Panels and Workshops

MAXAMILLIAN JOHN – DIRECTING PANEL (CHAIR)

Maxamillian John is part of Definitely Human, creators of MarsCorp, The Infinite Bad, and Down. He has been working in audio drama for ten years as a producer, director and writer, and is available in all good pubs across London.

ARMANI ZARDOE – DIRECTING PANEL / DIRECTOR WORKSHOP

Amani is a writer, director and creative consultant working in film and audio. She recently concluded work directing and showrunning the comedy-drama podcast series Cry Havoc! Ask Questions Later, created by David K. Barnes (Wooden Overcoats) and produced by Rusty Quill (Magnus Archives). The Telegraph listed the series on their critic’s choice list where they described the series as ‘pitched somewhere between Succession and Up Pompeii!’

In 2021 Amani was invited to develop and direct a short film as part of Mountview Academy’s BA Actors’ final year productions; her work lead to the film project becoming a compulsory part of the final year shows and she has since returned several times to Mountview to make further film projects. Amani’s personal film projects have screened at BAFTA qualifying festivals in the UK and Internationally.

ROBERT VALENTINE – DIRECTING PANEL / DIRECTOR WORKSHOP

Robert Valentine is a writer, director and producer.

His writer-director credits include Albion: The Legend of Arthur for Audible UK, Hypnopolis and Hypnopolis II: Utopia in Progress for BMW, and Red Moon, which won the 2019 BBC Audio Drama Award for Best Online Audio Drama.

He also adapted Howl’s Moving Castle for BBC Radio 4 and has written numerous Doctor Who adventures for Big Finish Productions.

KARIN HEIMDAHL – WRITER PANEL (CHAIR)

Karin (she/her) is an audio drama creator, voice actor and podcaster from Sweden. She is an award-winning writer and director, and the creator of two audio drama podcasts; slice of life drama Y2K and dystopian sci-fi Chaika. Since 2019, she has created and released over 80 episodes of audio drama. Karin has also portrayed a myriad of characters as a voice actor across more than 35 indie audio dramas, such as The White Vault, Mirrors, Boston Harbor Horror, The Amelia Project and Copperheart.

The sole force behind Y2K Productions, Karin strives to tell stories through audio that resonate, challenge and entertain. One of her goals is to feature diverse voices and characters, in particular those that - like herself - are not native English speakers. Across her two audio dramas she has worked remotely with voice actors from 5 continents, 18 countries and 12 time zones. This is exactly as challenging as it sounds! But the rewards in terms of variety of story and perspective have been wonderful. 

Karin trained at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts (UK) and Gothenburg University (Sweden). She works as a teacher, and is currently releasing season 2 of Chaika.

ROBERT VALENTINE – DIRECTING PANEL / DIRECTOR WORKSHOP

Robert Valentine is a writer, director and producer.

His writer-director credits include Albion: The Legend of Arthur for Audible UK, Hypnopolis and Hypnopolis II: Utopia in Progress for BMW, and Red Moon, which won the 2019 BBC Audio Drama Award for Best Online Audio Drama.

He also adapted Howl’s Moving Castle for BBC Radio 4 and has written numerous Doctor Who adventures for Big Finish Productions.

NEMO MARTIN – WRITER PANEL

Nemo 杉本 Martin is an award-winning London-based writer. Both their fictional and non-fictional work explores how colonial thought is embedded in 19th-century natural sciences, literature and popular thought, as well as how this is received by 21st-century audiences. As a scriptwriter, their recent projects include Trice Forgotten (Rusty Quill), [The Cobbled Streets of Geneva] (Ellandar), and ASIAN PIRATE MUSICAL (Papergang Theatre).

They are also the co-host of Bread & Barricades: A Les Mis Podcast.

LINDSAY SHARMAN – WRITER PANEL / TROUBLESHOOTING PANEL

Lindsay has worked in the entertainment business as a performer, writer and theatre producer for over ten years. She has written seven original Fringe shows, garnering a raft of 5 star reviews, and toured the country in both her own and others’ productions. She has also racked up hundreds of performances as a character act and MC on the British stand-up and cabaret circuit.

In her collaboration with Laurence, Lindsay has written five theatre productions: Madame Magenta: Libros Mystica (2014), the Malcolm Hardee Award winning Cinemusical (2015),  Cinemusical High (2016), The Time Machine (2017), and Jekyll vs Hyde (2019), Broadway World Award nominee and Wilton's Music Hall Fringe Foundations Award winner.

For Long Cat Media, Lindsay is the writer and director of Mockery Manor, The Ballad of Anne & Mary, Madame Magenta: Sonos Mystica, and Ghosted.

AMBER DEVEREUX – TROUBLESHOOTING WORKSHOP (CHAIR)

Amber Devereux is a writer, musician and sound designer who primarily makes immersive audio drama and music as Tin Can Audio. They are the creator of the ongoing audio fiction concept album The Tower, as well as more experimental series such as queer horror anthology Folxlore and Anamnesis, a short series made entirely on Twitch inspired by the journalling game Anamnesis.

Outside of Tin Can Audio Amber has worked on audio dramas such as The Amelia Project, BBC Sounds' Murmurs and the music for Doctor Who: Redacted, as well as non-fiction podcasts such as The Wire At 20 for HBO, and Infamous for Campside Media.

The AUDIO DRAMA HUB PODFEST TEAM are hugely grateful to Amber for sponsoring the live stream this year, and for their continual championing of THE HUB and the form.

HAWA KHAN – TROUBLESHOOTING WORKSHOP

The creative conduit, as Hawa has been described as a Voice artist, singer, songwriter, producer, director and writer. A published songwriter, with top 10 hit songs in the UK and Europe, Hawa fulfilled a childhood dream of performing on the iconic “Top of The Pops”. She joined a group of community musicians to compose and perform with the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall. Through her links in the creative industry, Hawa was led to education, training and coaching, facilitating courses in Vocal & Performance skills, Life coaching, Leadership, Soft skills, PSHE and Equality Diversity and Inclusion.

She also Works with BAFTA award winning production company Actorshop as character development, acting coach and drama facilitator and has produced and directed community film projects. Hawa continues to share her vocal gifts and talents and the legacy of The Griot with Sonomatapoeia, bringing Sound, Words, Vocals and Vibrations. Together Hawa and Lucia, manifest informative, diverse, educational, humorous and necessary content, for all.

LUCIA SCAZZOCHIO – TROUBLESHOOTING WORKSHOP

As a sound artist, radio producer, community facilitator and educator, Lucia Scazzocchio has been nurturing and curating diverse and disparate stories and conversations that weave individual personal narratives as a way to help us better understand the wider social context.

She calls this ‘Social Broadcasting’.

Driven by creating engaging participatory radio and audio experiences that she ‘audioscapes’ into imaginative on and off-line broadcast initiatives and formats, Social Broadcasting represents the versatility of audio as an evolving social and artistic medium.

Lucia and Hawa worked together on a successful commission from The Tower of London producing their new family audio tour (a humorous dramatised retelling of British history).

HEM BREWSTER – TROUBLESHOOTING WORKSHOP

Hem Brewster is a British voice actor, now living in Iceland, where they are the lead producer at Blighthouse Studio.

Hem, aside from voice acting, is also the Game Master for The Lucky Die and The Sprouting.

LAURENCE OWEN – MUSIC PANEL / TROUBLESHOOTING WORKSHOP

Laurence began acting as a child, appearing in Wilde with Stephen Fry and Jude Law, Mumbo Jumbo with Brian Blessed, the BBC drama serial Berkeley Square, and an array of adverts and stage productions. Laurence is also an accomplished composer and sound designer.

Past productions include Cat & Mouse (Village Underground), My Left/Right Foot (National Theatre of Scotland), 1927’s Golem (Young Vic/Trafalgar Studios) and 1927's Please Right Back (Burgtheater, Vienna).

His film composing credits include the Sundance Film Festival-selected White Morning. Laurence has co-written and performed in many Edinburgh Fringe productions, including the Malcolm Hardee Award-winning Cinemusical (2015), Cinemusical High (2016), HG Wells' The Time Machine (2017), and Jekyll vs Hyde (2019), winner of the Wilton's Music Hall Fringe Foundations Award.

With writer-performer Lindsay Sharman, Laurence is the co-founder of fiction podcast production company Long Cat Media, and the co-creator of its four series: British Podcast Award-nominated theme park thriller Mockery Manor, BBC Audio Drama Award-nominated musical pirate epic The Ballad Of Anne & Mary, Madame Magenta: Sonos Mystica and Magenta Presents.

LINDSAY SHARMAN – WRITER PANEL / TROUBLESHOOTING PANEL

Lindsay has worked in the entertainment business as a performer, writer and theatre producer for over ten years. She has written seven original Fringe shows, garnering a raft of 5 star reviews, and toured the country in both her own and others’ productions. She has also racked up hundreds of performances as a character act and MC on the British stand-up and cabaret circuit.

In her collaboration with Laurence, Lindsay has written five theatre productions: Madame Magenta: Libros Mystica (2014), the Malcolm Hardee Award winning Cinemusical (2015),  Cinemusical High (2016), The Time Machine (2017), and Jekyll vs Hyde (2019), Broadway World Award nominee and Wilton's Music Hall Fringe Foundations Award winner.

For Long Cat Media, Lindsay is the writer and director of Mockery Manor, The Ballad of Anne & Mary, Madame Magenta: Sonos Mystica, and Ghosted.

FIONA THRAILLE – INTRO TO MAKING AF

Fiona Thraille is an actor, audio book narrator, writer and audio producer.

She is a producer with Wireless Theatre Company - worked on "What Walls Hold" on BBC Radio 3 last Christmas Eve, and has also recently worked as a Broadcast Assistant on Audible's immersive, full cast productions of Oliver Twist and David Copperfield.  She is the founder and producer of Dashing Onions Audio podcast. Otherwise, she can be heard in various audio dramas, including currently A Scottish Podcast, Cyclone, Vanishment Podcast and Edict Zero FIS.

SARAH GOLDING – VOICE ACTING WORKSHOP / INTRO TO MAKING AF

Sarah Golding has been one of the founders and instigators of this very Podfest, and with Fiona of Thraille celebrates 6 years of Dashingly Quirky live this year! She loves helping develop and nurture the AF AF community, is a PRODUCER, DIRECTOR, COMPOSER, VOICE COACH, TEACHER, WORKSHOP LEADER and a gently prolific VOICE ACTOR  in indie audio fiction, appearing in some fabulous shows as a myriad of characters, including Mrs Sheffield in OZ 9, Seraph in Edict Zero,  Old Sally in Hare Spell with Alt Stories, Director in Y2K, Mum in The Tower, Mesiya in Red Odyssey, and as Acantha in Silt Verses.

She produces her own work with QUIRKY VOICES, helps with the FICTION PODCAST NEWS WEEKLY, has run voice acting and how to make audio fiction courses at LIPA, London podfest, Shout out fest and online, and is podhost for INDIE AF, ADWIT (For writers) and MADIVA podcast (for Voice Actors), all of which exist to help folks’ level up their audio prowess in some form.

This year her new adventures take her to production management for WIRELESS THEATRE company - she hopes to help bring many a brilliant script to production and beyond! And there’s new VA courses coming soon! Quirkyvoices@gmail.com

BETH EYRE – VOICE ACTING WORKSHOP

Best known for her role as Antigone Funn in British Podcast Award winning sitcom Wooden Overcoats, Beth has worked internationally in audiodrama and for the Wireless Theatre Company and BBC Radio 4. Credits include: Cry Havoc, Ask Questions Later, London After Midnight, The Beef and Dairy Network Podcast, The Magnus Archives, Victoriocity, Wolf 359, Unseen, RE: Dracula, Life With Leo(h), The Amelia Project, The White Vault, The Exploding Library (Overcoat Media, BBC Radio 4).

Beth has narrated more than 70 audiobooks and does voicework for games including for Zombies, Run! Marvel Move and soon to be released Moonbriar. Beth is also an actor for stage and screen. Recent credits include : Midsummer Night’s Dream (Reading Rep) and The Baby (Sky/HBO – Sister Productions).

SARAH GOLDING – VOICE ACTING WORKSHOP / INTRO TO MAKING AF

Sarah Golding has been one of the founders and instigators of this very Podfest, and with Fiona of Thraille celebrates 6 years of Dashingly Quirky live this year! She loves helping develop and nurture the AF AF community, is a PRODUCER, DIRECTOR, COMPOSER, VOICE COACH, TEACHER, WORKSHOP LEADER and a gently prolific VOICE ACTOR  in indie audio fiction, appearing in some fabulous shows as a myriad of characters, including Mrs Sheffield in OZ 9, Seraph in Edict Zero,  Old Sally in Hare Spell with Alt Stories, Director in Y2K, Mum in The Tower, Mesiya in Red Odyssey, and as Acantha in Silt Verses.

She produces her own work with QUIRKY VOICES, helps with the FICTION PODCAST NEWS WEEKLY, has run voice acting and how to make audio fiction courses at LIPA, London podfest, Shout out fest and online, and is podhost for INDIE AF, ADWIT (For writers) and MADIVA podcast (for Voice Actors), all of which exist to help folks’ level up their audio prowess in some form.

This year her new adventures take her to production management for WIRELESS THEATRE company - she hopes to help bring many a brilliant script to production and beyond! And there’s new VA courses coming soon! Quirkyvoices@gmail.com

ARMANI ZARDOE – DIRECTING PANEL / DIRECTOR WORKSHOP

Amani is a writer, director and creative consultant working in film and audio. She recently concluded work directing and showrunning the comedy-drama podcast series Cry Havoc! Ask Questions Later, created by David K. Barnes (Wooden Overcoats) and produced by Rusty Quill (Magnus Archives). The Telegraph listed the series on their critic’s choice list where they described the series as ‘pitched somewhere between Succession and Up Pompeii!’

In 2021 Amani was invited to develop and direct a short film as part of Mountview Academy’s BA Actors’ final year productions; her work lead to the film project becoming a compulsory part of the final year shows and she has since returned several times to Mountview to make further film projects. Amani’s personal film projects have screened at BAFTA qualifying festivals in the UK and Internationally.

ROBERT VALENTINE – DIRECTING PANEL / DIRECTOR WORKSHOP

Robert Valentine is a writer, director and producer.

His writer-director credits include Albion: The Legend of Arthur for Audible UK, Hypnopolis and Hypnopolis II: Utopia in Progress for BMW, and Red Moon, which won the 2019 BBC Audio Drama Award for Best Online Audio Drama.

He also adapted Howl’s Moving Castle for BBC Radio 4 and has written numerous Doctor Who adventures for Big Finish Productions.

KATIE SEATON – MUSIC PANEL (CHAIR)

Katie has been a musician all her life, and is now one of the few people out there choosing to work full-time as a composer and sound designer solely in audio drama. She's also been a flying instructor, and continues to be a mum.

Katie is currently a sound designer and one of the staff composers at Rusty Quill; this year's work for them includes sound designer on Cry Havoc: Ask Questions later, composer-sound designer on Of This Colossal Wreck, and sound design on the new Magnus Protocol series pilot .

Katie had her BBC debut earlier this year, scoring the Easter Day afternoon drama on Radio 4, which was an adaptation of Ian McEwan's novel Enduring Love. She's composed music for audio dramas by many other producers, including her long-term collaborators at Dayton Writers Movement and several people who will also be attending the podfest!

The AUDIO DRAMA HUB PODFEST team are hugely grateful to Katie for helping to judge the SFX / BREATH ONLY/ORIGINAL MUSIC / FOLEY comp this year!

OLIVER MORRIS – MUSIC PANEL

Oliver is a musician, podcaster and poet. They wear many hats, and enjoy audio fiction.

They have worked on Kane and Feels, Among the Stars and Bones, Modern Faye and The Lightning Bottler.

The AUDIO DRAMA HUB PODFEST team are grateful to Oliver for helping judge the SFX/BREATH ONLY/ORIGINAL MUSIC/FOLEY comp and working the foley on this year’s DASHINGLY QUIRKY LIVE – A View from the Inside!

LAURENCE OWEN – MUSIC PANEL / TROUBLESHOOTING WORKSHOP

Laurence began acting as a child, appearing in Wilde with Stephen Fry and Jude Law, Mumbo Jumbo with Brian Blessed, the BBC drama serial Berkeley Square, and an array of adverts and stage productions. Laurence is also an accomplished composer and sound designer.

Past productions include Cat & Mouse (Village Underground), My Left/Right Foot (National Theatre of Scotland), 1927’s Golem (Young Vic/Trafalgar Studios) and 1927's Please Right Back (Burgtheater, Vienna).

His film composing credits include the Sundance Film Festival-selected White Morning. Laurence has co-written and performed in many Edinburgh Fringe productions, including the Malcolm Hardee Award-winning Cinemusical (2015), Cinemusical High (2016), HG Wells' The Time Machine (2017), and Jekyll vs Hyde (2019), winner of the Wilton's Music Hall Fringe Foundations Award.

With writer-performer Lindsay Sharman, Laurence is the co-founder of fiction podcast production company Long Cat Media, and the co-creator of its four series: British Podcast Award-nominated theme park thriller Mockery Manor, BBC Audio Drama Award-nominated musical pirate epic The Ballad Of Anne & Mary, Madame Magenta: Sonos Mystica and Magenta Presents.