TIME & LOCATION
About
Chair
SPONSOR
Panel
Actor, playwright and screenwriter
Tara Lynne O’Neill is a Northern Irish Writer & Actress for Stage and Screen. She wrote and starred in her debut play Rough Girls (Methuen Drama), which was commissioned by and performed at Lyric Theatre, Belfast and later filmed and broadcast on BBC Four. Tara has also written productions for The MAC, Belfast including NINOW100, A Christmas Carol and The Elves and the Shoemaker. Tara is well known for her acting roles in Derry Girls (Channel 4/ Netflix), Disco Pigs (Temple Films/ Irish Film Board) starring Cillian Murphy and Full Circle (Sunpath Pictures). She has also starred in a number of successful short films, including So You’re Going to Die, written by Oisín Kearney and the late Michael Patrick. Directed by Kearney, the film also starred James Nesbitt and Conor MacNeill.
Screenwriter,
Suzanne Cowie is a writer originally from Belfast. She has worked in television for over 20 years after graduating as a journalist. After working as a reporter and then Associate Producer for numerous television programmes and channels, she moved into drama in 2008, script editing over 100 episodes of ‘EastEnders’ and then working as a storyliner on ‘Emmerdale’ (ITV), ‘Taking New York’ (Channel 4), and ‘Blue Lights’ (BBC). As a writer, Suzanne has written for Paramount+ including ‘The Serial Killer’s Wife’ where she was head writer, and the thriller ‘Girl Taken’. She was also head writer on ‘Red Flag’, for Blackbox Multimedia and Channel 5 and is currently writing pilots for Wall to Wall Media and BBC Studios. She has also written for ‘Good Ship Murder: S2’ (Channel 5); ‘Casualty’ (BBC); ‘Hollyoaks’ (Channel 4); and The Dumping Ground (CBBC). In 2018, she was selected for Creative England’s prestigious iFeatures scheme. Suzanne is also a qualified counsellor, volunteering in her spare time in challenging schools and previously for Rape Crisis UK.
Screenwriter
Shannon is a screenwriter working across drama and comedy. Her work includes co-writing an episode of ‘Tall Tales & Murder: S2’ (RTÉ & BBC) with Chris Addison; writing an episode of ‘Goat Girl’ (Cartoon Network); providing additional materials for the new sitcom ‘Hopley Hall’ (BBC); and previously being part of writers’ rooms including the award-winning ‘Blue Lights’ (BBC) and the upcoming ‘The Galway Bay Murders’ (RTÉ and ITV). Shannon is currently a member of BBC’s Comedy Collective 2025, working with Merman. Her accolades include: selection for the Toronto International Film Festival Writers’ Lab 2026; CHANEL Women Creators’ Network Fellow 2026; BFI Network@LFF programme; BBC Voices; Zebbies Awards 2026 Nominee for ‘Best Short Film Script’; a DIFF Discovery Award 2026 nomination; Galway Film Fleadh’s ‘Bingham Ray New Talent’ Award nominee; development with RTÉ Storyland, StoryHouse LAB, and selection for the BFI London Film Festival Industry Panel spotlighting six exciting emerging screenwriters. Having previously written several short films, Shannon now has feature and TV projects in development with companies including Hat Trick and Blackthorn Films.
Screenwriter, playwright
Daragh Carville is a playwright and screenwriter originally from Armagh. Best known for creating and writing the ITV crime drama ‘The Bay’, it is now in its sixth season and has been sold to over 140 countries worldwide. Daragh’s other TV credits include ‘Being Human’ (BBC3), ‘6Degrees’ (BBC NI) and ‘The Smoke’ (Kudos/Sky One). His films are ‘Middletown’ starring Matthew McFadyen, Eva Birthistle and Daniel Mays and ‘Cherrybomb’ starring Rupert Grint, Robert Sheehan and Kimberley Nixon. He has also written for theatre, including numerous plays for Tinderbox Theatre Company, and radio, including ‘Regenerations’ (BBC Radio 3) featuring Tom Baker and Richard Dormer, which was nominated for the Richard Imison Award, and ‘Dracula’ (Radio 4, 2003) starring Michael Fassbender. Daragh has won both the Stewart Parker and the Meyer Whitworth awards for playwriting and has twice been nominated as Best Writer in the Irish Film and TV Awards. He teaches Scriptwriting at Birkbeck, University of London, and is a member of BAFTA and the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain.
Actor, writer, director and producer
John Connors is an Irish actor, writer, director and producer from the Irish Traveller community. He has written for the stage, television and cinema, including the box office hit ‘Cardboard Gangsters’, the critically acclaimed ‘Stalker’ starring Barry Keoghan, and ‘The Black Guelph’, which he also directed and which won Best Film and Best Actor at the Oldenburg International Film Festival. His writing often explores themes of identity, class, trauma and social injustice. His directorial work also includes ‘Endless Sunshine on a Cloudy Day’ which won the Audience Award at the Dublin International Film Festival and the Radharc Award. As an actor, he won an IFTA for Best Actor for ‘Cardboard Gangsters’ and the Seymour Cassel Award for ‘Crazy Love’. His recent screen credits include ‘The Gentlemen’, ‘Re-Creation’ and Werner Herzog's ‘Bucking Fastard’. Best known for his role in the crime drama ‘Love/Hate’, John will also appear in the upcoming ‘The Galway Bay Murders’ (RTÉ & ITV), where he worked as a storyliner in the writers’ room and as a Traveller consultant during production. John continues to write and develop projects across film, television and theatre.