Emma Mackey (English 2016) has seen the drama Sex Education draw 40 million viewers on Netflix since she landed the lead role of sharp-tongued Maeve. Whilst starring opposite Asa Butterfield in this English language production, bilingual Emma has also recently acted opposite French cinema icon Romain Duris in the film Eiffel. Her work has made such an impression that Screen International named her a Star of Tomorrow.
Drowning in Plastic, an environmental film by documentary maker Tom Watt-Smith (Geography 2001), beat David Attenborough’s Blue Planet II to a Royal Television Society gong. In November, the BBC aired Tom’s documentary Meat: A Threat to Our Planet? “My ability to make films about our planet and its people has come, in large part, from studying at Leeds,” he says. “I suppose I turned all those qualitative research techniques into a job!”
TV producer Ish Kalia (International Studies 1996) picked up a 2019 Bafta when his Sky One show A League of Their Own won Best Comedy Entertainment Programme at a ceremony held at London’s Royal Festival Hall. Ish also series produces A League of Their Own: European Road Trip and recently produced panel show There’s Something About Movies, hosted by Alan Carr.
Idris Elba may be Luther on screen but, behind the scenes, the character is the brainchild of series creator Neil Cross (English and Theology 1994, MA English 1995). Neil’s also making Mosquito Coast with Apple and a new four-part thriller, Because the Night, for ITV. He describes the latter as “a tale of psychological suspense, of guilt and ghosts and murder.”
Kate Phillips (Theatre and Performance 2010) joined the cast of Downton Abbey as Princess Mary in the hit show’s big-screen outing. Since her first TV role as Jane Seymour in Wolf Hall, Kate has become a regular face on screen. She has appeared in War and Peace, The Crown – written by Peter Morgan – and Peaky Blinders, in which her character stirred things up by marrying Arthur Shelby.