Our Team

Imaan has always been interested in telling stories and sharing tales from under-represented groups whilst capturing untold stories and is excited to gain hands-on experience with Virtual Reality, 3D scanning and Augmented Reality technology. Recent works include producing a short documentary called Evocation, which was made solely using still images, with a combination of the use of audiovisual archival footage and factual-based storytelling.

George was born in Newport and began his audio journey at the local community radio station. His experience includes the award winning podcast ‘Power Corrupts’. With over 2.5 million downloads and listeners in more than 100 countries, it has been described as “intelligently written, [has] masterful storytelling, and a wide variety of stories (…) that are well researched and presented.”

Owen has spent the past ten years as a digital storyteller in the social care sector, and was recently chosen from Channel 4’s 4Screenwriting scheme. His short film OVERS was broadcast on BBC Two Wales. He is most proud of working with foster children on a co-production, teaching them how to structure stories, use filming equipment, and helping them to create videos that are now used in the care system.

Whilst completing an MA in Immersive Storytelling, Patricia obtained an internship on ‘The Big Fix Up’ (an AR Wallace & Gromit story) by the consortium Fictioneers in partnership with Aardman. She is currently developing an AR music-heritage app experience about the Windrush journey in London – a story that is close to home for her. As a proud Londoner she is excited to illuminate lesser known historical stories.

Lucy moved to Bristol in 2008 for her undergraduate degree and immediately fell in love with the city. She is interested in hidden histories and untold stories that focus on testimony. She is currently working on long-form writing, photography and film exploring the experiences of Ugandan Asian refugees who were exiled to the UK 50 years ago. Other works include producing films and writing for NGOs including Save the Children and Comic Relief.

Emma studied Performing Arts at Lincoln College. When training at drama school she worked on ‘Home’ by Nadia Fall which is set in a hostel in East London. Emma has also workshopped Hibo Wardere’s book ‘Cut’, centered around experiences of being a refugee in the uk.

Joe is an award-winning film & TV director and screenwriter. His past projects have been commissioned and/or broadcast by BFI Network, NI Screen, BBC, TG4 and RTE 2. His short films have also been screened at various international film festivals; including BAFTA and Academy Award accredited film festivals. In 2019 he completed work on a project called ‘The Night is Black and the Day is White’, a film about caring for and loving a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

In 2021 Duncan directed and self-shot a six part TV series for BBC Scotland called ‘Scary Adult Things’ where he travelled Scotland investigating issues that affected younger people. He has also made a number of documentary short films over the past few years such as ‘Taking Stock’, ‘Directed by Tweedie’ and ‘Isabella’ which have screened at film festivals internationally and have won a selection of awards such as the BAFTA Scotland Award for Best Short Film in 2016.

Gemma recently created a film for the Sheffield visit of ‘Walk with Amal’, working with community groups across the city as they prepared to welcome giant puppet Amal. As the first City of Sanctuary, Gemma finds it really important to celebrate Sheffield’s welcoming attitude and how it has become home for people from all over the world.

Sile is a freelancer at BBC Radio Sheffield as a journalist, collecting stories from people in the community, editing them and presenting them in different shows. She is most proud of her ‘Tale of Two Homes’ short film commissioned by Migration matters festival. The film looks at belonging among the children of migrant parents and people who have two cultures, one they inherited from their parents and the other they got living in England.

Michelle has mentored theatre makers in developing digital practises and using mobile technology in their own work. Recent projects include ‘Manimals’, an autobiographically-inspired one-woman show about loneliness, dating and the struggle to connect in the digital age. Manimals was her first solo show, and it launched her career as a multimedia performance artist.

Adam is a game creator. His most recent project was ‘News Flash’, created alongside Sutton Library, the game introduces 8-12 year olds to the concept of misinformation. Prior to that, he worked with the Wellcome Museum teaching 11-14 year olds to make games about their experiences. Previous Community Development work also includes telling stories of Social Entrepreneurs.

Kenya was an Audio editor for ‘A Brief History of Stuff’ by The Science Museum Group and Storythings. They also the founder of a social enterprise called ‘Understanding Each Other’ which helped bring awareness to mental health through clothing and meetups.

Born and bred in Dumfries, DJ McDowall has been recruited to make an augmented reality story trail around their home town. They have worked to help the community ever since graduating Art College, and founded the first LGBTQ+ youth group in Dumfries in the mid 1990’s.

Tessa has been working in the exhibition and showcase of VR for the last 4 years, with organisations such as Limina Immersive and Sheffield Doc fest. She has also produced a number of VR experiences with Jane Gauntlett, The OthVRs and for her own PhD research which have toured the UK and internationally. She is excited to work on StoryTrails as it is appealing to a diverse audience across the country.

Nathan has sailed on board a replica viking ship during a 6 week voyage from Denmark to Dublin, making a documentary and website for the BBC. Most recently he has been making films for the online channel History Hit. He also created a film for National Geographic about World War 2 which involved the use of immersive technologies including 3D scanning and photogrammetry.

Just before the pandemic started Grace did an artist residency at a fine art university in Surat, India. Her personal project, ‘Belongings’, explored the ancestral stories of the local community by inviting people to share their family heirlooms with; these objects became a vehicle for stories. The final work was made into a book and exhibited in India in February 2020 and soon in the UK. She has also worked on a community photography project for the Greater London Authority where young people celebrated their youth workers by taking portraits of them.

Jessie is excited to explore narrative and interactive storytelling within the VR format. Her previous works include a feature film ‘Looted’, which she is most proud of due to its large ambition. Jessie has also worked on an AR prototype ‘’Echoes of Crystal Palace’

Naresh has spent the last 3 years or so as part of the steering group for the project 81 acts of Exuberant Defiance. It is a community led arts project to honour and commemorate the 40th anniversary of the 1981 Brixton Uprising. He has curated and produced the 60 seconds stories project for ACE funded CPP network. The project was a collection of 1 minute films made by community arts organisations telling their own stories in their own words.

Over the past 2 years, Mohamad has produced 5 podcast series. Ranging on topics of youth and advocacy, arts and racism, disabilities and community development. One of the most exciting projects he has recently worked on includes a socially produced documentary that highlights the multidisciplinary science’s that overlap and tell the story of hominoids on earth.

Eva has worked on a transatlantic collaboration with Art2Action Theatre company creating an experimental performance feature film, ‘Eleven Reflections’, directed by Andrea Assaf. The film has gone on to win Best Experimental Feature film at the Silk Road Film Awards in Cannes, and Award of Recognition at IndiFest Film Awards, CA. She is proud to have worked on the Staging Places exhibition, with the British Society of Theatre Design as the AV Designer, for the installation. The project successfully celebrated the diversity in performance design.

Lucinda has worked as a freelance audio, print and online journalist in West Africa from September 2017 – November 2021. In 2021, she spent a week in the Liberian rainforest reporting on hunters who supply the growing transnational trade of pangolin scales, to understand their living conditions and motivations for participating in this illegal activity.

Lara wrote, directed and designed a multi-sensory MR experience that examined the intersection between migration, personal histories, archive and the internet through the digitization, artificial generation and simulation of passed-down protection rituals. She is most proud of her work on ‘NazarVR’. Lara is excited to work on the StoryTrails project for the chance to work with experts in state of the art tech and be part of a collective of 50 emerging artists.

Nina is a composer, audio producer and sound artist working on socially engaged projects such as the ground-breaking dream(ing) field lab. She’s produced award winning audio features for BBC Radio and international networks and has scored music across genres – for dramas, documentaries for film and performance, including the BBC series Tommies, and Outsiders, and the award-winning US podcast The Heist. Her critically acclaimed ‘composed features’ which marry soundscape, field recording and electroacoustic composition with personal testimony and scored instrumentation were the subject of her practice research PhD awarded in 2017.

Marcus enjoys the pursuit of a creative life and career. He has recently made his film directorial debut and has also been producing and presenting audio content for BBC Radio 4, AHRC, The British Library and more. He is excited to be part of the StoryTrails project to learn and create with a talented and experienced team of creatives.

Sian launched an exhibition at New Art Gallery Walsall, ‘We Are Illuminated’, where she created a body of work in collaboration with people from the area, exploring the neon leisure life, the fairs, carnivals, Walsall illuminations, and cinemas, gathering stories and using artefacts from the museum collections. She is currently working on a project which is exploring the relationship of Oscar Rejlander, a Victorian photographer, dubbed ‘the father of art photography’, to Wolverhampton, where he had a studio for several years.

Jay completed his first documentary feature, ‘DONNA’ in 2021. It is about an elderly transgender performer in San Francisco, and her reconnection with her siblings. He is currently teaching documentary film at Media Academy Cymru, and enjoys working with young people in this role. He is also a mentor with Ffilm Cymru, guiding documentary makers who are developing their first short film. He is most proud of the film ‘OVERSHARE’ which he made with influencers Rose and Rosie, where they travelled around the UK hearing stories from the LGBTQ community. The film really resonated with young people who may be coming to terms with their sexuality.

Swindon born Will is documentary filmmaker and director at the production company MELT THE FLY, he has directed and edited critically acclaimed films; his debut film has become a bit of a cult classic in Scotland, ‘Sink or Skim’ which was aired on BBC Scotland & BBC One, the short doc ‘Harmonic Spectrum’, was awarded the Scottish BAFTA for Best Short Film and this year Will released his first feature length documentary, ‘Long Live My Happy Head’ on BBC. Will is thrilled by this new venture into VR/AU storytelling with StoryTrails and intrigued as to what new grounds interactive documentaries can explore. He’s also expanding his freelance network so get in touch if you have any director, editor and VR narrative opportunities!

Alison has worked with a group of young women on an investigative drama documentary for radio about issues surrounding FGM. They were invited to the house of commons and worked with the victims and law enforcement to ensure justice was served. They ran very lively community meetings and worked with the victims to bring their findings to life. The piece ‘Why?’ was featured on BBC radio 4 Woman’s Hour. More recently, Alison has worked as a sound designer on an AAA narrative game for Microsoft’s XBox and as lead SFX designer on an audio drama for Audible.

Lucy has been working as a Creative Technologist with artist and producer Sophie Rogers on an Arts Council England-funded project. Together they are creating an arts game using Unreal Engine on interspecies and deep-time. They took the in-development project to Site Gallery’s young people’s program, Society of Explorers with creative computing educator Jazmin Morris. She is most proud of her first virtual reality project, ‘Just-In-Time’, as this helped her develop skills in user experience and interaction. She toured this R&D project around London art events and showcased the project as a resident with Gazell.io Digital Art House.

Simon is looking forward to transitioning his skills to working in a new medium and with new audiences through the StoryTrails project. His previous works include; ‘Unknown Forest’, an interactive outdoor journey piece for family audiences created with The North Wall Theatre and 101 Outdoor Arts; ‘AI’, an exploration of whether artificial intelligence can write a play for the Young Vic Theatre, and ‘Macbeth’, a Chichester Festival Theatres production with John Simm and Dervla Kirwan.He is most proud of his work on ‘The Metamorphosis’, a project that was choreographed by Arthur Pita for The Royal Opera House, The Joyce, New York and filmed for Sky Arts with Ed Watson as Gregor Samsa.

Karol has been in Bradford since 2005. He is an experienced photographer, drone videographer and artist. He is most proud of his photography and videography work which includes his exhibition ‘Back to the Studios’, a promotional video for South Pennines Park, and his photography work for BD25 city of culture BID. He is excited to show all the wonderful stories, rich history and represent Bradford’s diverse communities through StoryTrails.

Neil has worked at the intersection of art and technology for the past 10 years, working with Orchestras and in Museums as well as part time teaching. He has recently made an immersive spatial audio play that will be adapted for VR headsets at the moment. Neil believes people respond better to stories with passion and is excited to be involved with StoryTrails to explore untold stories.

Pallavi is excited to work collaboratively building worlds and spotlighting untold biographical stories in a creative and imaginative way. She has experience as a VR artist and in world building. She is most proud of collaborating on short stop-motion animation film “Miss Todd” (2013). Growing up, Pallavi loved the novelty of having a folder in the library, filled with large photos, drawings and facts of different animals that could be added to over time.

Lucia has worked in cinema and TV for many years, including several projects that were either designed for specific communities or were the result of an innovative process of research. She is most proud of her work on “Wildfire” (2020) directed by Cathy Brady which used a unique process of working with scientific research, psychology, testimonies from individuals and actors workshopping to help the development of the film. Her favourite book is “Fellini’s Faces”, a book of photographs of people that inspired the great Italian filmmaker on the streets of the city.

Letty is working as a Production Assistant for Produce UK as part of StoryTrails. She has experience as a freelance social media coordinator, a festival marketing intern, as well as being an English tutor. She is most proud of her work on ÉCU- The European Independent Film Festival 2020 which was a four-day festival that streamed in the height of lockdown. She is excited to learn more about the StoryTrails locations, the hidden stories, and communities using new immersive technologies.

Rachael is the Digital Designer for Nexus Studios as part of StoryTrails. She has experience designing websites and incorporating branding into user-friendly and aesthetically pleasing interfaces. She is most proud of her work on a hand-drawn animation called ‘Birthday Cake’. She is excited to work on StoryTrails alongside industry professionals on a project that focuses so heavily on conveying stories of cultural significance through the new and exciting mediums of AR and VR.

Sara is a recipient of the Edinburgh TV Festival’s ‘Ones to Watch’ award. She comes from the world of factual television where she writes and assistant produces for major broadcasters. Most recently, she expanded her story skills to include writing and story consulting for animation & XR. A geographer and footballer by training, her interests lie with playful and innovative media that help audiences understand the world and our place in it.

Since 2020, Jay has freelanced as a 3D animator, creating 3D worlds and assets for music and fashion clients such as Warner Music, Parlophone, MTV and the LN-CC. He is most proud of his work at The Glasgow School of Art’s 2020 Virtual Degree Show, which featured the work of 135 graduating students and was situated in a 3D reproduction of the Stow College. He is interested in the processes of interactive, non-linear storytelling, particularly with immersive technologies, which is why he’s excited to be part of the StoryTrails team.

Aylin has experience creating augmented reality (AR) Apps for a luxury jewellery brand. She is most proud of a project created during her BA which consisted of a virtual reality (VR) environment whereby she taught herself how to use Unity. Her project was showcased and tested as an exhibition at the Oval space. She is excited to be working on a VR project for StoryTrails as she has a deep appreciation for nostalgia where she can implement archive footage.

Nóra is the Marketing Lead at the BFI (British Film Institute) as part of StoryTrails. She has previously worked for an international sales company, The Match Factory as a distribution manager and for an independent distribution company, Cinefil Co. as a PR and marketing assistant. In 2019, she was selected as one of the young industry professionals to the Thessaloniki-Locarno Industry Academy International. She holds master’s degrees in Art and Design Management and Contemporary Film Culture.

Cat is a partner in a media production company in Malaysia and has produced video content around LGBT rights issues. As a spoken word educator, she produced 2 animated short films with words and artwork generated from poetry workshops with teenagers. She co-founded the first Pride Parade in Omagh. Her father is a local historian and tour guide which is one of the main reasons Cat is excited to work on StoryTrails – to bring the stories of Omagh to a new audience and allow locals to see their home from an inspirational angle.

During her MA at Goldsmiths, Kezi worked with ReAct Youth Theatre, an after-school youth theatre for young people in Southwark and inclusive of young refugees, migrants aged 12-18 from different cultural and national backgrounds. She has previously worked on ‘TAMWORTH AR EXPLORER’, a large-scale app-based AR tour of Tamworth Castle in which visitors follow the spirit of the castle and unlock the hidden stories with a complimentary remote education platform.

Hafsah is part of the Creativity Council at Bradford Producing Hub – a volunteer role which helps allocate funding for live art projects in Bradford. Her first three short films are set in Bradford. Hafsah has been a resident artist at Open Eye Gallery working on a socially engaged photography project with prisoners throughout lockdown. She has also been training teachers and filmmakers in Nepal and Hong Kong. Hafsah has set up a film school called Working Class Film School where she delivers filmmaking projects for young people aged 7-12 years of age. This initiative is what she is most proud of.

Jay has lived in slough for 42 years. He actively delivers VR workshops in schools, businesses, libraries, museums and the care sector engaging with over 19,000 participants throughout the UK. He also volunteers and supports Slough libraries by delivering the BBC VR UK Libraries Tour. He is excited to find and share stories that highlight the people and locations around Slough as part of StoryTrails.

Catherine is the Script Editor for StoryFutures Academy. She has experience as a Development Executive at an independent TV production company. She has secured commissions for Discovery Network, Channel 4, and BBC in a wide range of genres from factual entertainment to current affairs. Her favourite book is ‘Alias Grace’ as it was the first book she read by the ‘fierce and witty Margaret Atwood’.

Sergio is a 3D Generalist at Nexus Studios, as part of StoryTrails. With a background in Fine Arts and Visual Effects, Sergio has worked on VR integration on Twitch for a University in Stockholm. He is extremely proud of his dissertation in which he created a video game from scratch using 2D sketches and other various techniques. He is excited to be involved in StoryTrails as he believes it is an open project that will allow artists to freely express their creativity whilst exploring new technologies such as VR and AR.

Joseph has a background in Art and Design. He has taught at Blackpool School of Arts since 2017. His creative work includes making, curating, writing and teaching. He has recently shown work with the Partnership (a group of artists with and without learning disabilities) at Blackpool’s Grundy Art Gallery and also at Manchester Contemporary. Joseph enjoys making collages with the leftovers of his students’ work, these pieces signify the crossover between these two roles that he performs as well as his time in Blackpool. He is looking forward to tell the hidden histories of LGBTQ+ people in Blackpool through his involvement on StoryTrails.

During his time at university, Leo started a musical theatre company ‘Leo&Hyde’. He is interested in the storytelling possibilities of augmented reality and is intrigued to see how these technologies can be applied to musical theatre. He has recently worked on The VR Museum of Plastic on the back of a StoryFutures VR placement, and began working with Cooperative Innovations as a writer and creative producer. This placement provided inspirational insights into what VR museums could look like.