Born in Islington in 1964, Kathy Burke trained at the Anna Scher Theatre. She made her professional acting debut in the 1982 film Scrubbers.

She won an RTS Award for Mr Wroe’s Virgins, a British Comedy Award for Gimme Gimme Gimme, the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival for Nil by Mouth, and Loaded Magazine’s Woman of the Decade Award in the 1990s.

Her play, Mr Thomas, was first performed at the Old Red Lion, Islington, in 1990.

She also wrote the autobiographical mini-series Walking and Talking for Sky Arts.

Lucy Burke trained at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts. Writing credits include Glitter Punch (VAULT Festival/Assembly George Square Studios, Edinburgh Festival Fringe/The King’s Head/Theatre N16/The Lion and Unicorn); WEIRD (Arcola, SLAM Soaps); Blackout (Theatre N16, N16 Presents); A Series of Unfortunate Breakups (C Venues, Edinburgh Festival Fringe/Camden Comedy Club/The Etcetera); Funeral Parlour (Royal Exchange Studio, Platform 1). She set up and runs Some Riot Theatre Company, an emerging company specialising in female-led new writing, and focusing on providing employment for graduate actors.

Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849–1924) was a British-American novelist and playwright. She is best known for the three children's novels Little Lord Fauntleroy (published in 1885–1886), A Little Princess (1905), and The Secret Garden (1911).

Chris Bush is a playwright, lyricist and theatre-maker.

Her plays include: Rock/Paper/Scissors (Sheffield Theatres, 2022); an adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre (Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, and New Vic, Newcastle-under-Lyme, 2022); (Not) the End of the World (Schaubühne, Berlin, 2021); Hungry (Paines Plough, 2021); Nine Lessons and Carols (Almeida Theatre, London, 2020); Faustus: That Damned Woman (Headlong, Lyric Hammersmith & Birmingham Rep, 2020); The Last Noël (Old Fire Station, Oxford, 2019); Standing at the Sky's Edge, a musical with music and lyrics by Richard Hawley (Sheffield Theatres, 2019, revived 2022 and at the National Theatre in 2023, West End 2024); The Changing Room (National Theatre Connections, 2018); Steel (Sheffield Theatres, 2018); an adaptation of Pericles (National Theatre, London, 2018); The Assassination of Katie Hopkins, written with Matt Winkworth (Theatr Clwyd, 2018); What We Wished For and A Dream.

Letty Butler is an actor, comedienne, writer and professional creative coach. With Anita Gilbert, she is part of the duo Bert & Butler, founders of the actor training programme 'The Jobbing Actor'. She is co-author of The Jobbing Actor: A Coaching Programme for Actors published by Nick Hern Books.

Jez Butterworth is one of the UK's leading playwrights. His plays include: Mojo (Royal Court Theatre, London, 1995; West End, 2013); The Night Heron (Royal Court, 2002); The Winterling (Royal Court, 2006); Parlour Song (Atlantic Theater, New York, 2008; Almeida Theatre, London, 2009); Jerusalem (Royal Court, 2009; West End, 2010; New York, 2011); The River (Royal Court, 2012); The Ferryman (Royal Court and West End, 2017) and The Hills of California (West End, 2024).

Mojo won the George Devine Award, the Olivier Award for Best Comedy and the Writers' Guild, Critics' Circle and Evening Standard Awards for Most Promising Playwright. Jerusalem won the Best Play Award at the Critics' Circle, Evening Standard and WhatsOnStage.com Awards, and was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play. The Ferryman won the Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Play, and the Critics' Circle, Olivier and WhatsOnStage Awards for Best New Play, as well as the 2019 Tony Award for Best Play.

His screenwriting credits include Fair Game (2010), Get On Up (2014), Edge of Tomorrow (2014), Black Mass (2015), Spectre (2015), Ford v Ferrari (2019), and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023).

For TV, he created and wrote the comedy series Mammals for Amazon Studios, and created the historical fantasy drama Britannia for Sky and Amazon Prime.

In 2007, he won the E.M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2019 he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

David Byrne is a playwright and theatre director, and the Artistic Director Designate of the Royal Court Theatre, London, where he will take over from Vicky Featherstone in 2024.

He is the founding Artistic Director and CEO of the New Diorama Theatre, one of London's most vibrant new work theatres.

His plays include The Incident Room, written with Olivia Hirst (Edinburgh Festival Fringe, 2019; New Diorama Theatre, London, 2020); Secret Life of Humans (Edinburgh Festival Fringe, 2017; New Diorama Theatre, 2018); and an adaptation of George Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London (Edinburgh Festival Fringe, 2015; New Diorama Theatre, 2016).

Author photo by Tom Jamieson