Background
My work sits at the intersection of filmmaking and media production, academic research on ethics and representation, and international development in post-conflict and high-risk contexts.
For much of my life I have been what people would call a “high-achiever.” Even when I tried to resist that label, I often ended up succeeding anyway. From a young age I learned to regulate myself through goals. When I was ten, I decided I would get into England Netball. By thirteen I had — and then turned it down. A year later I was selected again, and stepped away again. In hindsight, that pattern followed me for years: achieving remarkable things, sometimes walking away from them, always moving toward the next horizon.
Opportunities kept unfolding and I kept moving with them. I studied theatre and went on to set up an experimental theatre company. A documentary idea at 22 led me into filmmaking, and eventually into television, where I worked on developing the series that won Channel 5 its first BAFTA. Looking back, it sometimes felt like being a greyhound chasing the next marker — driven forward more by momentum than by intention.
Becoming a mother while studying for a fully funded PhD during COVID was one of the most transformative periods of my life. It disrupted the identity I had built around achievement and control and opened the door to asking different questions about who I was and why I worked the way I did. The quiet hours of writing and research, alongside the vulnerability of early motherhood, brought a new awareness of how deeply certain patterns shaped my thinking and creativity.
Over time I began to understand how much of my direction had been shaped by external goals — things to reach for, build, or prove — rather than by what genuinely felt aligned. Learning to slow down and ask a simpler question, “How does this actually feel?”, began to change the answers I was getting.
Over the past few years I have allowed many of the structures that once defined my career to fall away while I reassessed what really matters. That process has not always been easy, but it has been clarifying. In that space, I rediscovered parts of myself that had been quieter for a long time — curiosity, empathy, creativity, and a strong desire to contribute meaningful change to the world around me. My own creative practice, once something I held at a distance, has gradually become central again — not as an achievement to chase, but as a way of being more present and honest in the world. And at the heart of my purpose, though long unspoken, is a desire to help people and bring light into challenging contexts.
This reflection informs the path I am now taking: developing initiatives that combine my creative, research, and humanitarian work, while continuing to learn, create, and engage with the communities I serve.
Mothers in Displacement Initiative
Mothers in displacement are often among the most overlooked groups in humanitarian discourse. My time working inside refugee camps, combined with my own experience of motherhood, brought this reality into sharp focus. Witnessing the daily challenges faced by mothers — and the quiet strength with which they care for their children — deepened my commitment to making maternal experiences visible and exploring how my expertise could contribute to meaningful change.
Through essays, field engagement, public talks, and applied research, I have sought to understand how maternal agency shapes community stability, resilience, and long-term transformation in post-conflict and high-risk contexts. This maternal-led research is intended to inform policy, program design, and humanitarian practices — ensuring that the voices and needs of displaced mothers are heard, valued, and acted upon.
One way this work takes shape is through “Dear Mamma,” an initiative providing mother-and-baby packs to displaced mothers with children under two. These packs do more than supply hygiene products; they are small gestures of dignity and care, offering comfort during migration or displacement. Beyond meeting immediate needs, the initiative aims to raise awareness of breastfeeding challenges for migrating mothers and to amplify the often-invisible struggles they face — nurturing both the wellbeing and mental health of mothers and their children, while helping communities recognize the strength and resilience that maternal care brings to life in displacement.
Humanitarian and Media Systems
For over a decade, I have worked directly with NGOs, charities, and local leaders, contributing to projects and conversations that rethink storytelling, develop context-specific frameworks, and implement systems responsive to community needs and skills. I have convened roundtables and workshops with INGOs to identify challenges and co-create solutions for more ethical representation — helping organizations move beyond tokenism toward accountability, participation, and real impact.
Since 2009, I have also worked in television, film, and advertising, producing programming for some of the UK’s largest channels, including BBC, ITV, and Channel 5. I developed the program that won Channel 5 its first-ever BAFTA, gaining insight into how commercial systems of representation operate and how narratives shape perception, funding, and influence. These cross-sector experiences inform my humanitarian and academic work, giving me a broader understanding of how representation functions across both public and institutional systems.
A key part of my work is about challenging systems of representation and the power dynamics within them. My publications explore these themes: my chapter in The Handbook of Media Vocality (Oxford University Press) examines power in interviews, and my contribution to the co-edited book Strangers explores the invisibility of motherhood in displacement, questioning the structures and ethics that sustain it. Beyond analysis, I focus on designing participatory systems that redistribute authority and influence, implementing simple, practical structures that create long-lasting trust and change between vulnerable communities and the third sector.
Art Practice
My current work sits at the intersection of action painting and body art as an embodied practice, using the body itself as a brush or tool. I am inspired by artists such as Carolee Schneemann, as well as more “taboo” body artists like Ron Athey and Franko B, and even the movement and presence of Butoh. For me, art becomes the mark of an action — a sensation, a connection between space, body, and expression.
This lineage began for me in experimental theatre spaces such as Shunt Lounge, where, in darkness and amidst the unexpected presence of London rats, expression was free to explore itself, unjudged by a close and supportive artistic community. Early explorations of abstract vocal expression, including Futurist texts like Colori by Fortunato Depero, also shaped my understanding of embodiment and intensity in performance.
Some of these embodied practices also emerge from over 20 years of practicing and studying yogic philosophy, developing a daily practice that includes meditation and breathwork. Through this work, I have cultivated a deep sensitivity to mind, body, and spirit alignment. The intersection between art and movement — between inner experience and physical expression — honors the inclusivity of all bodies, including my own. As a qualified Vinyasa and Hatha yoga teacher, I am exploring where my own healing and embodiment lie — not in the commercialized yoga space, but in an offering that truly reflects my lived experience as a theatre practitioner and artist, informed by decades of practice in physical theatre, ancestral knowledge, and yogic philosophy.
Voice and Publications
I have directed and produced independent feature documentaries since I was 22, including About a War (2019) and The Olympic Side of London (2012), both deeply socio-political films. I have also directed shorts, such as the animated Done Dying (2020).
My written work ranges from chapters on the voice and Futurism, such as in 100 Years of Futurism (2018), to more recent publications exploring the non-linguistic voice in interviews (Documentary Interview and the Non-Linguistic Voice), which proposes alternative perspectives on power and authority in the interview process.
My co-edited book, Strangers, includes a script created by 13 Syrian women who undertook trauma therapy training with Laban Theatre Company in Beirut and performed the play they developed through this process. My chapter, “Invisible Mothers,” details the unique challenges faced by mothers in displacement.
Most recently, I have produced two podcasts: “Dear Mamma,” which explores the experiences of mothers in displacement, and “Ethics of Representation,” which examines the representation of vulnerable communities in the Third Sector, including special episodes recorded in Kenya.
Alongside my creative and research work, I have engaged in public speaking, workshops, and roundtables across diverse contexts. Early on, this included tours across Lebanon, where I spoke with former fighters from the Lebanese Civil War, exploring memory, narrative, and reconciliation.
I have also delivered lectures, workshops, and roundtables within academic and institutional settings, and across international platforms, including Chatham House and Women’s Entrepreneurship at the University of Surrey. These engagements allow me to bring research, artistic practice, and lived experience into dialogue with practitioners, policymakers, and communities, creating spaces for ethical discussion, participatory learning, and transformative insight.