Introducing: 2025 Bush Writers’ Group cohort

Wisdom Charis

A writer and actress based in London, hailing from just outside Hull. With a passion for character-driven work showcasing facets of day-to-day humanity, and stories that combine the funny with the sad. Wisdom was a chosen member of the BFI Screenwriting Residential, part of RADA and Stratford East’s young actor cohorts, and in the RADA, Guildhall and Theatre Peckham’s Originate cohort. Wisdom has had her work performed at the Royal Court. In 2020, she was named by Elle Magazine as one of the ‘Names and Faces of Tomorrow’. Wisdom is also currently Roundhouse Resident artist.

Sara Dawood

Sara is a British-Iraqi Actor and Writer from West London. Sara studied Performing Arts at Bath Spa University, and since graduating has continued to develop her work as a theatre maker. She was part of the inaugural 18-25 Bush Theatre Young Company and has worked as an actor across venues including the VAULT Festival, Bush Theatre and The Barbican. Sara has also developed work as a writer with Soho Writers Lab. Sara will be developing her second full length play as part of the Bush Writer’s Group.

Josh Dhillon

Josh is a writer/director from South London. He started in the accounts department of Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ and Loki, before moving over to Sid Gentle Films, where he still works part-time in development. He is a graduate of the Soho Theatre Writers’ Lab, where his play, The Chair, was longlisted for the Tony Craze Award. He is also a BAFTA Connect member. He has written and directed his own short films, with his debut, Lootin’ premiering at the Emerging Talent Film Festival in 2024, as well as commercial work for Daytimers and Tribal FC. He has both an original TV series and a film in development.

Ashlee Elizabeth-Lolo

Ashlee is a writer, dramaturg, award-winning journalist, and drama practitioner from Birmingham. She has collaborated with various arts organisations, including the National Theatre, The Birmingham Rep, Beatfreeks, Talawa Theatre, Women and Theatre, and Birmingham Hippodrome. Her projects also include work with Slanguages (Oxford University, Birmingham City University, and Punch Records) and Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. An alumna of English Touring Theatre’s ‘Nationwide Voices’ programme (2023) and the 2024 BBC Writers Voices cohort, Ashlee crafts stories that explore cultural identity, sociopolitical themes, and life’s big questions. Her writing blends mythology, technology, and playfulness, appealing to both adult and young audiences. Her debut play, Blueprints, was performed at The Pleasance Theatre in London and Edinburgh (2023). Passionate about her local community, she hosts a weekly radio show celebrating Birmingham’s creativity.

Kathryn Golding

Kathryn Golding is a disabled writer and performer of British and Chinese Malaysian heritage who writes for stage, screen and audio. Their work looks at what it means to be from the British Isles; hopeful and humorous observations of the joy, sadness and rage of life; particularly around relationships, identity, and belonging.

They have written for Royal Court Theatre, Paines Plough, Graeae and Tamasha. Their audio drama ‘My Time’ was part of a series entitled ‘Connections’ which won a Commendation at the Audio Drama Awards in 2021, while their BBC4 Afternoon Drama ‘Dragons of The Pool’, inspired by the forcible repatriation of Chinese Merchant Seamen after WWII, was top pick in both Radio Times and The Times.

Kathryn has been part of writers groups at Royal Court Theatre, Soho Theatre and Graeae, as well as The Network at the TV Foundation, and is a part of the 2024-25 BBC Writers Access Group cohort.

To bring quiet to their chaotic brain, they try to learn languages in their spare time. When that doesn’t work, they sing songs from the musical Mulan.

Roberta Livingston

Roberta is a writer/performer and facilitator of Caribbean heritage from East London. Her play Sweet Smoke was long-listed for the Women’s Prize for Playwriting in 2023. Her radio play Precious Little Thing produced by Talawa, feralinc and Radio 4 was nominated for a BBC Audio Award.  She has also participated in writers’ groups with Tamasha, Almeida Theatre and BBC Writers London Voices. Recently, she served as dramaturg for the Almeida Theatre’s Young Company production Beyond Her Years. She is a recipient of the BFI’s Young Audiences Content Fund and was selected for SkyArts and Creative UK’s shortFLIX, a programme for emerging filmmakers. As a performer her credits include Dear Elizabeth (Gate Theatre), The Fourteenth Stop (Arcola Theatre) and Small Island (National Theatre).

Angela O’Callaghan

Angela is an Irish writer/theatre-maker based in London. Her writing is visceral, political and full of heart, employing non-linearity to explore decolonial, queer and feminist themes. Her debut play keening was shortlisted for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 37 Plays Award (2023). She completed an MA in Text and Performance at the RADA and Birkbeck (2022), and was subsequently awarded a Masters-by-Research scholarship from University College Cork and Cork Opera House to develop her community co-created audio piece This House a Home at Cork Opera House. This was staged as part of Culture Night; a nationwide festival of interdisciplinary performance. The writing of her second play was supported by an Irish Arts Council Agility Award. Alongside her writing, she has worked in community arts and peacebuilding across Ireland, the North of Ireland and the United Kingdom. She is passionate about platforming marginalised voices and telling untold stories.

Razak Osman

Razak is an actor from East London. Razak’s television credits include You, me and The Apocalypse (NBC for Sky 1), So Long Marianne (NRK TV, ITVX). Theatre credits include Sylvia (The Old Vic), Antigone (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), Samskara (The Yard Theatre), Maggie and Ted (The Garrick Theatre), Merchant of Venice (Studio 3 Arts), Katya Kabanova (Royal Opera House), La Damnation De Faust (Glyndebourne), No Strings Attached (Kings Head Theatre) and many other productions. Razak’s writing credits include Tube Chronicles.

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