Grant awarded to: Miranda Shamiso
Ymddiried’s Contribution: £1,000
I’m incredibly grateful to Ymddiried: Media Grants Cymru for financial support of £1,000, which made it possible for me to accept a scholarship at the British American Drama Academy. I live in Cardiff, and the full-time course was in London; even with a scholarship, the course wouldn’t have otherwise been accessible to me, as the living costs of being in London for three months are unsurprisingly substantial.
The course gave me access to various workshops with industry professionals, including:
- Joel Perez, who directed and co-wrote Villa Encanto, which premiered at the Tribeca Festival and was executive-produced by Lin-Manuel Miranda.
- Anna Healey, an Intimacy Coordinator and Movement Director whose film and TV credits include Boiling Point (BBC), One Day (Netflix) and Black Dog (feature film with Athenaeum Productions).
- Francesca Mills, an actor whose film and TV credits include Harlots (Seasons 2 and 3, Hulu/ITV), The Witcher: Blood Origin (Netflix) and Zoolander 2.
On the course, we were even introduced to the craft of writing reviews for productions, something I had very little knowledge about previously.
The majority of workshops were centred around developing skills as a storyteller. We were encouraged to create our own work and introduced to techniques to help with that. I was able to put these into practice recently when I made my first short film, which I’m now submitting to film festivals.
