Sylvia Backemeyer
Sylvia Backemeyer is Director of Learning Resources at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, and is the editor of several books on art and design.
Samuel Bailey
Samuel Bailey is a playwright whose debut play, Shook, was the winner of the 2019 Papatango New Writing Prize, and was premiered by Papatango at Southwark Playhouse in 2019, followed by a UK tour.
His other plays include Sorry, You're Not a Winner (Paines Plough, 2022).
He was the recipient of the Times Breakthrough Award at the South Bank Sky Arts Awards 2021.
Sam Bain
Sam Bain is a TV writer, playwright and novelist. Together with Jesse Armstrong, he co-created and co-wrote the Channel 4 sitcom Peep Show from 2003–2015. Peep Show has won two British Comedy Awards, two Royal Television Society Awards, a BAFTA and the Writers Guild of Great Britain Award for Comedy Writers of the Year. Also with Armstrong, he created Fresh Meat, a team-written comedy-drama about university students, which won two RTS awards and a British Comedy Award. In 2014 Sam and Jesse wrote Babylon, a six-part hour-long comedy-drama series for Channel 4 and the Sundance Channel. The feature-length pilot was directed by Danny Boyle. The duo’s other writing includes the feature film Four Lions (2010), co-written with Chris Morris, which premiered at Sundance and won the BAFTA for Outstanding Debut.
Sam’s first solo series, three-part comedy thriller Ill Behaviour, was screened on BBC2 and Showtime in 2017. He adapted his novel, Yours Truly, Pierre Stone, for a four-part Radio 4 series broadcast in 2017.
His debut play, The Retreat, was premiered at Park Theatre, London, in 2017.
Annie Baker
Annie Baker is a leading American playwright whose plays include: Infinite Life (Linda Gross Theater, New York, and National Theatre, London, 2023); The Antipodes (Signature Theatre, New York, 2017; National Theatre, London, 2019); John (Off-Broadway, 2015; National Theatre, London, 2018); The Flick (Off-Broadway, 2013; National Theatre, London, 2013; Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Susan Smith Blackburn Award, Obie Award for Playwriting), Circle Mirror Transformation (Obie Award for Best New American Play, Drama Desk nomination for Best New American Play), The Aliens (Obie Award for Best New American Play), Body Awareness (Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations for Best Play/Emerging Playwright), and an adaptation of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya (Drama Desk nomination for Best Revival).
Her plays have been produced at over 150 theatres throughout the U.S., and have been produced internationally in over a dozen countries. Other recent honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, American Academy of Arts and Letters Award, Hull-Warriner Award, Steinberg Award, and the Cullman Fellowship at the New York Public Library.
Andy Barker
Andy Barker is a certified performance coach, trainer and author with diverse work experience in the arts and corporate senior management.
He has worked in the music industry, the film industry, the world of theatre, videogames, and learning and development. Highlights include working with Jim Henson's Muppets and with Andrew Lloyd Webber's numerous West End productions. Amongst a wide range of backstage credits, he was part of the original London productions of Evita, Starlight Express and Chess, transferred Single Spies from the National Theatre to the West End, enjoyed a run on Me and My Girl in London, and was Company Manager of the D'Oyly Carte Opera at the Savoy Theatre.
With Brian Cooley, he runs Mind Fitness, an organisation dedicated to developing mental health and wellbeing alongside business effectiveness.
He is the co-author of Developing Your Emotional Health: The Compact Guide (Nick Hern Books, 2024) with Brian Cooley and Beth Wood.