Chorts 2024 Industry Judging Panel
Rachel Springett is a multi BAFTA award winning commissioner, TV and film producer.
Rachel is passionate about talent and has a track record of being ahead of the curve and spotting the next generation of writers and performers. During 6 years at Channel 4 Rachel commissioned series from first time writers such as Phoebe Waller Bridge: CRASHING, Michaela Coel: CHEWING GUM, and Nida Manzoor: WE ARE LADY PARTS.
Rachel also commissioned leading writers and performers from Matt Berry’s BAFTA winning TOAST OF LONDON, Sharon Horgan and Denis Kelly’s THE CIRCUIT, Charlie Brooker’s multi award winning BLACK MIRROR Christmas special.
Prior to Channel 4 Rachel spent three years at Objective Productions where she produced TOAST OF LONDON, two series of MEET THE PARENTS and PEEP SHOW. Before this Rachel spent four years at Iain Morris and Damon Beesley’s Bwark Productions where she produced two series of the first comedy radio show for Channel 4, featuring Ricky Gervais.
Roya Eslami is head of development for BBC Comedy commissioning.
Roya started her career in television at BBC Comedy where she was a development assistant .
She then transitioned into drama beginning as a script intern and working her way up to in-house Script Editor at Tiger Aspect.
There, she worked across multiple developments and productions, including Peaky Blinders and the C4 series, Adult Material, written by Lucy Kirkwood.
As a producer, she worked in-house at both Hat Trick and HTM Television, developing comedy and drama where she produced the second series of Birmingham set procedural, DI Ray.
Simon Nicholls is a multi-award-winning TV and Audio comedy producer with an illustrious career spanning twenty years in the industry.
Starting out in the BBC’s radio comedy department, Simon progressed to Armando Iannucci’s award-winning BBC TV team where he developed and produced countless TV and Audio comedy shows. Having been a Producer then an Executive Producer for BBC Comedy, as well as working at leading comedy indies, today Simon lives in Cornwall and works as a freelance producer. Currently Simon produces French and Saunders’ hit comedy podcast Titting About for Audible, Sue Perkins’ award-winning BBC comedy Nature Table and has a feature film in funded development with Screen Cornwall.
Passionate about developing new writing talent, Simon also runs Falmouth University’s award-winning online master’s in Comedy Writing, alongside a talented teaching team nurturing writers to hone their skills into flourishing careers. Thanks to the team’s industry contacts, many students have secured writing commissions from the BBC and are actively developing projects with leading production companies.
Lynne Parker is the award-winning producer who created Funny Women in 2002, now a leading not for profit community for female comedy empowering women to perform, write and do business with humour.
For over 20 years the Funny Women Awards have been changing the face of comedy bringing attention to some of today’s biggest names from performers to writers and creators including Katherine Ryan, Sara Pascoe, Sarah Millican, Susan Calman, Andi Osho, Gemma Whelan Sindhu V, Jayde Adams, Serena Terry and many more. This year Funny Women has launched its national mentoring initiative,The Glitter Project, and created a programme focusing on workplace humour called Comedy in the Community.
Lynne is also a renowned performance coach encouraging people in business and public life to ‘Stand Up to Stand Out’. Her work empowers many women both professionally and personally to have a voice. She was recognised as the Most Inspiring Businesswoman in the Best Business Women Awards 2024.
More judges to be revealed soon…
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