Bunker Talk #156: Rachel Smith

Rachel Smith

Rachel Smith is a writer and performer living in the North West. She has written on many long running BBC TV series including DOCTORS, CASUALTY, FATHER BROWN, THE DUMPING GROUND, and has created and written dramas for BBC Radio 4. She wrote 3 episodes of political spy thriller RED ELECTION, now streaming on Disney+. She has been part of TV writers rooms developing series for Endor/Fox, Netflix, Subotica and Mopar Studios/Viaplay. She has original TV series in development, and she regularly teaches an online ‘Fundamentals of Screenwriting’ class for Script Writing North.

Rachel originally trained as an actor at MMU, working extensively for many years across film, TV and radio; and with theatre companies including Kaboodle, Sphinx Theatre, Manchester Royal Exchange, Contact Theatre, Library Theatre, National Theatre Studios and Birmingham Rep. After becoming a parent, she left acting behind to focus full time on their TV writing career. In 2023, she made a foray back into performance via stand-up and cabaret, and sold out her first split bill WIP show at Manchester’s Women In Comedy Festival in 2024. Rachel is currently developing her first solo theatre show, MOTHER DARK, supported by a DYCP grant from Arts Council England.

Bunker Talks

This event is part of Bunker Talks. Bunker Talks invite artists and researchers to talk about who they are and what they do. Curated by the Performance Research Group at Manchester School of Art, Bunker Talks explore geopolitical, ecological or economic concerns. The talks create space for critical encounters, presentations, provocation and dialogue.

Originally conceived in the pandemic to explore how artists, writers, curators and researchers continued to make and share their work, live Bunker Talks now take place at The Salutation every month. Since 2020, over 150 talks have been hosted by Performance Researchers and colleagues from across the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. All talks are recorded, edited, captioned and then archived to create an online catalogue, capturing how artists, makers and curators think about the world today. Find previous talks here: https://www.art.mmu.ac.uk/bunkertalks/

Main Event Contact and URL

Michael Pinchbeck m.pinchbeck@mmu.ac.uk

https://www.art.mmu.ac.uk/bunkertalks/talk-156/