Owen Tooth
A person with a shaved head and mini mohawk style fringe wearing a black three piece suit with bronze buttons. They are sat in a wheelchair and are holding a paper cut out of a kite.
Credit: BAFTA/Hollie Fernando
Meet

Owen Tooth

Director

(He/Him)

Owen’s breakthrough project is directing EastEnders.

Owen Tooth is undoubtably a trailblazer. As the first wheelchair-user to direct EastEnders (2025) in its 40-year history, he has added his own unique stamp to his debut block. With the emotional VE Day Special, he proved he could deliver outstanding standalone episodes, even at the pace of such a relentless production.

Owen already has form, directing a string of award-winning shorts and the internationally released feature, Devil’s Tower (2014). When he became a wheelchair-user in 2018, he found the doors to the industry suddenly closed. With support from deaf, disabled and neurodiverse industry advocates TripleC and DDPTV, his talent and tenacity landed him the EastEnders job, 2nd Unit on Big Boys and Horrible Histories, and upcoming work on Emmerdale. After learning a lot from soaps – he can’t praise the production teams enough – he is now keen to progress into high-end TV.

In their own words…

“I’ve been following BAFTA Breakthrough for years, but I never thought I’d have a place at the table. For me, this is an incredible chance to supercharge my career and prove to the industry that change can be wonderful. I have stories I want to tell and a scale I want to tell them on. This next chapter is about taking that leap.”