SHAUN KITCHENER

HIYA.

I’m Shaun Kitchener, a BAFTA Rocliffe-winning, double Offie-nominated stage and screen writer; as well as a pop culture journalist/commentator and DJ. I am represented by Kat Buckle at Curtis Brown.

For screen, I have penned over 60 episodes of the soap Hollyoaks since 2017, including many LGBTQ+ moments such as Mitchell’s coming-out, and Peri and Juliet’s special trip to Brighton. I’ve also been a scriptwriter for three series of the MTV show Queerpiphany and written a made-for-TV movie. In 2023 I completed my first short film, Toothbrush, which I wrote and directed. It has been screened at BFI Flare, Romford Film Festival and FilmPride Brighton. My comedy pilot The Flop was a BAFTA Rocliffe winner.

For stage, I have written the official Steps jukebox musical Here & Now, which premiered in Birmingham in 2024 ahead of a major 2025-2026 UK and Ireland tour. My professional debut Positive (Waterloo East, then Park Theatre) – in which I also performed – received lovely reviews (“Akin to an exceptional sitcom” – The Stage; “Clearly, he’s a playwright to watch” – The Times) and an Offie nomination (Most Promising New Playwright); and my 2021 play All That was the Queer Season headliner at the King’s Head Theatre. That, too, picked up an Offie nod (Best New Play), as well as becoming a winner at the London Pub Theatres Awards (Best New Play Raising Awareness). I also had a short play – That’s Great! – tour East Anglia as part of Ink! Festival 2019, finishing in London’s West End; and through my own theatre company West Avenue I have self-produced several shows as well as the quarterly new writing night Briefs (Waterloo East, 2013-2019). A collection of my own short plays, Shaun Kitchener’s Six Pack, played at the Leicester Square Theatre in 2017; and most recently – in 2023 – my new piece Bradley One More Time was selected for a rehearsed reading at the A Pinch of Vault Festival.

I’ll be doing the Criterion New Writing scheme in 2025, having previously been through the Royal Court and Soho Theatre new writers’ programmes. In 2020-2021 I was part of the BFI Network x BAFTA Crew scheme; and also in 2020, I made it to the penultimate round of Screenshot, a competition run by Sister Pictures and Olivia Colman’s South Of The River.

I’m a former full-time entertainment journalist with bylines for several major publications, and still occasionally write opinion pieces for Metro. I also publish my own newsletter, Absolutely!, via Substack. On top of all that, I’m an occasional DJ: I launched the online pop music radio station Electric Angels, and regularly play with the long-running club night Push The Button at London’s Royal Vauxhall Tavern. I’ve also DJ’d at the Clapham Grand in support of Nadine Coyle, and at private functions.

Instagram @shaunkitchenerbentley

Bluesky @ShaunKitchener