BBC Director of Comedy Jon Petrie has announced the 10 creatives joining the third cohort of the BBC Comedy Collective, the bursary scheme for mid-level creatives: writers, producers, directors and editors, and this year writer/performers, to develop their careers in scripted comedy.
They are: Producer: Leon Williams (Wales), Directors: Louis Chan (London) & David Peter McGinty (Scotland), Writer: Shannon Welby (Northern Ireland), Editor: Katie Walters (West Midlands), and Writer/Performers: Paul Black (Scotland), John Meagher (Northern Ireland), Chess Tomlinson (North East), Jessica Aytac (London) and Ada Player & Bron Waugh (South East).
The BBC Comedy Collective is a commitment to support the next generation of comedy talent. Previous BBC comedy bursary winners have gone on to make BAFTA award-winning TV series, win multiple script commissions via new production relationships, land agents and receive broadcast credits for work gained via the placements and networking opportunities.
Last year’s delegates attended the BBC Comedy Festival in Glasgow and the Belfast Media Festival, as well as a directing session with Christine Gernon, an ‘editing for comedy’ session with Gareth Heal, post-production sessions with Fifty Fifty Post, events with Sophie Willian, Mo Gilligan and Tom Walker, a producing masterclass with Ash Atalla, and a private round table with Stephen Merchant, with more tailored sessions and exclusive events to come.
Speaking at the BBC Comedy Festival, in Belfast, Jon says: “The BBC Comedy Collective goes from strength and strength. This year there were over 1600 applicants, and for our third cohort we have chosen another 10 incredible creatives with bright futures ahead of them. Over the course of the next year we’ll provide opportunities that will help them to get to the next stage in their careers.”
Each bursary winner receives up to £10k worth of paid shadowing on a BBC Comedy production, along with an allocated production mentor, plus a £5k development grant to support their work. They also have a dedicated point of contact within the BBC Comedy Commissioning team to help guide them through their year, as well as access to the Comedy Collective ambassadors and representatives.
The BBC Comedy Collective comprises of estate representatives, Paul Whitehouse & Geoff Schuman (for Felix Dexter), Tessa Le Bars and the Galton Family (for Galton & Simpson), Lucy Ansbro (for Caroline Aherne) plus the producer and director representatives; Ash Atalla and Christine Gernon, and our editing ambassador Gareth Heal alongside the alumni of previous BBC bursary winners and many supporters of the scheme.
The Comedy Collective is working in partnership with BBC Northern Ireland, BBC Scotland and BBC Wales, with the support of BBC Writers, BBC History, BAFTA, BBC Childrens, BBC Radio, The Edinburgh TV Festival, post-production houses: The Farm, Fifty Fifty, Splice and Envy Post as well as Versa Studios and a range of screen agencies including Screen Scotland, North East Screen and Creative Wales.
As part of our commitment to backing homegrown storytelling and simplifying and strengthening our talent schemes, the BBC recently launched a new Talent and Skills Opportunities website. It brings together well over a hundred schemes and initiatives from across the BBC under four headings: Content Creating, Writing, Performing, and Journalism.
Comedy Collective bursary winners 2025
Shannon Welby, writer
Shannon (she/her) is a screenwriter from the North West of Ireland. She has an original comedy TV project in development with Hat Trick Productions and BBC, an original comedy-drama TV project in development with BlackThorn Films and BBC and Northern Ireland Screen, and a feature drama in development with EZ Films. Shannon’s work includes being part of the writer's rooms for Bafta award-winning BBC drama Blue Lights plus a new series for Two Cities and RTÉ, writing an episode of Cartoon Network’s Goat Girl, and being shadow writer on thriller The Gone. Her latest short is in post-production, funded by Screen Ireland. Accolades include selection for BBC Writers’ Voices, reaching the top 1% of 4,287 scripts for BBC Writers’ Open Call, selection for BFI London Film Festival’s Panel spotlighting six exciting emerging screenwriters, Galway Film Fleadh Bingham Ray New Talent Award nominee, Screen Ireland Spotlight TV Comedy and StoryHouse LAB. Shannon’s mantra is ‘good collaboration, good manners, and good craic’.
John Meagher, writer / performer
John Meagher (he/him) is a standup comedian and writer who grew up on the border in the North of Ireland. After lasting a whole two days in University (one day longer than he had ever imagined to be honest), John realised higher education probably wasn't for him and worked a series of jobs including but not limited to: call centre sales, doorman, shop assistant, fisherman, barman, stock manager for a pub, and martial arts instructor, until finally he found the stones to try standup for the first time, and finally found his calling in comedy. John wrote and presented The Divil’s Own for BBC Radio 4, and his debut show Big Year was selected by Rolling Stone Magazine as one of their Standout shows of 2024, who called John “The next great Irish comedian”. John has several shows in development with Hat Trick, Ember, and DLT entertainment.
Jessica Aytac, writer / performer
Jessica Aytac (she/her) is a British-French writer and performer from London. Her comedy is rooted in her lived experience, both before and after becoming a wheelchair user. She is a lead writer on BBC Scotland’s Breaking the News. Some of her early broadcast credits include Channel 4’s groundbreaking satirical news reviews Mashed and Rude Tube and she is currently writing her first sitcom series, Damaged Goods. Jessica was a semi-finalist in So You Think You’re Funny at the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe, has performed at the Camden Fringe and co-founded Cirque Du Lol-eil, a pioneering accessible comedy night for disabled audiences and performers. Outside of comedy, she brings decades of experience as a producer and edit producer in unscripted television, with credits including Louis Theroux Interviews, Gods of Tennis and Hunted. Delivering compelling, character-driven factual programming has shaped her ear for storytelling in comedy.
Paul Black, writer / performer
Paul Black (he/him) is a writer, director and comedian from Glasgow. Paul is a two-time Sir Billy Connolly Spirit of Glasgow Award nominee and has played four sold out Edinburgh fringe runs. He has written and directed Govan Fair Queen for BBC Three, Pity Party and First Footing for BBC Scotland and stand-up special Nostlagia for BBC iPlayer.
Ada Player and Bron Waugh, writer / performers
Ada (she/her) and Bron (he/him) are a writer-performer duo, with a love of all things silly. Their first TV credit, Channel 4 pilot, Peaked, was nominated for a Bafta in the 2025 awards ceremony. Their first short, Jonny & Tommy, won the Funny Women Comedy Short award and their latest, Spare Part, is being screened in BIFA-qualifying film festivals (including the prestigious Director’s Notes). This year, they are bringing their Edinburgh Fringe debut, The Origin of Love, to the Pleasance Courtyard. Ada and Bron are passionate about joyful, bold comedy, driven by stupid characters who dream big and fail hard. They cannot wait to expand their slate and make as much comedy as humanly possible!
Chess Tomlinson, writer/performer
Chess (she/they) (short for Francesca, has no Italian roots, but named after a pizza restaurant in Newcastle) Tomlinson is a Geordie writer/performer who trained at RCS and in physical comedy at Lecoq School. They received their first commission as a writer to be one of BBC Comedy’s Laugh Lessons 2021 writer/performers, filming the sketch Becoming a Karen, which was nominated for an RTS award, but didn’t win despite having shaved her chin. Their writing focuses on darkly comedic, female/NB led, queer empowering stories, representing the North East - in anything BUT a ‘Grim Up North’ grade. Chess has projects in development with established and indie production companies in the UK. As an actor Chess can be seen in Meet the Richardsons and a car advert, where the most googled phrase is “what does the Geordie woman say in the Citroën advert?”.
Louis Chan, director
Chan (he/him) is a British filmmaker of Malaysian and Jamaican heritage. His highly accomplished award-winning debut drama short Stationary screened at Bafta qualifying festivals, before partnering with Fully Focused, amassing over 300,000 views online. After directing sketches for BBC Comedy, Chan co-created the comedy anthology series Takin’ L’s. In 2022-23, Chan made two comedy shorts for Takin’ L’s entitled Roadman Au Pair and Sticks of Fury, the latter starring Keiyon Cook and Demmy Ladipo. Sticks premiered at LFF and toured across multiple festivals in Europe. Sticks was Vimeo Staff Picked and showcased at the BBC Comedy Festival in Cardiff. Roadman Au Pair premiered at Raindance, with Monumental Pictures developing the TV adaptation. Chan’s original pilot Bad Nai Nai is in development with Fully Focused and his debut feature Manic Mum with award-winning producer Chi Thai and the BFI. As a director, his work is daring, intelligent and packed with laughs.
David McGinty, director
David McGinty (he/him) is a writer, director and actor based in Glasgow, where he co-owns a creative agency and writes and directs commercial video and TV adverts for national brands. David has created BBC Short Stuff sketches for BBC iPlayer and the BBC Scotland channel, including the viral hit Catch-Up with the Ex. He also wrote Death Do Us Part in scripted development with BBC Scotland in collaboration with long-term writing partner Paul Hamilton. David has ambitions of writing and directing a great ensemble comedy, he is obsessed with naturalistic comedy and, for research purposes, lives his life as a socially inept pedant.
Katie Walters, editor
Katie Walters (she/her) is a HETV 1st assistant editor from Ilkeston, a small town in the East Midlands. If you're familiar with it, ay up my duck. She has over 10 years’ experience in editing and assisting, with assistant credits on The Wheel of Time, Nautilus, and One Day. Katie began her career in Manchester, where she spent seven years working on commercials and documentaries. She synced The Real Housewives of Cheshire, logged countless hours for BBC’s Ambulance, and edited social media teasers for Channel 4’s The Circle. In 2021, she moved to London to pursue a career in scripted drama. While Katie enjoys assisting and has worked alongside some brilliant editors, her true passion lies in comedy editing, not spreadsheets (which is a large chunk of the assistant role). In her spare time, she’s always looking to develop her skills by editing short films and comedy sketches.
Leon Williams, producer
Leon (he/him) is a Welsh comedy producer with a dash of Irish seasoning. He has a background in script supervising, short-form filmmaking, and creative development — including several written, directed, and produced works broadcast on the BBC. With over a decade of on-set experience, he brings a sharp eye for story, a calm collaborative instinct, and an unfussy effectiveness that tends to make him everyone’s favourite person on set (though no-one will admit it). He’s steadily built his producing practice through short films, associate roles, editorial training, and shadowing producers on top UK comedy shows. He’s also directed both second and main unit scenes on high-end productions, honing his ability to shape story from script to screen. Now part of the BBC Comedy Collective, Leon is focused on producing bold scripted comedy. A lifelong fan of the form, he’s passionate about unearthing new talent, nurturing distinctive voices — and booking coffee vans that turn up before lunch.
