BAFTA Rocliffe Comedy Writers Blog 2012

Nicolas Small (aged 32) started his career in New York, working in development for Tribeca Productions before moving into representation as a talent manager for One Entertainment. Primarily tasked with covering independent film and cable television for actors such as Charlotte Gainsbourg and Kate Bosworth, he oversaw every script that emanated from AMC, HBO and Showtime.

Inspired by the very best (as well as the very worst) projects that these companies had to offer, he was soon convinced to start writing himself, and shortly after returning to London was the runner-up in Tony Jordan’s inaugural Red Planet Writing Competition, and was signed by Independent Talent Group the following year.

Nicolas Is currently writing his second feature film Bootneck for Revolver/Gunslinger and developing television ideas for Warp and Big Talk Productions.

Sarah Courtauld (aged 31) is a writer, performer, and award-winning author of children’s books. She has written more than twenty books for children, and is currently writing a series based on the hit Canadian comedy show, Almost Naked Animals.
She’s also co-writing a sitcom called Kill Me Now, about three loser teenage girls, with her writing partner, Kate Davies. Kill Me Now has been shortlisted for the Sitcom Trials, the BBC Laughing Stock competition, and was highly commended in the Funny Women Comedy Writing Award 2011.

Sarah performs stand-up on the London circuit and regularly performs improv with the Wilmington Players. She studied English at Trinity College Dublin, and is a graduate of the Royal Court Young Writers programme.

Her BAFTA Rocliffe New Writing Forum entry, The Slush Pile, is loosely based on her experiences in publishing.

Matthew and Kayleigh were born and raised in Whitchurch, a quiet village on the outskirts of Cardiff. Famous for its medium sized Kwik Save ... And pretty much nothing else. The two met in high school aged 11, and immediately bonded over their mutual love of Titanic (the movie), Pat Butcher and their flair for the dramatic.

Over the next seven years Matt and Kayleigh went on to disrupt their English class with countless re-enactments of James Cameron’s blockbuster, drove their Math’s teacher to premature greyness with their incessant (tuneless) singing, and took any and every opportunity to force themselves in to the spotlight in the Drama Studio.

However, despite their countless misdemeanors, the dynamic duo somehow managed to defy the odds and were crowned Head Boy and Head Girl in the summer of 2003. A glorious reign until Kayleigh was caught red handed by the Headmaster scrawling obscenities across a school notice board... It is so important to lead by example.

As soon as it was humanly possible, they both moved to London, where to this very day, they can still be seen skipping around Soho hand in hand, like a modern day Donny and Marie.

Matthew Barry (aged 26) trained and worked as an actor before moving into writing. Matthew was part of the BBC Writers Academy in 2010 and is a Broadcast Hotshot of 2011. He has written for Doctors and now writes across EastEnders, Holby City and Casualty on a regular basis.

In 2010 Matthew’s original mini-series, Perfect Summer, for Fiction Factory/BBC was nominated for a BAFTA Cymru Award. He has worked on the online project Zeitgeist for Red Production Company/Numiko Ltd and co-developed the scripted reality show Bright Young Things with Boomerang. His original series Friends of Dorothy was developed with Red Production Company and his original children’s drama series Charlie Blast was optioned by Fiction Factory for CBBC.

Kayleigh Llewellyn (aged 26) trained as an actor at Drama Studio London, graduating in 2010. She has since split her time between performing professionally and writing.

Kayleigh co-wrote a pilot episode called The Thirds with Matthew Barry and was the script consultant on the sitcom Tissues & Issues for Fiction Factory. Kayleigh also performed the lead role in the taster tape.