THE THREE FINALISTS

I began writing screenplays and short stage plays on an amateur basis after retiring from a career in sales and marketing. By continually entering playwriting competitions, I have had plays produced or given staged readings in theatres across the USA as well as in Canada, Mexico, India, Australia and New Zealand, Malaysia and the Philippines. I now focus exclusively on stage writing, but have had several screenplays produced and radio plays broadcast nationally, and I helped to write a feature-length film The Donor Conspiracy.  

My name is Niall McCarthy, I'm a writer/Stand up comedian from Derry currently living in London. My first full length run in London has been greenlit at Theatre503 for my play ‘Derry Boys’ for three weeks in May 2025. My first full length play script ‘Forbidden Fruit’ was optioned in 2023 and will be performed in June 2025 at the Cheltenham Playhouse. I've had short plays titled 'Parakeet', 'The Parting Glass', 'Glass Villas', 'Make Love Not Greenpeace' and 'Star Fish' performed in theatres in London, Newcastle and Bedford. In 2021 I was inducted onto the ‘Live Theatre Newcastle New Playwrights course’ and in 2023 I attended the ‘INK Festival Script Writing Course’ hosted by Greg Mosse. In April 2024 my play ‘Fatherland’ was performed at the INK festival. In March 2024 my short audio play ‘God Complex’ was selected for the UK International Radio Drama Festival.

Celeste Engel studied Theatre and Drama at Australia’s La Trobe University. After emigrating to the UK, she obtained a Masters in Writing for the Media at Bournemouth University, her play SHINE BRIGHT was shortlisted for the the Kenneth Branagh Writing Prize in 2015 as was a project for the DOT award in 2018 as part of the New Media Writing Prize. 

She teaches filmmaking at the Arts University Bournemouth, short courses. Her play Sweet Dreams was performed by Theatre West as a rehearsed online reading 2021 and extracts were later performed by Beyond Face Theatre Company at the Exeter Phoenix Theatre for scratch nights in 2022 & 2023, with Star Light in a Jar performed for a scratch night March 2024.

Jack is a director, theatre maker and actor who trained in London before attending Cambridge University. His production company Long Nights Productions had a recent sell out run of the show chaos, co-directed by Jack, and his debut short film ‘WILD ONE’ had been recognised in both national and international film festivals. 

You can find Jack on Instagram @jackmedlin00 and X@jackmedlin3 

Michael Davies is a BAFTA and (4x) RTS award-winning writer and director, currently in pre-production on THE CAPTIVE HEART, a major feature film shooting on the Amalfi Coast in 2025.

Michael began his career making a wide range of critically acclaimed, award-winning documentaries and drama-documentaries for BBC Television, ITV and Channel 4 (including seven films with legendary producer Beryl Vertue at Hartswood), as well as dramatised adventure films and series for Discovery Channel.

Michael has a long association with RADA directing performances and rehearsed readings of new work. Two of his feature film scripts (including THE CAPTIVE HEART) have been developed with the Academy. Michael also teaches a Screen Acting masterclass in London, and is a Screenwriting Mentor at the highly regarded Rocaberti Writers Retreat, held in France, Spain and Italy.

Michael's short film WHAT’S VIRGIN MEAN? screened at over sixty international festivals, winning eight awards and attracting more than ten million hits on YouTube; unusually for a short, it also made a profit. Another of his films, LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT, starring John Hurt and Phyllida Law, won fifteen awards, including an RTS, Rushes and Raindance and was shortlisted for an Oscar.

www.michaeldaviesfilms.com