Laughing Matters

Laughing Matters is career development programme modelled as a game jam / hack-a-thon for ESEA comedy creatives funded by BBC Comedy.

Participants were invited to attend a full immersion lab over two days grounded with additional workshops to give industry contextualisation. Our goal is for our invited participants to leave with more confidence, more knowledge, more relationships and some good work to show for their time in the lab. 

Bruce Tang is a comedy writer and improviser. His writing includes BBC’s Drop the Dead Panda and Comedy Central’s East Mode with Nigel Ng.

Growing up Calif Chong thought she would become a female version of Stephen Chow, making comedy films to cheer people up.

Christy Ku is a writer, poet, actor and workshop facilitator. She has been commissioned by the BBC, Sky Arts, Barbican and more.

Heidi Carmichael is a writer, performer and producer who loves creating, watching and championing comedy. She is proudly mixed British Filipino and grew up watching British sitcoms and sketch shows.

Jacqui Bardelang is a stage and screen actor, voice actor, director and drag king known ​as Sigi Moonlight. Credits include: Baldur's Gate 3, The ​Nevers, Modest, Mulan Rouge.

Hong Kong-born British actor Jemma Moore stars in the ITV thriller Red Eye as Jess Li and the award-winning horror film Host (2020). Her comedy short film Stalling It screened at BAFTA and BIFA-qualifying festivals.

Kevin Shen is a British East Asian and Asian-American actor and writer based in London. His plays have been longlisted for the Bruntwood Prize and shortlisted for the Theatre503 International Playwriting Award.

Martin F Wong is a writer selected for the All3Media/TV Foundation's New Writers Collective (2024) for his pilot Stand. As a third child (and failed attempt at a daughter) he tried to be funny to win parental approval. He failed, but has won awards for his short Highs and some other achievements his dad doesn’t remember.

Marty Quell is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, and performer from Ireland, now based in London. He plans to pursue a master's in screenwriting and is seeking to create a TV comedy about his spontaneous journey into acting.

Shannon Ong is a Singaporean-born actor who’s just graduated from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama under the BA Acting CDT course. She also dabbles in writing and stand-up comedy, and is an alumnus of the SOHO Theatre Writers' Lab.

Su Mi is a British Queer Malaysian Alt-Stand up Comedienne/Musician/Clown Drag performance artist. Sold out Banana Beard show at the Soho Theatre 2024, which has toured around the UK, including the Edinburgh Fringe. Winner of Keep it Fringe Fund 2023 and more.

Vera Chok (they/she) is a Philippe Gaulier trained actor, improviser, writer, and performance maker. Vera has played The National Theatre, West End, The Globe, and toured internationally.