Julian Fellowes
Actor/Screenwriter/Producer/Director
SWF '06 & '08 

Julian was educated at Ampleforth, Magdalene College, Cambridge and The Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, trained in repertory theatre at Northampton and Harrogate before appearing in the West End production of A Touch of Spring by Sam Taylor at the Comedy Theatre.  

As an actor, he is probably best known for TV's  Monarch of the Glen as well as films inc. Shadowlands, Damage, Place Vendome and Tomorrow Never Dies.

As a writer; TV's Little Lord Fauntleroy and The Prince and the Pauper.

His first screenplay for the cinema was Gosford Park, directed by Robert Altman, which won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. 

Since he has worked on Vanity Fair and the recent Young Victoria as well as directed Seperate Lies. 

Julian has spoken at the Festival on numerous occasions and is a strong supporter as part of the Advisory Board.

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Hazel Grian,
Multi-Platform Writer
SWF '08

Hazel has been described by The Simpson's Matt Groening as "a funny film-making genius", created Alternate Reality Game Meigeist (played by an online audience of 30,000 world-wide), acted as story and script writer for the online drama KateModern and has recently launched The Sky Remains, new ARG sponsored by HP Labs.

Hazel came to SWF '08 to talk along with Clare Reddington and Rik Lander about writing scripts for internet based films and programmes.

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Maurice Gran
Screenwriter
SWF '06

Maurice, along with writing partner Laurence Marks, started writing comedy together in the early-70s. They sent several comedy scripts, which they sent off to various broadcasters, who all sent them back, though usually with encouraging noises.

Together they have been responsible for some of the UK's most successful sitcoms and comedy/drama including Holding The Fort, Shine On Harvey Moon, Roll Over Beethoven, Relative Strangers, The New Statesman, Birds Of A Feather, So You Think You've Got Troubles, Goodnight Sweetheart, Nightngales, Starting Out, Unfinished Business and Love Hurts. They also wrote a political mini-series Mosley, and television movie Wall Of Silence, a murder thriller.

Maurice and his writing partner Laurence Marks opened the first Festival with an irreverent talk on what it is to be screenwriters.

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Tony Grisoni
Screenwriter/Director
SWF '06 & '07

Tony Grisoni worked in many different areas of film making before turning to screenwriting. Queen of Hearts, 1989 was his award winning first feature directed by Jon Amiel.  He has worked closely with a number of directors including John Boorman, Michael Winterbottom, Julian Jarrold, James Marsh, Anand Tucker and Terry Gilliam (Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, 1998 and Tideland, 2005). Grisoni is also proud to count himself amongst the crew on board the ship of fools: The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.

Recently he wrote the adaptation The Red Riding Trilogy, 3 full length dramas from the novels by David Peace for Revolution Films and Channel 4.

KINGSLAND #1 The Dreamer. BAFTA nominated 20 minute short and first part of a feature to be set in the Kurdish community of North London. Produced by Kate Ogborn and directed by Grisoni.

Tony has appeared at the Festival twice, once in 2006 when he discussed Brothers of the Head, and again in 2007 when he was part of the Code of Conduct panel.  He is also a member of the Festival's Advisory Board.

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Rahila Gupta
Novelist/Screenwriter
SWF '07

As a screenwriter, Rahila co-scripted the film Provoked, which she also co-wrote, a true story about a battered Asian woman, Kiranjit Ahluwalia, who set her brutal husband on fire after 10 long years, was convicted of murder, sentenced to life imprisonment and released after three years because of the campaigning efforts of a small Asian women's group of which I am also a member.

She has also written various plays including The Dirty Matress, Falling and Genes R Us.

Rahila came to SWF '07 to talk about the long and difficulty road of development for adapting the book that eventually bacame the film Provoked. 

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Michael Gubbins
Editor
SWF '06 & '08

Michael was, until recently, editor of Screen International and Screendaily.com.  He is also a speaker and media commentator on the film industry worldwide.  He has been a keynote speaker at dozens of major events including the Cannes, Berlin, Rotterdam and Sarajevo Film Festivals.  Media work includes articles for The Guardian and Time out as well as contributions to the BBC, Sky, CNN and ABC in the US.

Michael is a member of the SWF Board of Directors.

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David Hare
Screenwriter/Playwright
SWF '07

As a screenwriter David has written Plenty, Damage, The Secret Rapture, The Designated Mourner, Via Dolorosa and Stephen Daldry's The Hours; and has directed three feature films Wetherby, Strapless and Paris By Night.

Recently he has worked with Daldry again on his adaptation of Bernard Schlink's novel The Reader has garnered a Bafta award and an Oscar for Kate Winslet and nominations in both for best adapted screenplay.

David appeared at SWF '07 and gave a revealing talk about screenwriting to not only the Delegates but a specially invited audience.

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Olivia Hetreed
Screenwriter
SWF '06, '07 & '08

After a successful career as a film editor of documentaries, TV drama and film, Olivia moved to the other end of the process.  She wrote a series of very well received family films for ITV including The Treasure Seekers and The Canterville Ghost.

Girl with a Pearl Earring, adapted from the novel by Tracy Chevalier, and starring Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson, is a worldwide success and was nominated for multiple Oscars and BAFTAs including Best Adapted Screenplay.

Recent work includes The Canterbury Tales for the BBC and Zero for Radio Four.

Olivia is also involved in The Writers' Guild and is a member of the SWF Board of Directors.

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Paul Hoggart
Freelance Journalist
SWF '06, '07 & '08

Paul has written regularly about television in The Times since 1997 at various times as previewer, columnist, critic, interviewer and feature-writer. He has also contributed articles about television to The Guardian and Broadcast magazine. Over the years he has interviewed many notable televsion writers for The Times including Lynda la Plante, Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, Sally Wainwright, Peter Kosminsky, Armando Iannucci, Kevin Elyot, Peter Bowker and Andrew Davies.

Paul was born in Hull and later lived in Leicester, Birmingham and Paris before reading English at York University and qualifying as a teacher at The Institute of Education in London. He spent eighteen years teaching English and Media Studies in London colleges before turning to writing full-time in 1998. He lives in north London with his wife and family.

Paul has appeared on stage throughout various sessions since the Festival started and has interviewed many of our Guests.

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Rachel Holroyd
Agent, Casarotto Ramsay and Associates
SWF '06 & '07

Rachel was Head of Business Affairs at Working Title Films from 1993 to 2001 (including a year working out of their LA office) and worked on films as diverse as Four Weddings & A Funeral, French Kiss, Dead Man Walking, Bean, Elizabeth and The Big Lebowski.

Shewas then Managing Director of Tiger Aspect Pictures where she set up and formalised a film division within Tiger Aspect and helped to build up a slate of films following the box office successes of both Kevin & Perry Go Large and Billy Elliot. In 2003, she moved to the "other side" and started representing film and tv writers and directors at a new start up agency, set up with Amanda Davis.

In 2005, she joined Casarotto Ramsay & Associates, one of the UK's leading literary agencies.

Rachel came in '06 & '07 to talk about writers contracts along with Wiggin's Charles Moore.

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Anthony Horowitz
Novelist/Screenwriter
SWF '07

Anthony is perhaps the busiest writer in England. He has been writing since the age of eight, and professionally since the age of twenty.  He writes in a comfortable shed in his garden for up to ten hours per day. In addition to the highly successful Alex Rider books, he has also written episodes of several popular TV crime series, including Poirot, Murder in Mind, Midsomer Murders, Murder Most Horrid and Foyle's War.  His film scripts include Just Ask for Diamond, The Gathering and the film version of his Alex Rider books Stormbreaker.

Anthony appeared at SWF '07 and gave a very insightful look at not only screenwriting but the difficulties in adapting his own novel into a movie script and the challanges along the way.

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Menhaj Huda
Writer/Director
SWF '07

Menhaj's film production career began with a vacation job as a runner with Fox Television in the US. On his return to the UK, and after a 3-month stint as a runner for Sky News, he successfully applied for a trainee video editor position. Over three years he made about thirty low budget promos and pop videos for a production company set up by himself and a fellow filmmaker.

At the beginning of the 1990s, Huda and his partner pitched an idea for a new music show to Channel 4. The idea became Hypnosis, first broadcast on 18 July 1993. They got the series and Huda officially became a director.

As a director he worked on various TV shows such as Flava, Queer as Folk, Murphy's Law, The Bill, Blue Murder and Holby Blue; and features such as Is Harry on the Boat and has worked with Noel Clarke on Kidulthood and the recent West 10 LDN.

Menhaj came to SWF '07 to talk about funding difficult scripts and joined the Adviory Board in 2009.

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David Hughes
Author/Journalist/Screenwriter
SWF '06

As an author of various books about films and film makers David has written; The Complete Kubrick and The Complete Lynch, as well as The Greatest Sci-Fi Movies Never Made, Tales from Development Hell, Comic Book Movies and The Illustrated Farscape Companion.

As a Journalist he has written for, among others, The Guardian, Empire, GQ, The Face and SFX.

In addition he has seventeen years experience as a writer, producer and creative director for movie marketing agencies, from The Creative Partnership to Picture Production Company.

David came to SWF '06 to talk about scripts that enter Development Hell never to return, well, sometimes...

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Uzma Husan
Development Executive, Slingshot Studios
SWF '08

Uzma is a Development Producer at Slingshot where she works across project selection, development and packaging.

Uzma sits on the selection committees for Mira Nair's MAISHA Labs as well as the British Independent Film Awards. She is London Chapter Head of Harvardwood, the official network of Harvard alums in the entertainment and media industries.

Prior to joining Slingshot, Uzma was producing music promos and commercials. Whilst in New York, she supported the Executive Producer and Special Events team at the 2004 Tribeca Film Festival.  Before moving into film, Uzma was a public relations consultant to international corporations such as NEC and Verizon and helped to launch mCubed Magazine in the US, an arts and cultural magazine aimed at young Muslim professionals.

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Arif Hussein
Screenwriter
SWF '08

Arif began his career as an actor after graduating from Mountview Theatre School. He founded the Alma Mater Theatre Company where he honed his talents in acting, directing and playwriting. After six years of touring he settled down to concentrate on screenwriting.

In 2001 he was invited to study for Masters in Screenwriting at the Northern Film School, and in the same year set up Kaos Films which launched the British Short Screenplay Competition to help aspiring screenwriters. Arif is a commissioned screenwriter, and has produced five short films, including the award winning The Handyman.

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Debbie Isitt
Screenwriter/Playwright/Director
SWF '06

Debbie is an award-winning writer and director for theatre, television and film. She originally trained as an actor and set up her own theatre companies writing numerous stage shows along the way. Her plays have been performed at The Tricycle Theatre and The Royal Court Upstairs and include the West End hit The Woman Who Cooked Her Husband.

Debbie's numerous stage plays include Johnny Watkins Walks On Water, which was later made into a short film and Nasty Neighbours, which she adapted into a feature film. Debbie also directed the feature film Confetti, starring Jessica Stevenson and Martin Freeman.

Her most recent film is Nativity about two rival schools trying to put on the best Christmas Nativity play and stars Martin Freeman.

Debbie came to SWF '06 to talk about how she went about writing and directing the improvised comedy Confetti.

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