About Me

​I have always been interested and involved in the arts, having started youth theatre as a teen as well as dancing and drawing. My pastimes were all about being creative and imaginative and they really did fill me with joy. 

As a shy child who wasn’t very good at making, and keeping friends, youth theatre changed my life. It gave me the confidence to talk to people and the self belief to pursue a career in the creative industries.

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Since making that life decision I have worked hard to keep learning and developing as an artist. I began dabbling in photography as a pre-cursor to Film and TV, which then became a particular interest, due to it’s visual nature and ability to tell a story universally and reach audiences globally. 

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I pivoted from studying technical theatre to multimedia and specialised in Cinematography before graduating from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, (now Royal Conservatoire of Scotland).

My first ever professional job was assisting Oscar winning Cinematographer Michael McDonough on a short film and I went on to work on various projects within the camera department, from assistant to director of photography, and most recently DMT on shows like Outlander.

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My first ever short film was a stop motion animation made during my years at university where I roped in a few fellow students to help out. Discovery then went on to screen at a few film festivals across the UK, later becoming an official selection at the British Animation Film Festival. Not bad for an experimental micro project!

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Immediately after graduating I made Behind The Screens, a short drama film about documentary filmmakers getting more than they bargained for. This went on to win Best Student Film at Thurrock International Film Festival and garnered a Best Actress nomination for my lead, as well as second place for the Audience Choice award. It screened at a few other international festivals over the coming years, including Malta International and American Online.

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In 2012 I was a selected participant in Directors UK where we spent a week learning and developing our craft and networking with other upcoming directing talent. 

My next few projects were micro short films made for the Virgin Media Shorts competition which ran for a few years, Dead Letters was my first submission and was also nominated for Best Film at the Palme-Dewar Film Awards.

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My most successful entry was White Light Co. a sci-fi drama set in a future where people can choose their own deaths. This received a pick of the bunch that year and went on to screen at various film festivals and includes a nomination for Best Sci-Fi at the Limelight Film Awards, a win for Best Sci-fi Micro Oregon Short Film Festival 2021 and a win for Best Dark Sci-fi at Austin After Dark Film Festival 2021.

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I told my first episodic storyline when I directed ten episodes of Jack’s Persona for the What’s Your Persona? App, which was broadcast worldwide and based on my original idea. 

I then spent the following years Directing other people’s short film scripts to hone my collaboration skills and challenge myself to bring other writer’s visions to life. 

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I was also a selected participant in Odense Film Festival’s TalentCamp scheme in Denmark, which allowed new directing talent to attend masterclasses with Oscar winning Directors, Producers and Actors as well as participate in a 24 hour film challenge. The goal was to develop and train new directors and establish international networks and connections.

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In 2017 I had a the great opportunity to shadow Director Colm McCarthy (Girl with all the Gifts) on season 4 of Black Mirror, where I learned a lot about the craft and the nature of TV. I followed him from pre-production right through to post and found it an invaluable experience, growing my confidence as a director and storyteller.

 

The same year I travelled to Sicily as a writing/directing participate in Terre Di Cinema’s CineCampus. This scheme was sponsored by Kodak and was all about learning how to shoot on 35mm film. As part of the experience we had one day to shoot a short film on limited 35mm stock with a full camera team. Out of this came my short film Altitude which showcased the beautiful Sicilian backdrop and told the story of an acrophobic photographer attempting to scale Mt Etna. Not only was it a new shooting format for me but I also challenged myself to tell a story with as little dialogue as possible, in order to create a more universally accessible film.

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During the pandemic I needed a creative outlet and so made two short films whilst being in lockdown. This was also a new challenge as it required a lot of working remotely, as well as executing more roles than usual. My short Anywhere But Here starred myself, enlisted the help of my non filmmaking sister and was shot in the drying area of my flat with a green screen and natural light! It was a stripped back project due to the circumstances but still resonated with audiences and went on to screen at the Kingston International and Flickfair Film Festivals and was nominated ​Best Relationship Drama Micro at the Oregon Short Film Festival 2021.

I also made a short entitled Infectious which treats confidence as if it's a spreadable virus and is a social commentary on today’s capitalism requiring insecure people.

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My goals are to tell stories that are interesting, entertaining and thought provoking, ideally commenting on current issues and providing space to inspire change. I want my characters to be fully developed and key to that particular story. For me, it is all about the story and how best to tell it authentically on screen and less about specific genres or themes. This also applies to format as some stories need TV’s episodic timeline to do the story justice and others may only need a few minutes!

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I am also a big believer in learning and continuing to grow and develop, and never allowing yourself to think you know everything, because creativity is found when you push your own boundaries and challenge your expectations.