as a documentary researcher at the BBC, then, a year later, my directing break for the BFI and Channel 4 New Directors scheme.
That was way back in 1998, and in the decade that followed I made about thirty films, mostly documentaries for the BBC including the Emmy nominated Arts series Soul Deep, before setting up Avatar Films with Sanjeev Bhaskar OBE.
Together we made comedy (The Kumars at 42), drama series (The Indian Doctor), and documentaries, and we won numerous awards including from BAFTA, Broadcast, and the Royal Television Society. We even wrote a Sunday Times best-selling book.
Alongside my work as a writer and director I’m an experienced advocate and advisor on Diversity and Inclusivity in the media – after Lenny Henry forced people to take notice of the lack of diversity in British television, I was asked to advise BAFTA and the BBC on their diversity strategy, and I set up the Screenplay project commissioning writers for BBC Drama.
I then worked as a consultant for Creative Skillset and represented them at the MediaExchange Showrunner program in LA. I was also awarded a scholarship by the National Film School to attend Inside Pictures, one of the film industry’s most prestigious international training programs.
As my career progressed, I became increasingly interested in helping other people tell their own stories and I successfully developed numerous drama and documentary projects for broadcast as an exec producer and creative director, leading production teams and mentoring younger film-makers.