Creative Industries student and alumni success

Our students and alumni regularly receive industry recognition by winning major competitions during and after their studies, as well as achieving successful careers when they graduate.

Awards and prizes

A film by 2022 graduates of our BA (Hons) Film Production students has received recognition from various corners of the film industry. Roots (pictured) won the Bill Vinten Guild of Television Camera Professionals University Awards and Best Cinematography at Watersprite International Student Film Festival for Cinematographer Agata Kazmierczak, and was also selected for screening at Cambridge Film Festival. The film, directed by Ugne Jurgiatyte and co-produced by Joana Neves-Brito, tells the story of a young woman living in rural isolation who has to deal with the death of her mother.

BSc (Hons) Audio and Music Technology graduate Joseph Smith was named winner of ARU’s Alumni Contribution to Culture Award 2023 after touring the world with internationally acclaimed artists as a tour and production manager and providing sound experiences for prestigious venues and events like the Mercury Awards and Glastonbury Festival.

At the Royal Television Society East Student Awards 2023 (pictured) our students Martha Wallam (BA (Hons) Film), Kai Wissler and Chloe Kelly (BA (Hons) Film Production) won first place in the Entertainment and Comedy Drama category for their film Therapy, produced as part of a collaboration between ARU and Shakespeare’s Globe. This success follows on from the 2021 RTS Midlands Awards, in which our students won 3 of 9 categories, including the Sir Lenny Henry Award for Linda Biernaz; the 2020 RTSE Awards, where they won 4 of 9 prizes including Best Drama and Best Factual, and the 2019 RTSE Awards, where they won 6 of 10 student prizes.

BA (Hons) Drama student Leila Khan landed a part in Netflix series 'Heartstopper'. Leila takes on the role of Sahar Zahid in the second season of the critically-acclaimed show.

Christopher Buckenham, another BA (Hons) Film Production student, was awarded an Outstanding Contribution award at the National Youth Film Awards 2021 for his efforts in the film industry, after supporting the National Film Academy for a couple of years by attending meetings, providing input and making his own films.

A team of our BA (Hons) Film and Television Production students won the Winner Overall, Best Harvey Nichols Brief and Best Cinematography categories at the Kodak NAHEMI Commercials Student Competition Awards 2020 with their film The Gift of Time (pictured). The students were Michelle Siu (Writer and Director); Laura Elmer (Producer); Cameron Brown (Cinematographer); Assem Nugumanova (Sound and Stills, Photography); and Taylor Gorske (Runner).

MA Creative Writing graduate Tessa Byars won first prize in the Historical Fiction category of the Weald and Downland Story Competition for her short story The Second Mrs Turner. Guin Glasfurd, also a graduate of the MA Creative Writing, made the longlist of the 2021 Walter Scott Prize with her second book The Year Without Summer.

MA Film and Television Production student John Renney had his film Things That Happen selected for the 2020 NAHEMI Encounters film festival.

Penny Hancock, graduate of our MA Creative Writing and current Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow, won the East Anglia Novel of the Year Award for her latest novel, I Thought I Knew You, in November 2019. Penny has previously released three previous novels, Tideline (a Richard and Judy Bookclub pick in 2012), The Darkening Hour and A Trick of the Mind.

Solomia Dzhurovska, Luca Struijik, Jared Guy and Cristi-Valeria Tomsa (pictured), all BA Film and Television Production students, had their film 'Tertiary Sound' selected for the 2019 BFI London Film Festival, one of the world's most important film festivals. The film explored the phenomenon of Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response – the physical sensation provoked by small audio or visual stimuli.

MA Creative Writing graduate Anni Domingo won a 2019 Escalator Award and the Myriad Manuscript Prize 2018 for her book Breaking the Maafa Chain. The book was also shortlisted for the Lucy Cavendish College Fiction Prize 2014, and a hardback edition released in September 2021.

BA Popular Music students Maddy Soan, Frankie Soan and Rhiannon Harris (a.k.a. Pink Lemonade – pictured), won the Audience Choice Award at the NMG Awards two years running, in 2018 and 2019, before releasing their first EP "Take It Squeezy". You can watch the 'making of' video on YouTube.

MA Creative Writing graduate Caroline Ward Vine won the Costa Short Story Prize 2019 for her story Breathing Water, and the Bath Short Story Prize 2019 for A Gap Shaped Like The Missing. She has also been shortlisted for the Bath First Novel Prize 2021, the Mslexia Short Story Prize, the Bridport Prize, and the VS Pritchett RSA Prize.

Natalya Anderson, another of our MA Creative Writing graduates, won the Moth Poetry Prize 2017 with 'A Gun in the House', and the Bridport Prize for Poetry 2014 with 'Clear Recent History,' for which she was also Highly Commended in the Forward Prize for Poetry 2016. Her poems have been published in The Poetry Review, Poetry London, Arc Poetry Magazine, Prac Crit, The Moth, and The Forward Book of Poetry 2016, among others.

Psychedelic pop rockers Grass Roof (pictured), also known as BA Popular Music graduates Rayne Brown, James Turnbull, Ben Parker and Matt Abbott, won the 2019 Cambridge Band Competition at Cambridge Junction while still on the course. The band have also toured internationally with the The Ociees and released their first EP, Guyaka.

BA Writing and English Literature students Megan Walden and Nicoletta Ferdenzi were both shortlisted for the Wicked Young Writers Award 2019. Established by long-running musical Wicked, the competition inspires young people to look at life a little differently using their creative writing.

BA Popular Music graduate Anthony Rubery (pictured) won Best Male Solo Artist at the NMG Awards 2018, and has continued to make strides in his music career since graduating. His latest single, Devil, was released on 8 November 2019.

MA Creative Writing graduate Kaddy Benyon's first poetry collection, Milk Fever, won the Crashaw Prize and Granta New Poet in 2011. Her second collection The Tidal Wife was published by Salt in 2018. She currently works at the University of Cambridge, as a mentor to students with disabilities.

 

Alumni careers

What kind of roles do our students find after graduating?

Computer games

BA Computer Games Art

• Thomas Blunden, Junior Artist, Inkle.
• Owen Westfield, Senior Artist, Frontier Developments.
• Amy Hook, Animator, Frontier Developments.

BSc Computer Gaming Technology

• Josh Newland, Programmer, Frontier Developments.
• Ross Nicholas (pictured), Level Designer, Codemasters.
• Bogdan Muresan, Junior Gameplay Programmer, Ubisoft Romania.

MA Computer Games Development (Art)

• Holly Akrill, (Graduate and Associate Lecturer) Lead Artist Polyfox.
• Helen O'Dell, Concept Artist, WePlayVR/A.I Solve.
• Jacob Stromqvist, Vehicle Artist, Codemasters.

Film and Media

BA Film

• Ed Frost, Theatrical Marketing Executive – Curzon/Artificial Eye.
• Eleanor Bougie-Smith, Digital Marketing Expert/Professional Speaker/Digital Marketing Trainer.
• Kayleigh Barnes, Marketing Professional (works with Cambridge Film Trust).
• Jon Hazell, Junior Editor at VICE News.
• Seyi Odusanya, Screenwriter (worked as part of writers room for BBC/CBeebies).
• Shayne Thomas-Gordon, Sky Production Content Producer.
• Adam Marsh, Freelance 3play Operator.
• Alison Devlin, Content Producer/Charity Sector.
• Mike Cooper, Media and Film Studies Teacher at JCoSS.
• Charlotte Wibrew, Social Media Assistant.
• Elle Haywood, Account Executive/Freelance Film Reviewer.
• Charlotte Ross, Account manager twotogether (marketing/advertising).
• Zoë Warburton, Marketing Manager.
• Sean Seymour, Freelance TV/Film Floor Runner.
• Alex Turner, Camera Trainee and 2nd Assistant Camera Operator.
• Mel Francis, Senior Research Executive, Tokyoesque.
• Andrew Cloke, Colorist/Post Production.
• Alex Oliver, Freelance video Editor.

BA Film Production

• Gabi Kazuikonyte, VFX Coordinator for Vine FX
• Jaimie Richmond, Runner for 'Task Master', Avalon.
• Amber Gough and Paolo Sampson (2018), Autocue for 'BBC East'.
• Poppy Billet, Gallery Runner, '24 Hours in A&E'.
• Vicky Burrows, Junior Producer at Technicolor.
• Chris Anstey, Camera Assistant on 'Love Island' (NEP Group).
• Lily Bruce, Senior Talent Consultant at Aspire.
• Lucy Dear, Sports Production Co-ordinator, ITN Productions.
• Shona Murray-Smith, started with post-production house Molinare, then Freemantle Media on 'X-Factor', now Production Co-ordinator at Kingdom.
• Hayley Dean, Production Co-ordinator at Dock10.
• Sam Cornish, Production Executive with Genesius Pictures, developing feature films such as 'Mrs Lowry & Son" and "The More You Ignore Me"
• Pedro Riberio, freelance 1st Assistant Camera and Director of Photography work, with projects including '24: Live Another Day'; Ridley Scott's 'Exodus: Gods and Kings'; documentary 'World Cup 2014'. Now working in Australia with Network 10 and ABC.
• Amy Willet (BA and MA), started with BBC Natural History Unit, now Production Co-ordinator at Plimsoll Productions.
• Anne Evelin Lawford, successful freelance Director of Photography and Fine Artist shooting commercials and promos, as well as 2nd Unit Camera on feature films.
• Dean Dodds Ramsey, Script Supervisor on television and films including 'Kick-Ass 2'.
• Martin Galvin, Assistant Director on 'EastEnders' and 'Doctors'.

Music and Performing Arts

BA Drama

• David Alade (pictured) wrote and performed in Foxhunting at the Courtyard Theatre, a verbatim drama drawing on transcripts of interviews with South Londoners about their experiences of knife crime. David played the lead role of Thomas in Stormzy's short film Gang Signs and Prayer and recently starred in the West End transfer of The Fishermen, following the show's Stage Award-winning Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2018 run and two sold-out runs at the Arcola Theatre.
• Oliver Scott is an actor, theatre director and presenter on commercial radio; as part of a freelance career, he has also taught acting at schools and universities around the country. Oliver gained a first-class degree in Drama at Anglia Ruskin University before training as an actor at the Guildford School of Acting. Since graduating Oliver has worked extensively in theatre in Shakespeare, pantomime, plays and comedies. He has directed UK tours of The Wind in the Willows in 2018 and Alice in Wonderland in 2019. Oliver has also been the resident director of the annual pantomime at the Grange Theatre in Northwich, Cheshire for the last four years.

MA Music Therapy

• Jamal Glynn (pictured), first music therapist in the world to use steelpan, now working with Trinidad and Tobago Ministry of Health.

Creative Writing

• MA Creative Writing alumnus Leigh Chambers will publish her first book, Alice & Iris, through Neem Tree Press in June 2025. She is also presenter of Cambridge 105's Bookmark. Longlisted for The Lucy Cavendish Prize, and BPA First Novel Prize, and shortlisted for the Bath Novel Award.
• BA Writing and Film alumnus Joshua Winningis Contributing Editor for Total Film, Film Reviewer for The Guardian and Radio Times, and author of several books, including dark fantasy series The Sentinel Trilogy.

• Guinevere Glasfurd's first novel, The Words in My Hand (pictured), was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel award, the Author's Club Best First Novel and longlisted for the Prix du Roman FNAC. Her second novel The Year Without Summer is due to be published in 2020. Guinevere is currently writer in residence at Wicken Fen, the National Trust's oldest reserve.
• Kate Swindlehurst is Writer in Residence at Cambridge Botanic Gardens. Her first book The Station Master was shortlisted for the Caledonia Novel Award 2019. Her second, The Tango Effect: the Healing Power of Dance is due to be published through Unbound.
• Ben Langley's first novel Dead Branches was published in June 20019 by Bloodshot Books.
• Lynn Fraser's first novel, The Busy Mum’s Guide to Murder, was published by Orion in September 2019.
• Carole Concha Bell's longlisted for Hachette Publishers Mo Siewcharran Prize 2019.