Lily Bevan is an actor and writer. 

She has performed extensively in the UK and abroad across theatre, TV, film and radio, including at the Donmar Warehouse, Wyndham's Theatre, Globe Theatre, BBC & Audible.

She co-wrote and performed with Sally Phillips the popular BBC Radio 4 series Talking to Strangers (2016). Her plays include Zoo (Assembly, Edinburgh, and Theatre503, London, 2018).

Sonali Bhattacharyya is an award-winning playwright whose plays include: King Troll (The Fawn) (Kali Theatre/New Diorama, London, 2024); Liberation Squares (Fifth Word tour, 2024); Chasing Hares (Young Vic, London, 2022); Two Billion Beats (Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, 2022; an earlier version was staged by the Orange Tree in 2021 as part of their Inside/Outside season), Megaball (National Theatre Learning), 2066 (Almeida Theatre), The Invisible Boy (Kiln Theatre) and White Open Spaces (Pentabus Theatre).

Chasing Hares was the winner of Theatre Uncut's 2021 Political Playwriting Award.

(Author photo by Helen Murray)

Michael Billington is a hugely respected authority on theatre, and was drama critic at The Guardian from 1971 until 2019. He is the author of several books, including The 101 Greatest Plays and State of the Nation: British Theatre Since 1945. One Night Stands, a collection of his theatre criticism from 1971-1991, is published by Nick Hern Books.

Brad Birch's plays include The Brink (Orange Tree); En Folkefiende and The Endless Ocean (RWCMD); Even Stillness Breathes Softly Against A Brick Wall (Soho Theatre); Tender Bolus (Royal Exchange); Gardening for the Unfulfilled and Alienated (Undeb – and winner of a 2013 Scotsman Edinburgh Fringe First). He was the recipient of the 2016 Harold Pinter Commission at the Royal Court.

Caroline Bird is an award-winning poet and playwright.

She won The Forward Prize for best poetry collection in 2020, and was shortlisted for the Costa Prize 2020, the TS Eliot Prize 2017, the Ted Hughes Award 2017, and the Dylan Thomas Prize twice in 2008 and 2010. She was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize 2014.

She was the youngest ever member of the Royal Court Young Writer's Programme, tutored by Simon Stephens. Her plays include: Red Ellen (Northern Stage, Nottingham Playhouse & Royal Lyceum Edinburgh, 2022); The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Northern Stage, 2015); Chamber Piece (Lyric Theatre Hammersmith, as part of the Secret Theatre season, 2013); and The Trojan Women (Gate Theatre, 2012).

Her Beano-inspired musical, The Trial of Dennis the Menace, was performed in the Purcell Room at the Southbank Centre in 2012.

She was short-listed for Most Promising New Playwright at the 2013 Off-West-End Awards.

Malorie Blackman, OBE, is a distinguished author, well known for her works for children and young adults. She was Children's Laureate 2013-15.

Joseph Blatchley is an actor and director who has worked extensively in the theatre, film and television in England and France, working with Tony Richardson, Nick Roeg, Bill Douglas, François Truffaut and Peter Brook. He studied film-making at the National Film and Television School. His short film Fragments has been shown in many festivals, and won 'Outstanding Film of the Year' at the London Film Festival. He has directed all of Chekhov's major plays, including his own adaptation of Platonov. He has directed over seventy plays. In England his productions have included plays at LAMDA, GSMD, DCL, RADA, Hampstead Theatre, the White Bear Theatre, the Gate Theatre, Riverside Studios and Royal Exchange, Manchester.