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Rob is responsible the overall direction of Ministry of Stories, leading the organisation with a mixture of mischief and mastery. With a career in the arts and creative learning, Rob is inspired by the ideas and imaginations of children and young people, and the power of their voices to make change in the world. He is also a Director for our fantastical shop, Hoxton Street Monster Supplies.
Jessica has over 20 years experience facilitating creative workshops for children and young people. Her background is in youth theatre and she has an MA in Applied Theatre from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. As a playwright (Jessica Fisher), she won the 2010 Nick Darke Award and Pilot Theatre’s 2012 Generation Zed competition. Jessica’s play Ghost Town toured nationally in 2014. More recently, she has had prose published in Aesthetica Magazine’s annual anthology. Jess manages our community writing programme and works part time hours Mondays to Thursdays.
Mayo is a writer of magical stories for children of all ages. His short story We Must Slay Giants was featured on the BBC sounds podcast, Margins to Mainstream with Michael Sheen. His writing has won a number of awards including a London Writers Award and the 2023 Mo Siewcharran picture book prize. When not writing he can be found enjoying all things fantasy, sci-fi and anime.
At Ministry of Stories he runs the Saturday creative writing labs where he helps young writers explore their limitless imaginations and is constantly thrilled by the brilliant stories they come up with.
Jenny says ‘wow’ a lot, particularly during the Wednesday and Thursday community writing labs at Ministry of Stories where the young writers’ imaginations are out of this world.
She writes novels for 8-12 year olds including the A Month of Magic series published by UCLan and Simon & Schuster. When not writing, Jenny cycles around on a very rusty yellow bike, eats a lot of ice cream and works as Writer in Residence at Mayfair Library and other beautiful and strange places, mostly on this planet.
Cath loves bringing arts facilitators and teachers together to make creative spaces for children and young people to imagine and tell their stories, in their own way. Before joining the Ministry of Stories she worked for many years in theatre and drama education. As well as her work at the Ministry, alongside Jane her job share partner, she is training to be a Feldenkrais teacher
Oliver is a writer and arts administrator from London. His poetry has been published in magazines, most recently The Rialto & Ambit, and his debut pamphlet, Haptics, was published in 2023 by Broken Sleep Books. He is a member of the 2022/23 Southbank New Poets Collective. He’s been working with artists and arts organisations since 2014 to help creative people find their voices and audiences, and brings this experience to Ministry of Stories, working with trusts and foundations to help young people realise their potential as creative writers.
Thea has been working in arts marketing for more than ten years. She is passionate about inspiring and engaging new audiences. She’ll go the extra mile to tell great stories and create exciting content, including taste testing Hoxton Street Monster Supplies’ fresh batches of Seasonal Bogies. Thea supports us on a freelance basis on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
Relatively new to the world of monsters, Regan hopes to be able to support London’s monster population by offering them the finest supplies Igor has to offer. Monstrously managing our volunteer shopkeepers – he’s closing the gap between the human and monster community – one step at a time. When not working in Hoxton Street Monster Supplies, Regan loves listening to music and discovering new songs. He also writes, produces and performs music across London – aspiring to one day inspire the youth of London. Regan works Tuesdays – Fridays in our Hoxton store.
Tegan’s a teller of tales and an alliteration aficionado. She has experience working in both youth and arts organisations and is a strong believer in empowering young people through creativity. Outside of work her hobbies include making tasty lattes and touching her nose with her tongue, however, when she is at work she spends the majority of her time in absolute awe of our volunteers and their dedication and support to Ministry of Stories.
Jack of all trades and master of roast potatoes, Rowan has worked across a range of arts organisations in admin and operations. Rowan is delighted to have found herself amongst the wonderful team at Ministry of Stories, where she is endlessly amazed and motivated by the talent of London’s best young writers.
Lina is a spirited adventurer hailing from the enchanting city of Riga, where she developed a fascination for the fantastical and the bizarre. During a journey abroad, she stumbled upon the Hoxton Street Monster Supplies and immediately felt a kinship with its quirky charm. Volunteering there, Lina immersed herself in the world of monsters and magical creatures, learning the ropes of retail with enthusiasm and dedication. Now, as a full-fledged Retail Assistant, Lina brings a touch of Baltic charm and a wealth of international flair to the shop, ensuring that every visitor leaves with a smile and a sense of wonder.
Alistair, one of the co-founders of the Ministry of Stories, is responsible for our overall look of Hoxton Street Monster Supplies; he also oversees a team of fantastic volunteer designers. He has been running his own graphic design studio, We Made This, for more than fifteen years. Alistair supports us a few days/month.
Michaela became Chair in November 2021 after serving five years on the Board as Vice Chair. Currently, Partnerships and Impact Director at the Roundhouse, and following a brief period in the commercial sector, Michaela has more than 20 years’ experience in the charity and arts sector. Having started her fundraising career at the National Theatre she moved into the charity sector before joining the Roundhouse in 2012. Michaela joined Ministry of Stories in 2016 and is a member of our Finance and Fundraising and Business and Programme Sub Committees. She also holds the role of trustee at UN Women UK.
Chantelle is a Finance Business Partner for Investments at Tesco PLC. She has over 12 years experience across Practise and Industry.
Chantelle started her finance career in investment banking and retail, working at a boutique investment bank, and subsequently at Kelloggs’s.
Following from this, Chantelle has six years experience in Audit, where she focussed on external audits for a mixed portfolio of clients, including retail, media and creatives, and financial services. Whilst working in practise, Chantelle qualified as an ICAEW Chartered Accountant.
Since qualification, Chantelle has returned to the retail sector, working at Tesco PLC, with roles across financial control, FP&A and strategic business partnering.
In her spare time, she enjoys travelling, hiking, cooking, and spending time with family and friends.
Philip is a Partner at international law firm, Field Fisher, and a senior practitioner in corporate and commercial law, with particular emphasis on cross-border mergers and acquisitions, sophisticated private equity transactions, takeovers, strategic investments, joint ventures, restructurings, refinancing, buyouts and exit strategies.
Philip advises corporates, family offices and private equity investors both in the UK and internationally, across a wide range of industries. His expertise spans the media and telecommunications, retail, hospitality and leisure, education, luxury brands and fashion, technology and financial services sectors.
For close to 25 years Philip has developed an active charity practice and has considerable experience advising high-profile UK charities and not-for-profit organisations including The Roundhouse Trust, the Design Museum, The Saturday Club Trust, the Creative Industries Federation, Blood Cancer UK and Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance.
Anya does what the Ministry of Stories does for children, just for adults. And she’s done this throughout her career. As the founder of Winning Language Ltd, she helps companies change the conversations they have with their customers and teams by changing their language. As a Language Director at KPMG, she helped people win work by making their words more compelling. As Account Director at The Writer, she helped to change culture in multinationals by changing how people write and speak. She’s a firm believer in the positive power of language to change people, businesses and children’s prospects. Anya joined the Ministry of Stories Board in 2019.
Born in Nigeria, Inua Ellams is a poet, playwright & performer, graphic artist & designer and founder of: The Midnight Run (an arts-filled, night-time, urban walking experience.), The Rhythm and Poetry Party (The R.A.P Party) which celebrates poetry & hip hop, and Poetry + Film / Hack (P+F/H) which celebrates Poetry and Film. Identity, Displacement & Destiny are reoccurring themes in his work, where he tries to mix the old with the new: traditional African oral storytelling with contemporary poetics, paint with pixel, texture with vector. His books are published by Flipped Eye, Akashic, Nine Arches, Penned In The Margins, Oberon & Methuen. Inua has been a patron for Ministry of Stories since we founded in 2010 and joined the Board in 2023.
Keji specialises in youth engagement and programme design; she combines her knowledge of the youth sector and coaching as well as her personal brand of creativity for organisations including HUDL Youth Development Agency, Esmee Fairbairn’s Involving Young People Collective, Mission44, and more. She uses her close links with Hoxton’s local community to strengthen Ministry of Stories’ community partnerships and collaboration.
Rebecca joined Hoxton Street Monster Supplies as a Non Executive Director and Chair in 2019. Currently Director of Commercial and Operations at Sir John Soane’s Museum, her previous roles include at the Design Museum, National Portrait Gallery, Tate, and Farrow & Ball. Her passion is making money for a good cause inspired by her first job at BRAC in Bangladesh.
Joining Hoxton Street Monster Supplies as a Non Executive Director in 2023, Deborah brought with her an extensive background in community-led place making, marketing and economic development. With a career defined by launching and managing award-winning community food markets and pop-up stores, Deborah has honed her skills in profit-for-purpose projects. Deborah’s impressive track record spans over two decades, where she has orchestrated unique initiatives and her vision for Hoxton Street Monster Supplies is grounded in a deep understanding of what it means to create vibrant, thriving communities where purpose-driven endeavours flourish.
Vidal’s passion is unlocking the potential of individuals and groups through a combination of deep learning and deep connection. He does this in his day job as COO of IVY with organisations around the world, but also tries to bring the same mindset to all his interactions. Prior to joining IVY, Vidal was COO of Kano Computing, a quirky group of technologists dedicated to reorienting young peoples’ relationship away from consumption and toward creation through innovative hardware-software experiences like the Kano Computer Kit, the Harry Potter Coding Kit, & Kano World, a “Github for kids”. Vidal became a Non Executive Director for Hoxton Street in 2023, then also a Trustee for Ministry of Stories in 2024
Duncan is currently Deputy Head at Henry Maynard Primary School in Waltham Forest. He has worked in schools in Newham, Tower Hamlets and Hackney for more than ten years and has a deep understanding of both the challenges faced by young Londoners and their amazing potential. Duncan is committed to ensuring that creativity and imagination retain their central place in children’s education due to its essential role in their development into empathetic, articulate and emotionally-literate adults. Duncan started as a volunteer, then became a trustee in 2016. Following his retirement from the Board in 2022, he is proud to continue to support as an Expert Advisor.
Gerard has a background in grant assessment and grant making and work works for several foundations and grant-giving organisations. He has a Masters in Creative Thinking and runs workshops on fostering imagination and creative thinking in colleges in London. He is a Fellow of both the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust and the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) and was the first recipient of the RSA’s Onians Creativity Fellowship. As well as volunteering as an expert advisor on the finance and fundraising committee, he is a regular writing mentor with Ministry of Stories’ community writing programme on Saturdays.
Nicole has worked in primary education in Tower Hamlets for the last 20 years. She currently works for Tower Hamlets Education Partnership as the primary curriculum lead for English. Nicole is known for her commitment to ensuring high-quality teaching and learning of spoken language, reading, and writing for all young people. She achieves this through overseeing English central training and development; supporting and delivering in-school school improvement; and developing English Subject Leaders borough-wide. From the moment she stepped into her first classroom, Nicole has been making books with young people. The list is wide and varied but at the heart is children’s voices and their love of writing, telling and sharing stories, and being successful.
Nick is the author of six novels, including High Fidelity and About a Boy. He has also written three works of non-fiction, including Fever Pitch. He wrote the screenplay for the film An Education, for which he was nominated for an Oscar. Nick was a journalist and an English teacher before becoming a writer.
Nikesh is the author of Coconut Unlimited, which was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award 2010, and Meatspace. In 2013 he released The Time Machine, which won the Best Novella at the Sabotage Awards. His short stories have featured in Best British Short Stories 2013, The Sunday Times and BBC Radio 4.
Born in Nigeria, Inua Ellams is an award winning poet, playwright & founder of the Midnight Run. Identity, Displacement & Destiny are reoccurring themes in his work in which he mixes the old with the new, traditional with the contemporary. His books are published by Flipped Eye, Akashic, Nine Arches & Oberon.
Sophie is the author of novels The Wedding Girl, Cocktails for Three and the best-selling Shopaholic series. Her books have been translated into over 30 languages her novel Confessions of a Shopaholic was adapted into a film starring Isla Fisher.
Laura is a performance poet, author, illustrator and short story writer. She is the author of the series of books ‘Darcy Burdock’ for young readers.
Riz is an actor and rapper known for his roles in films Shifty and Four Lions. As Riz MC, he has been championed by BBC Radio1 – on the ‘Introducing’ stage at Glastonbury, the Electric Proms, and a Maida Vale session – and toured the USA, playing shows from Fabric to the Royal Festival Hall with the likes of Massive Attack, Nitin Sawhney, Dizzee Rascal, and Mos Def.
Charlie Higson is an author, actor, comedian and writer for television and radio. He wrote the Young Bond series, which has now sold over a million copies in the UK and has been translated into over 24 different languages. Charlie is a huge fan of horror films and books, and even studied gothic literature at university.
David is the author of four novels including One Day and Us. His TV credits include penning an updated version of Much Ado About Nothing with Damien Lewis and Sarah Parrish and an acclaimed adaptation of Tess of the D’Urbervilles starring Gemma Arterton and Eddie Redmayne. He has been twice nominated for BAFTA awards.
Meera Syal is a writer, comedian, playwright and actress. She co-writes and is a cast member of the popular BBC Television comedy series ‘Goodness Gracious Me’ and The Kumars at No. 42′. She also works as a journalist and is a regular contributor to The Guardian.
Zadie is the author of four novels including ‘White Teeth’ and ‘On Beauty’ which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and won the 2006 Orange Prize for Fiction.
Co-founder of Second Home and and co-founder and chairman of Spacious, Rohan was formerly a senior policy adviser for the government.
Born in Hackney, Linda became one of the most recognised names and voices in the British folk rock movement of the 1970s and 1980s, in collaboration with her then husband and fellow British folk rock musician, guitarist Richard Thompson, and later as a solo artist.
Charles is a leading authority on innovation and creativity. He has advised companies, cities and governments around the world on innovation strategy and drew on that experience in writing his latest book ‘We-think: the power of mass creativity’.
Dominic is an actor known for his roles in, among others, ‘History boys’, ‘Mamma Mia!’, ‘An Education’ and ‘The Dutchess’.
Rachel is a journalist and writer. Born in Sheffield, the daughter of a university lecturer, Cooke attended Oxford University, before beginning her career as a reporter for The Sunday Times.
Sandra is a storyteller, writer, playwright, poet and cultural historian. She has worked in a range of organisations including art galleries, community groups, forests and libraries. Sandra was the Centenary Storyteller for the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre. Sandra has led our community programmes, including the Awfully Bad Guide to Monster Travel series with fellow facilitator Laila. Sandra’s non-fiction book, ‘Trailblazers: Harriet Tubman’ was released in 2019.
Gem is a creative powerhouse with a passion for educating and empowering young people and marginalised voices. She’s also worked professionally as a performer, writer, producer and film festival director and aims to bring joy and laughter into every project she undertakes. She was Ministry of Stories’ first ever writing facilitator and recently developed our comedy sketch writing programme in schools.
Maheni is a poet, freelance writer and facilitator from South East London. As a poet and performer, her work explores what it means to be human in an ever changing and confronting world, drawing on her own personal experiences and understandings of relationships, identity, womanhood, mental health and social culture. Maheni has been part of Stockroom theatre company’s writers room since 2021, co-writing for theatre productions around the UK. Maheni was a participant of the Ministry of Stories’ Writing Facilitator Trainee Programme.
Zoe is a writer, theatre-maker and facilitator. Their favourite things to do are telling stories with young people and writing for live performance. Alongside this, she writes and researches games for interactive theatre company Coney, deputy edits Noises Off magazine for the National Student Drama Festival, and most recently co-produced Rooted In, a day of creativity and climate action for Gate Theatre. They are proud to be a facilitator and access worker for Half Moon Theatre and the Young Coneys. Zoe was a participant of the Ministry of Stories’ Writing Facilitator Trainee Programme.
Justin Coe is a poet, writer and spoken word theatre-maker, specialising in work for young audiences. He tours his theatre shows nationally and his collections The Dictionary of Dads (2017) and The Magic of Mums (2020) are published by Otter-Barry Books. He has enjoyed working in educational and community settings for over twenty years, facilitating numerous creative writing projects, most recently specialising in intergenerational work.
Michael is a writer, artist and teacher based in London. His most recent book, An Attempt to Exhaust a Place in Grand Theft Auto was published by Studio Operative. Michael’s work (covering video, sculpture, text) has been exhibited at LACMA, St Gallen Switzerland and Le Plateau, Paris. He has given talks internationally, most notably at the New Museum NY and the BFI, London. He teaches creative writing at Grasmere Primary School with “Spaghetti Club,” which was voted “Best 10 Exhibitions in UK/Ireland for 2020” by Frieze Magazine.
Bronia is a storyteller, performer and facilitator. She is also a designer and maker of performing objects, including kinetic illustrations and puppets. She has facilitated story-based creative projects with people of all ages, and especially enjoys working with children and young people. Bronia most recently worked with Ministry of Stories on a project based around the inspiring collection of true tales, Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls.
Keith is a poet, fiction writer, playwright and educator. He is the author of two books of poetry, Selah (Burning Eye Books, 2017) and I Speak Home (Eyewear, 2015) and the play Safest Spot in Town (2017). He holds a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of London, exploring Caribbean Pentecostal culture in London. He developed Ministry of Stories’ speech writing programme, Speak Up.
Becky is a creative facilitator in schools and the community. She loves co-creating opportunities to imagine, tell, write and share stories through the use of drama. Becky spent 25 years as a primary school teacher going on lots of adventures with incredible children and their families. She has extensive experience of supporting young people who have English as an additional language and advocates continually for inclusive education. Becky recently completed post graduate studies in theatre for community and education, with a particular interest in the connection between the arts and well-being.
Jaime is a poet, playwright and screenwriter from the Isles of Scilly. Their poems have been published in fourteen works, Impossible Archetype, Signal House Edition, and the anthology Cornish Modern Poetries by Broken Sleep Books, among others. Jaime was a BBC New Creative and is a recipient of the FylmK Award and The Squint Playwriting Award 2023. Jaime has a special interest in demystifying poetry and finding play in their workshops. Jaime was a participant of the Ministry of Stories’ Writing Facilitator Trainee Programme and can’t wait to continue building their creative facilitation practice.
Michael is a published children’s author in the UK and US and a primary school teacher. His debut, Ghostcloud, is a magical adventure for ages 9+ and was one of Waterstones best children’s books of 2021, as well as a Guardian pick and a BookTrust book of the month. He was a winner of SCBWI’s Undiscovered Voices 2022, a London Writer’s Award, and has a 1st class degree in Social Anthropology. He’s half-Indian and passionate about diversity in children’s literature, and can be found playing board games when he’s not busy losing his wallet.
Linden is a poet, performer, fiction writer and Ministry of Stories Writing Facilitator. They also like baking elaborate desserts, making pottery and reading sci fi novels, and first joined the team as a volunteer writing mentor in 2018.
Michelle is a director, writer/maker and actor, working across different forms of storytelling – from devised work, to live literature, scripted plays, and stories for audio and digital platforms. She has taught, tutored and worked with young people in a variety of contexts – from primary school students through to under/post graduates – online, in person, and through schools and community groups. She worked with The Children’s Literacy Charity community programme, designed for children living in Westminster, and delivered storytelling workshops on short form video for communications’ charity The Media Trust in schools and community organisations across London and Essex.
Joanna is an Australian essayist, librettist and theatre maker based in London. She writes primarily about nationhood and identity through the lens of landscape and horticulture, and also does land-based work as a grower. Joanna has been involved in theatre projects with the Globe, the Schaubühne, the Barbican Centre, and the Hampstead Theatre, and has written two chamber operas. In 2019 she represented the UK as the British Council Young Artist Delegate to the prestigious Séminaire en Avignon residency, as part of the Avignon Festival. She was shortlisted for the 2021 Fitzcarraldo Editions Essay Prize.
Laura is a Poet and Creative Facilitator from Hull. Laura moved to London to complete her MA in Applied Theatre from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, and has worked with Hull Truck Theatre, the National Literacy Trust, several London theatres and Mousetrap Theatre projects, where she is a creative associate. She has delivered drama and creative writing projects in various settings including schools, day care centres, homeless activity centres, colleges, prisons and theatres.
Autumn is a creative facilitator, writer and poet. They’re particular interested in the ways that creative writing can be used to help people talk about the things that matter to them – from working with young carers to write performance poetry about financial literacy, to running intergenerational LGBT+ storytelling workshops and building immersive experiences to engage families in the climate change conversation. Autumn recently completed an MA in Education & Creative Writing at Goldsmiths and is a Bridport Prize shortlisted writer, with poetry published regularly across independent media.
Laila is a poet, editor, performer and educator who works with schools, hospitals, museums, galleries and charities on a wide variety of poetry projects. Laila fearlessly co-edited the Monster Travel Guide series on sale in Hoxton Street Monster Supplies with fellow Ministry writer Sandra A Agard collating creative work from the Writing Labs and leading workshops on international monsters! She leads teacher training sessions specialising in diversifying creative writing practice and on how to explore history through poetry. She co-founded Poetry Vs Colonialism – an arts and education organisation who help learners of all ages unravel the histories of empire creatively.
Shenelle is a freelance writing facilitator and mentor with over ten years experience of working within the Education and Community sectors working with a diverse range of participants. She loves how creative writing challenges perception, promotes open mindedness and supports mental, physical and emotional wellbeing, seeing it as a language spoken and unspoken, mutually understood, or singularly interpreted.
Phoebe (she/her) is a poet and community artist. Her work explores politics in the personal through collaborating with people. She published her debut pamphlet The Body You’re In with Bad Betty Press in 2019. Her love of trainers inspired her to establish Crep Project, an arts collective exploring the identity, creativity and community in sneaker culture with working class people. In 2021, she was nominated for the Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowship and was commissioned for Helen Kirkum’s London Fashion Week show. She’s part of the Poetry Translation Centre’s Polylingual Poets Please programme, a Barbican Young Poet and Visual Artist.
Kerri is an American who has been residing in London for 15 years. Kerri worked in finance for HSBC and Morgan Stanley, and then had a 15 year career as an administrator for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. Since moving to London she has been active in a variety of nonprofit organisations involved in education, theatre, and youth sports.
Cathy is an expat living in London. Her work experience ranges from corporate advertising, PR, and marketing to extensive volunteer work and Board leadership positions for local and national charities.
Maureen is a US lawyer who has been living in London for 7 years. Maureen works as a volunteer advisor for Zacchaeus 2000 Trust representing individuals with debt and housing issues.
Charles is a leading authority on innovation and creativity. He has advised companies, cities and governments around the world on innovation strategy and drew on that experience in writing his latest book We-think: the power of mass creativity.
Liam is Chief Technology Officer for the British Government. His team within the Government Digital Service is responsible for technical leadership across government and for identifying the technologies required to deliver great digital public services.
Charlotte is Director of Development at the Royal Academy of Arts. She previously worked as Director of Creative Development at Outset Contemporary Art Fund, and in the curatorial departments at The National Gallery and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Liz is a Government Relations expert with 20 years experience working in the tech industry in the U.S. and UK. She is passionate about increasing opportunities for young people in STEM subjects and more broadly through organisations like the Ministry of Stories.
