Introduce Yourself : Hello, howdy, bonjour, hola, konnichiwa, namaste! by Fiona K Leitch

Hi everyone, I'm Fiona! I'm a screenwriter originally from London, via Cornwall, New Zealand (North and South Islands!) and back to the UK again - now in Hastings on the South Coast. I like to get around... I'm a sci-fi nerd, wannabe stand-up comedian and stalwart of the ultra-low budget TV commercial. I grew up wanting to act but soon realised I wasn't leading lady material - too short, too wide, with 'comedy sidekick' written all over me (luckily it washed off). I ended up behind the camera working on corporate Health and Safety videos (H & S is BIG in the UK) but was often called upon to appear on-screen too; my 'woman falling off a chair whilst attempting to retrieve something from a high shelf' reduced grown men to tears and is the stuff of Health and Safety legend... After moving to New Zealand I also appeared in several lower-than-low budget TVCs and am actually the Australasian face of a cleaning product called 'Sod Off'. Not a lot of people can say that. All this was Fate's way of telling me to give up the acting and concentrate on writing! I had a sitcom in development about 25 years ago with a major UK prod co but, after working on it for a year and not getting any further, we all hated it. Motherhood and Life in general intervened until about three years ago when I got my sh*t back together and started writing again! I've just completed a sci-fi thriller, which the lovely Stage 32 people let me pitch recently with some success, and which has progressed into the top 8% of a recent BBC Writers Room submission window - so now I'm just waiting for news! I've also written a werewolf comedy which I'm still tinkering with and am about to embark on a dark comedy thriller set in Venice (principally because it will give me an excuse to go back there in the name of 'Research'!). It's great to be a part of Stage 32 and get to connect with so many wonderful creative people!