Voices 2026 - Belfast Hub

We’re proud to introduce the BBC Writers’ Voices of 2026: a talented cohort of 69 emerging writers drawn from our six hubs across the UK. Over the past six months, they have immersed themselves in an intensive development programme designed to strengthen their craft, expand their creative ambitions and connect them with the wider industry.

From January to June, the cohort took part in workshops and masterclasses led by acclaimed writers including Daragh Carville (The Bay), Declan Lawn (Blue Lights), Emma Reeves (The Worst Witch), and Nick Leather (Nightsleeper). They also explored the craft of storytelling with industry experts such as Kate Leys, John Yorke and Maria Odufuye, alongside BBC Writers alumni Abi Hynes, Gemma Bedeau and Theo James Krekis. Throughout the programme, they gained valuable insights from agents, producers, BBC Drama Commissioning, OKRE and the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain.

Alongside these sessions, each writer developed an original television series idea to outline stage, supported editorially by the BBC Writers team. The creativity and ambition they have brought to their work has been consistently inspiring.

It has been a privilege to work with this remarkable group of writers and to support them as they take the next steps in their careers. We’re excited to see where their stories go next and delighted to introduce them to you here. We hope you enjoy discovering these exciting new Voices."

Jess Loveland, Head of New Writing for BBC Writers and BBC Drama Commissioning

For further information about any of the Voices 26 writers, please contact the BBC Writers team

Each year our Voices groups are bursting with exciting emerging talent and fresh new ideas, and the writers who have been part of our Belfast Hub 2026 are no exception. It has been such a pleasure to work with this fabulous group over the past six months, sharing in their passion, enthusiasm, and dedication to their craft. Their ideas are as creative, ambitious, and inspiring as the writers themselves, and we wish them every success on their onward writing journeys.

Heather Larmour, Commissioning Executive for BBC Drama

RACHEL ALEXANDER

Rachel Alexander is a screenwriter and short story writer from Offaly, based between Birr and London. She began writing for the screen during lockdown in 2020 and fell madly in love with the format.

After graduating with an MA in Screenwriting from UAL, her first feature film AUBREY STRAWBERRY was picked up by and developed with Steve McQueen’s production company Lammas Park. She is being mentored through Screen Ireland’s Screen Mentoring Scheme by Ailbhe Keogan, and she has developed work through the inaugural Stowe Story Labs Connemara Writers' Retreat and Storyhouse Lab, in association with Screen Ireland and Element Pictures. Her short film CAGED RABBITS, directed by Edelle Kenny, premiered at the 2026 Galway Film Fleadh.

Rachel is developing a number of projects for film and TV. Her writing is atmospheric and observant, and she deftly handles heavier subject matter with real sensitivity and a lightness of touch.

Rachel is represented by Elinor Burns and Nina Amini at Casarotto, Ramsay & Associates.

PHILIP CATHERWOOD

Philip is a writer from Carrickfergus, Co. Antrim, currently based in London, and can’t stop writing scripts set back home! 

His most recent play THE PITCH, about GAA in East Belfast debuted in London, before coming home to The Lyric Theatre Belfast in 2025, and will be travelling to this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2026.  

He has just recently been commissioned to write a new 45 minute radio drama for BBC Radio 4 which follows a young street artist painting a mural in a North Belfast housing estate.  

Philip’s other passion is science fiction, and his time-travelling, audio drama series THE DIAL-UP won numerous awards including Best Fiction at The Independent Podcast Awards, and also The British Podcast Awards.  

Philip was recently selected for The Royal Court Theatre Writers Group 2026,  and is currently developing a new play for their consideration.  

He was ecstatic to be selected for BBC Voices and hopes it can be a launchpad for his screenwriting career. He’s currently unrepresented and is keen to chat to agents, producers and development execs who love talking about Irish history/culture as much as he does, plus a sprinkling of sci-fi, to develop some unique ideas audiences are yet to see!

KAYE HENRY JENKINS

Kaye is a neurodivergent theatre and screen scriptwriter from Donaghadee whose work blends character‑driven drama with mythic influence, dark humour, and socially conscious storytelling. Inspired early by their relative Billy Campbell, a writer and artist who has pioneered the local arts scene for people with disabilities, they developed a deep connection to storytelling from childhood.

Kaye studied English with Creative Writing at Queen’s University Belfast, interning at the Lyric Theatre before joining Tinderbox Theatre Company’s Fireworks programme, where their short play exploring mental health themes was produced. They later completed a masters’ degree in Psychology of Mental Health at the University of Edinburgh, strengthening their commitment to authentic, psychologically grounded characterisation.

Their script AWAKE — a darkly humorous and emotionally resonant story about a trans masculine person returning home for their mother’s wake — received positive feedback at Accidental Theatre’s scratch night and placed in the top 10% of 6,000 submissions to the BBC Writers Open Call.

Selected for BBC Voices, Kaye is developing a contemporary reimagining of the Táin Bó Cúailnge, following a young man who uncovers a government‑funded human trafficking scheme after being caught in a racist immigration raid. Their work centres neglected voices, contemporary Northern Irish identity, and the blurred lines between myth and modernity.

KARIS KELLY

Karis won the Women’s Prize for Playwriting 2021 for their play CONSUMED. Karis was selected for the 2022 Playwright’s Scheme Bursary run by the Peggy Ramsay Foundation with Film4 and the Maria Bjornson Memorial Fund, developing a new play with the Lyric, Belfast, as their writer in residence. In 2024 Karis was selected for the inaugural UK Women In Theatre Lab, and was a member of Theatre and Dance Northern Ireland’s INVEST programme. They are currently a writer on attachment at the National Theatre Studio.  

Other theatre work includes CONSUMED (A Paines Plough, Belgrade Theatre, Sheffield Theatres and Women’s Prize for Playwriting production). Lyric Theatre’s “Listen at the Lyric” programme titled OUTSIDE HER and THE CHILDLESS AUNT for Accidental Theatre’s “No Touching Theatre” Festival. She has also worked with Theatre 503, The Arcola, the Bush Theatre, Hampstead Theatre, Southwark Playhouse, Nabokov and DryWrite.

Karis facilitates Fighting Words’ Young Playwrights Programme and Papatango’s GoWrite programme. 

Karis has written on three series of HOPE STREET for Long story TV/BBC and is developing a drama project for Two Cities, previously with Motive Pictures, Objective Fiction, World Productions and Universal Content Productions.

CAL MCGHEE

Cal McGhee is a screenwriter and film and TV development executive from Dublin, Ireland.

In 2022, he was shortlisted for Screen Ireland’s Spotlight for TV Comedy. 

In 2023, his 8 x half hour live-action children’s series YESTERDAY'S GIRL / Ar Ais Arís was funded in development by Creative Europe and TG4/Cúla 4. A co-production with Portugal, the series is shooting across summer 2026, funded in production by TG4, Screen Ireland, Coimisiún na Meán, Council of Europe's Pilot Programme for Series Co-Productions, ICA, NOS, the S481 Tax Credit and Portuguese Tax Credit.

His first feature comedy script, GUNCLE, is funded in development by Screen Ireland for Tri Moon Films, with Ruth Meehan (The Bright Side) attached to direct. 

His debut short film, CHARADE, is also in development as part of Creative Europe MEDIA slate. 

Cal has also served as development executive for Ali Abbasi’s The Apprentice (which competed for the Palme d’Or and received BAFTA, Golden Globes, and Oscar nominations); Bring Them Down (Douglas Hickox Award at the BIFAs for Best Debut Director); and Hokum (acquired by Neon and reaching the top 5 in the US Box Office). 

Cal is represented by MacFarlane & Chard. 

ROISIN MULLIGAN 

Roisin Mulligan is an award-winning screenwriter, currently based on the Irish border between Fermanagh and Leitrim after almost a decade living in South America and Asia. Her feature film concept SKINNY DIP was one of the selected projects of BMAN's Entertainment Incubator in 2025.  She was a participant in Stowe StoryLabs TV Writers Room 2025, and her short film script LAST CHANCE SALON, a romcom thriller, was a finalist in Catalyst Film Festival’s Short Screenplay Award. In 2026, she was shortlisted for Phillip Shelley’s Greenlight Screenwriting Lab with her horror concept GESTATION. 

Her short film scripts have been recognised by the Stowe StoryLabs Production Grant, Manchester Film Festival, Roscommon International Film Festival, and her short comedy film THE BLOW-IN, will be shown at local and international festivals in 2026.  

Roisin’s time living in the world’s far-flung places - including a hotel room in a central Chinese city for three months, and a wooden cabin on a Colombian mountainside for four years - gives her a unique perspective on storytelling. Her work spans multiple genres and is marked by quick humour, surreal events and complex characters that hit home - no matter where home happens to be.  

Following her participation in BBC Voices, Roisin is currently seeking representation.

CAROL MURPHY

Carol Murphy is an artist and screenwriter. She writes fables, absurdist genre, commercial art house and comedy drama. 

She reached the top 1.8% in the 2025 BBC WRITERS OPEN CALL with the second draft of her science fiction horror thriller, The SILENT TIDE about the industrial fishing of mermaids, developed by FANTASTIC FILMS and funded by NI Screen.

Murphy won THE GALWAY FILM FLEADH PITCHING COMPETITION 2025 with her gothic horror feature THE BODY & BLOOD, about an Irish country girl who transmogrifies into The Vigilante Cannibal Nun during The Famine. She was also a SCREEN IRELAND MENTEE 2025.

In 2022 Murphy launched THE BODY & BLOOD online as a series of five performance films, that she shot on her mobile phone, before touring it as a one woman show in the UK and Ireland to venues such as VAULT Festival, London, Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin and the CQAF in Belfast. She created and performed a body of folk songs and in 2024 launched THE VIGILANTE CANNIBAL NUN AS AGONY AUNT comedy horror podcast. She plans to take the one woman show to The Edinburgh Fringe in 2027.

Murphy has two other feature scripts - SAILORTOWN, a 19th Century period drama, and GOLDEN BOY, a 1970s PTSD horror - and a one-woman show, a black comedy absurdist farce called HUSTLERS, BASTARDS & DONKEYS.  She is currently unrepresented by an agent.

LOUISE PARKER 

Louise Parker is a writer and actor from and based in Belfast. 

As a writer-director her short films include JEGGIES (Farset Films) which premiered at The Galway Fleadh 2025, and Weird Sister (BBC Two Minute Masterpiece). Writing for radio includes an adaptation of Kate Chopin’s A PAIR OF SILK STOCKINGS which was broadcast on Radio Ulster and PERSONAL SPACE which was commissioned for NI Mental Health Arts Festival. For theatre she has made work with Tinderbox Theatre Company, Three’s Theatre Company and Pintsized Productions. 

As an actor recent screen credits include Committed (CBC/BBC), Murder Most Puzzling (Channel 5), BBC One’s Blue Lights and BBC Three’s comedy-horror Wreck. For stage she has worked extensively across the north of Ireland and radio credits include the award winning The Northern Bank Job for BBC Radio 4. 

Louise has a love for dark and weird comedy, and she is currently co-writing a play funded by Belfast City Council’s Violence Against Women and Girl’s strategy with support from Brassneck Theatre Company.

MATTHEW SHARPE 

Matthew is an Actor & Writer from Belfast, with roles in TV and Films such as MURDER MOST PUZZLING, The KNEECAP Movie, and BLOODLANDS.  

As a writer Matthew was selected for the Dublin Fringe WEFT programme (23/24) & INVEST (24). Matthew landed his first commission through the Arts Council & his debut solo show I'VE ALWAYS LIKED THE NAME MARCUS premiered at The MAC Belfast (24) and at Dublin Fringe Festival (24) and featured in the top 10 must see shows.  

On the Baptiste Programme (24), a mentored script development programme for Black Irish theatre makers and writers of colour, Matthew developed a full-length play called I DON'T IDENTIFY WITH MY NOSE, which received a rehearsed reading in Smock Alley Dublin.  

In 2026, Matthew is developing MARCUS for TV, was selected for the BBC Writers Voices cohort 2026, and selected as one of The Abbey Theatre’s Next Wave artists, where he is developing a new theatre show, BEAUTY MARK.  

Matthew’s writing centres around identity, belonging, and societal projections

NICK SHAW 

Nick Shaw is a writer from County Down. He holds degrees in English and Creative Writing from Queen's University Belfast, where he studied at the Seamus Heaney Centre. His work for the stage has been performed at the Grand Opera House through Tinderbox Theatre Company's Fireworks scheme, as well as at the Lyric Theatre, the MAC and the Crescent Arts Centre. His prose has appeared in The Honest Ulsterman.

He writes film, television and prose rooted in slow-burn crime and moral erosion, built with close attention to style, atmosphere and the architecture of plot. His stories follow people already in too deep, in landscapes as unforgiving as their choices.

He is currently developing THE NARROWS, a feature-length crime film set on the tidal shores of Strangford Lough, and PANOPTICON, a six-part near-future drama about surveillance, control and revolution.

FIONA TUOHY

Following a successful career in London as a finance professional in the TV and Film Industry, Fiona Tuohy is an Irish screenwriter who is now focusing on developing her own slate, with an emphasis on original stories with international appeal. 

Her first comedy feature THE MOUNT was selected for Screen Ireland Spotlight scheme. It was optioned by producer Laura McNicholas and developed with the support of Screen Ireland. Brian Durnin is attached as director. Laura and Brian’s debut feature SPILT MILK, was selected as the MUBI Go Film of the week on theatrical release in Ireland. 

Her Screen Ireland Focus short THE KEVIN INTERVENTION directed by Aideen McCarthy and produced by Margaret Milner Schmueck, is debuting at 2026 Galway Film Festival. 

She has been developing a true life crime TV series based on real life fraudster Felix Vossen, with Adam Knopf for Riot Time Pictures. Ashley Pharoah is attached as lead writer. 

She also recently adapted the rom com novel THE EX FACTOR by Claire McGowan (under the pen name Eva Woods). The TV pilot and pitch are currently out to various production companies and available on request.