Sky Comedy Rep Announces New Comedy Writers

Sky Comedy Rep has announced the eight new comedy writers who are about to embark on a six-month paid training programme to develop a new piece of work, mentored by some of the UK's best comedy writing talent.

Following the success of the inaugural Sky Comedy Rep scheme in 2021/22, over 400 applicants pitched for the final eight available places in 2022/23. This year’s brief was to submit a sample of a one-act play set around the simple premise of Proposal in the Park. After scrutiny by the selection team from Sky Studios and The Rep a group of new writers hailing from across the UK - Salford, Stoke-on-Trent, Durham, Manchester and Birmingham - made the final cut.They will now further develop their plays with guidance from this year's mentors who are today announced as Sanjeev Bhaskar, Liam Williams, Morwenna Banks, Laurence Rickard, Nathan Foads, Danielle Ward, Daniel Lawrence Taylor and Paul Doolan.

In addition to providing training, mentoring and a professional showcase, Sky Comedy Rep is already providing new British comedy writing talent with a springboard into the industry.As a result of the work developed and performed at The Rep earlier this year, a number of 2021/22's cohort of writers have gone on to develop projects for Sky Studios and a range of other producers and broadcasters.

The writers will meet in Birmingham next month at a workshop led by Iqbal Khan - Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony Director, Tartuffe (RSC and Birmingham Rep), and East is East (Birmingham Rep) – and Madeleine Kludje, Rep Associate Director and Talent Development lead (Grimeboy, Birmingham Rep).

The overall scheme was established and is led by The Rep's Artistic Director, Olivier Award-winning Sean Foley (The Play What I Wrote) and Sky Studios Creative Director of Comedy, BAFTA Award-winning Anil Gupta (Goodness Gracious Me, The Office).