*Our PERFORMERS*

*2025*

HUGE DAVIES

Huge debuted his first show ‘The Carpark’ at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2019. A complete sell-out, it received multiple five-star reviews and an Edinburgh Award Nomination for Best Newcomer. The show was featured as Time Out’s No.1 comedy show to see, had three runs at the Soho Theatre following excessive demand and filmed as a special by LA based company 800 Pound Gorilla Media. His second show ‘Whodunnit’ and third ‘Album 4 My Ancestors (dead)’ were also fully sold out, received multiple five star reviews and is currently on a national tour. Huge appears on television frequently, including his own Channel 4 sitcom ‘The Artists’ which he created, wrote and starred in. 

PRVANYA PILLAY

Pravanya Pillay is a stand up comedian and writer. She delivers anecdotal comedy with surreal observations. She was I featured on BBC Three’s ‘Asian Network Comedy’, Comedy Central’s ‘Rhod Gilbert’s Growing Pains’, was a 2024 Sean Lock Award nominee, 2023 Chortle Award Best Newcomer Nominee and supported Olga Koch and Sophie Duker on tour. As a writer she has written for BBC Radio 4  (‘The Now Show’, ‘Best Medicine’ and ‘TL;DR’) as well as BBC Radio Wales (‘Beena & Amrit’ and ‘Welcome Strangers’).

ROSIE HOLT

Rosie Holt is best known for her alter-ego MP whose popular videos on social media have achieved more than 7 million views. She is the winner of the Chortle Social Media Award and a nominee for the BPG Emerging Creators Award. Her last show, That’s Politainment! toured around the UK - “tightly crafted and brutal political satire with Orwellian flourishes” -Evening Standard, 4 stars. Her first book, Why We Were Right; A catalogue of Conservative Successes ( "Hilarious and alarmingly close to the bone” - The New European) written as her MP alter-ego is available to buy in shops now. She has written for Prospect Magazine and The Byline Times.

KATE CHEKA

Kate Cheka is an award-winning comedian, writer and artist. Her debut hour received critical acclaim, a Soho Theatre run and was nominated for NextUp's Biggest Award in Comedy. Other accolades include winner of the Funny Women Awards 2023, regional finalist BBC New Comedy Awards 2022 and Chortle Best Newcomer nominee 2024.

Laila Woozeer

Laila Woozeer is an award-winning writer, musician and performer based in London.Laila has performed and composed for Future Cinema; BBC; Marie Claire; Barbican; Queen Elizabeth’s Hall and written for The Guardian, Mashable, Buzzfeed, Stylist, Metro, and gal-dem among others. Laila’s book Not Quite White, a magical realism memoir about being mixed race, was released 2022 (Simon and Schuster).

HARDEEP MATHARU

Hardeep Matharu is a journalist, writer, and speaker. She is the Editor-in-Chief of Byline Times – the independent investigative news site and monthly print newspaper covering ‘what the papers don’t say’. Her work focuses on the forces that shape us: identities, politics, culture, the media. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and a John Schofield Trust Senior Fellow. Hardeep sits on the board of the ‘Values in the Media’ project established by the Common Cause Foundation. She is a judge of the annual Orwell Society/NUJ Young Journalists Award.

Hook UP Culture & THE FUCKAROUND FIVE

The Hook Up Culture house band are an ever-evolving entity of some of the most talented, interesting and frankly, hottest, musicians around. FF members have won numerous awards and played with the likes of Cher, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, and Mickey Mouse. Studying at Berklee, RCM, Murcia Conservatoire, Guildhall, our crew have performed at Glastonbury, the 02, St Patricks Cathedral NY, Madrid and Barcelona Jazz Festivals, Caesars Palace Las Vegas to name just a few.

TAsif Kapadia

Asif Kapadia (born 1972) is a British filmmaker. Kapadia is best known for his trilogy of narratively driven, archive-constructed documentaries Senna, Amy and Diego Maradona. Amy (2015), based on singer Amy Winehouse, had its world premiere at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, and it is the highest-grossing British documentary of all time at the UK box office. Kapadia directed the documentary film Senna (2010), based on Ayrton Senna (famous for his achievements in motor racing), which won multiple awards,

Naz Shah MP

Naseem Shah is a British Labour Party politician who has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Bradford West since 2015. She served in the Opposition frontbench from 2018 to 2023, most recently as Shadow Minister for Crime Reduction. Before being elected as an MP, Shah was the chair of mental health charity, Sharing Voices Bradford, and had previously worked as a carer for disabled people, as an NHS Commissioner and a director for a regional association supporting local councils. She has campaigned extensively in support of social justice and human rights causes.

SARAH CHURCHWELL

Sarah Churchwell (born May 27, 1970) is a professor of American Literature and Public Understanding of the Humanities at the School of Advanced Study, University of London, UK. She has appeared on British television and radio and has been a judge for the Booker Prize, the Baillie Gifford Prize, the Women's Prize for Fiction, and the David Cohen Prize for Literature. She is the director of the Being Human festival and the author of three books. In April 2021, she was long listed for the Orwell Prize for Journalism.

Dr. Brian Klaas

Dr Brian Klaas is an Associate Professor in Global Politics at University College London, an affiliate researcher at the University of Oxford, and a contributing writer for The Atlantic. He was recently named one of the 25 “Top Thinkers” globally by Prospect Magazine. Klaas is the author of five books, including Fluke: Chance, Chaos, and Why Everything We Do Matters (2024) and Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How It Changes Us (2021). In addition to Fluke and Corruptible, Klaas authored three earlier books: The Despot's Apprentice: Donald Trump's Attack on Democracy (2017); The Despot's Accomplice: How the West is Aiding & Abetting the Decline of Democracy, (2016) and How to Rig an Election (2018). 

Peter Geoghegan

Peter Geoghegan is an Irish writer, broadcaster and journalist. His journalism has appeared in the New York Times, the Guardian, the London Review of Books and many other publications. He was openDemocracy‘s UK investigations editor from 2018 to 2021 and was nominated for a 2019 and 2020 British Journalism award and the Paul Foot award in 2019 and 2021 (twice). Peter’s most recent book, the Sunday Times best-selling Democracy for Sale: Dark Money and Dirty Politics, was published in August 2020 by Head of Zeus.

Dawn Butler, MP

Dawn Butler is a British Labour Party politician who has been a Member of Parliament or Brent Central since 2015. Dawn was named the “most promising feminist under 35” by New Statesman magazine and was honoured as MP of the year at the 2009 Women in Public Life Awards. Since returning to Parliament Dawn was awarded two Patchwork Foundation awards, having been voted People’s Choice 2016 Labour MP of the Year and next receiving the Overall MP of the Year award 2017. In 2020 named one of the 25 most influential women in the UK by Vogue.

Urban Wilderness CIC

Urban Wilderness CIC is a women-led community interest company based in Longton, Stoke on Trent. Through radical joy, living heritage and world-class arts, they reimagine public spaces with and for the community. Co-directors Isla Telford, Laurel Gallagher and Jenny Harper produce Longton Carnival and Pig Walk Parade, which brought 30,000 visitors to the town this year. In this panel discussion, they’ll be joined by community members to share how feminist and circular economic principles are transforming a place often associated with decline into one of celebration, creativity and connection. Expect honesty, hope and grassroots energy.