Jenny trained as an actor at LAMDA. In 2022 she was part of Broken Silence Theatre’s writing programme Hive, and The Living Theatre Whitwell commissioned her to adapt Jane Austen’s novel Emma for their main house summer show.
Previously she has been part of a writing group run by Margaret Perry, and worked writing, directing and facilitating with youth theatres. Catalyst was her first residency.
Karim Khan is a playwright and screenwriter from Oxford.
He took part in Catalyst 2019 as one of six writers in residence. Subsequently, The North Wall co-commissioned and produced his award-winning play Brown Boys Swim, which completed a sell-out run at the Edinburgh Fringe, before transferring to Soho Theatre. In 2023, he was invited to be in the Soho Six, and was co-commissioned to write a play for Soho Theatre and Tara Theatre. Karim also returned to the Catalyst residency in 2023, this time as a mentor.
His previous stage credits include Corrosive (Pegasus Theatre, 2019), Beyond Shame (Derby Theatre, 2018) and Orange Juice (Tristan Bates, 2019). Karim’s first TV credit was on Channel 5/PBS show All Creatures Great and Small, for which received a New Voice Award for Best Debut. He has a number of original TV projects in development.
Karim graduated from the NFTS Screenwriting programme in 2019 and is an alumnus of both the Soho Writers’ Lab and Royal Court Writers’ Group.
Katie Friedli Walton is a British-Swiss actor, artist, writer and director. Driven by the possibilities of creative empathy, Katie loves art that challenges form and binaries.
After training in acting with the RADA Youth Company and Lyric Hammersmith, Katie studied English at the University of Oxford. There Katie won the Juliet Bernard Prize for most promising woman/non-binary actor, and gained a first-class degree. Having recently played Jo March in a new adaptation of Little Women, Katie is now developing both a short film script and a drag king act on the Soho Theatre Drag Lab 2023. In September 2023, Katie will begin training at RADA on the BA Acting course.
Marika is a part-Honduran, part-Jewish playwright, poet and facilitator from London.
Marika has been a part of the Royal Court writers’ group and a Resident artist at the Round House London. Marika took part in Theatre Craft at the North wall 2017 where she wrote her play E8, which was then directed by Ria Parry and performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Pleasance Queen dome 2019 winning a Fringe First Scotsman award, and a Stage Award for best performance by Alice Vilanculo who played Bailey.
Marika’s poetry and theatre shows have been staged around the UK at venues such as Shaftsbury Theatre West End (NYT Gala), Royal Court (Open court), Arcola theatre, Camden Peoples theatre, Sky Garden. At the centre of her work is the aim to create the highest quality art for positive social change.
Marika also facilitates creative writing workshops for organisations like Clean Break, Hoxton Hall, and Holborn Community association, working with people of all ages to inspire and empower through poetry and theatre.
Marika has been shortlisted for the BBC writers room
An actor, originally from Manchester, living in London. A lover of comedy and ensemble led theatre. Multi-instrumentalist. Extensive credits in theatre, television, radio, and video games. A passion for creating new work.
Max Percy is an award-winning theatre-maker and facilitator creating ambitious theatrical experiences, and a regular collaborator across various forms including dance, theatre, academia, technology and accessibility.
He is artist in residence at BOLD Theatre and Mediale. He trained at the London Russian Ballet School and East15 Acting School.
Nancy is a London-based playwright and screenwriter. Her work uses elements of folklore, fantasy and horror to explore queer narratives, mental health, and loneliness and connection.
Her shorts have been performed at the Royal Court and Southwark Playhouse, and her first full-length play Goodnight, Mr Spindrift was at the Old Red Lion Theatre in 2019. She currently has an untitled horror feature in development.
She has been part of writers groups at Almeida Theatre and The London Library, and recently completed Hampstead Theatre’s INSPIRE programme during which she wrote her play Radiant Boy. The play was performed script-in-hand at Hampstead Theatre and has gone on to be selected for the RSC’s 37 Plays project.
Olivia Munk is a theatre director originally from Queens, NYC.
She is Artistic Director of Part of the Main Productions, a theatre company whose work is political, provocative and accessible. Recent productions include The Tinker and Bloody Mary: Live! at VAULT Festival 2023.
Forthcoming work includes Associate Director on Ride, a new musical, at Leicester Curve and Southwark Playhouse, and a work-in-progress of her playwriting debut, Acorn, at Omnibus Theatre’s Engine Room. Olivia is a co-curator and producer of The Miniaturists, London’s longest-running short play night.
Roann Hassani McCloskey is an Algerian-British storyteller. Her work includes her 2019 award-winning sell-out, one-woman show, My Father the Tantric Masseur – an autobiographical exploration of sexuality, sexual trauma and familial relationships. Her second show (Popcorn group award longisted), Who Murdered My Cat? shines a light on memory, its inconsistencies and its power in forming our identities.
Roann has co-written ReMythed (4 stars – The Guardian) that won ‘Show of the Week’ at Vault Festival 23. She is currently writing a semi-autobiographical comedy-drama TV series Lights, Camera, Couscous in which her Algerian mother, who informs so much of her creative work, has the starring role.
Roann’s writing finds the heart and humour that runs through tragedy, and centres around her curiosity and passion for bringing stories usually left at the margins to the centre where they belong.
Sam Parker is a playwright born in Torbay and now based in Plymouth.
Sam has a background in community theatre and facilitation in a range of settings, most recently working as a writer-in-the-room on Quizzy Rascals: an evening with the Barbican Legends and Ernesettlers, both of which were staged at Theatre Royal Plymouth.
Sam is the co-director of Down Stage Write CIC and the Pathways Producer for Doorstep Arts CIC. He has also worked as a script reader for Papatango, The Bruntwood Prize and the RSC new work department. Sam has just finished a second phase of R+D on his new play White Belt, a seed commission with Theatre Royal Plymouth.
Simon Marshall is a playwright, writing facilitator and participation producer from Derbyshire, living in Sheffield.
He is an Associate Artist of Derby Theatre, including co-writing 2023 Stage Award-winning VR audio-play Odyssey with Plus One, a creative group for care-experienced young people. His work often explores the rural queer experience and sense of place.
Previous writing includes Bonfire (‘honest, brave and acutely-written’, Lyn Gardner) and the audio-play kilburn (not london) (profiled at London Podcast Festival 2021). He has recently written Main Character Energy for 1623 Theatre at Theatre Deli, Sheffield, and The Fossil Kids with Sheffield Theatres’ Young Company (June 2023).
Suzy is a writer who loves comedy-drama. When she’s not writing, she’s a Development Producer in the TV drama world. She took part in The North Wall’s ArtsLab Comedy Troll residency in 2017.
