Challenge ALEXA 2019 — winner biographies

Ashtar Al Khirsan

Ashtar Al Khirsan is a director working across both documentary and fiction film. She began her career working in the BBC comedy department before going to the National Film and Television School to study Fiction Direction. After graduating from the NFTS she worked on feature projects, and then went to the BBC where she made a series of one-off documentaries which led her to making single films for the Arena arts strand on BBC2. In 2017, Ashtar completed a Wellcome Trust funded short drama film, Abdullah and Leilah.

Natalia Andreadis

Natalia Andreadis is a London-based film and commercials director. Natalia began her professional career working for celebrated producers Dan Halsted (Garden State, Nixon), and Stephen Woolley, working in post-production for 6 years. She has since won multiple awards for her short films, with her debut Without being distributed as a pre-feature short in over 150 cinemas.

Zoe Dobson

Zoe Dobson is an award winning producer and director. Zoe has over 15 years of network credits in observational documentaries, rigged obs-docs, arts documentaries, factual entertainment and many other formats. Zoe directed the series Wise Up which won her a BAFTA. She has more recently worked on documentaries with artists such as Duran Duran and Christo, as well as produced a major international series on the nature of dance due to air on Sky Arts in 2019.

Fi Kelly

Fi Kelly is an experienced television director and a trained script developer with a background in music, arts and comedy filmmaking. She works across theatre and film and is currently working on BBC1’s continuing drama series Doctors, having directed for the BBC and other network channels in the UK and abroad for the past 20 years.

Karen Kelly

Karen Kelly is a director of both factual and fictional television. Karen worked for ten years at the BBC directing in a variety of genres, and received the Royal Television Society Award for The Guinea Pig Club (BBC Four). Karen also worked for Impossible Pictures and created the series Prehistoric Park for ITV/Animal Planet. Her drama credits also include Eastenders, Hollyoaks and Half Life among many others.

Emma Swinton

Emma Swinton is a London based director. Graduating in film production at Westminster University in 2007, Emma has gone on to direct music videos and short films. With a love of all things historical and ethereal, Emma continues to pursue her dream of becoming a feature film director; making magical films with a poignant message, that spotlight unique perspectives.