ITV is backing a scheme to support writers from underrepresented backgrounds at ITV Studios label 5 Acts Productions.
Cardiff-based artist/film-maker Tina Pasotra [pictured] and Bristol-based writer/director Michael Jenkins have been named Writers in Residence at the company and will develop two original ideas together over the next two years.
The residency has been funded from ITV’s £80m, three-year Diversity Commissioning Development Fund.
Based in Cardiff, 5 Acts was launched earlier this year by former Bad Wolf executive producer David P Davis, who has previously worked on Doctor Who and Left Bank’s Channel 4/Amazon series Electric Dreams.
Its first project in development is an adaptation of Clare Mackintosh’s novel The Last Party.
Jenkins has won RTS West Awards for his films Check the Label and Monumental and runs his own indie, Blak Wave Productions. He was one of the TV Collective's 2021 cohort of Future Breakthrough Leaders and recently shadowed director Alex Thomas on Wall to Wall's ITV doc Britain's Secret War Babies.
Pasotra's Bafta Cymru-nominated short, I Choose, is currently on iPlayer and she also made But Where Are You From? for Channel 4's Random Acts strand. She has shadowed director Farren Blackburn on Sky 1's A Discovery of Witches while on Bad Wolf's trainee director scheme, and was subsequently mentored by The End of the F***ing World writer Charlie Covell on the New Talent Scheme run by Dancing Ledge and ITV.
“The potential for unearthing stories in a progressive and nurturing environment with 5 Acts is hugely inspiring,” said Pasotra. “David has invaluable experience, integrity and in-depth industry knowledge – a space I most certainly hope to continue learning and thrive within.”
