BAFTA Breakthrough: Ellis Howard, Laura Carreira, Akinola Davies Jr. Among Rising U.K. Creatives

The BAFTA Breakthrough 2025 U.K. creatives have been unveiled, and they include the likes of On Falling writer-director Laura Carreira, What It Feels Like for a Girl star Ellis Howard, Akinola Davies Jr., the director and co-writer of U.K. international Oscar submission My Father’s Shadow, Matty Gurney, the star of BBC revenge thriller Reunion, and in the games categroy: Cara Ellison, writer and narrative designer of Ghost Town and Sally Beaumont, lead voice actor/script consultant/additional writer of Old Skies.

“BAFTA Breakthrough, supported by Netflix, is BAFTA’s flagship new talent initiative to accelerate extraordinary people working in games, TV and film who are on the cusp or in the midst of a breakthrough moment or year,” BAFTA highlights. “Now in its 12th year, Breakthrough remains an essential part of BAFTA’s mission to inspire and nurture creative talent, and a hugely significant part of our overall narrative and year-round activity. From facilitating key meetings with BAFTA’s global membership and key industry figures, to coaching and career development, BAFTA Breakthrough is unique and hugely successful.”

Past BAFTA Breakthrough artists have included such stars as Florence Pugh, Josh O’Connor, Ambika Mod, Rose Ayling-Ellis, Bella Ramsey, Letitia Wright, Paapa Essiedu, Jessie Buckley and Tom Holland.

This year’s U.K. cohort covers craft specialists from costume design, production, casting, editing and games design, to performance, writing, directing, composing and cinematography. The creatives “have worked on some of the most acclaimed creative projects from the last year,” BAFTA said.  

“It is an absolute pleasure to welcome this year’s outstanding participants of BAFTA Breakthrough,” says Jane Millichip, CEO of BAFTA. “For 12 years, this BAFTA talent program has supported creatives and practitioners in film, games and television to navigate the often complex corridors of the screen arts. I am enormously grateful to Netflix for their continued support of BAFTA and for their shared passion and commitment to providing opportunity and career pathways for U.K. talent from all backgrounds.” 

Added Anne Mensah, vp, U.K. content at Netflix: “Netflix is passionate about supporting and uplifting the next generation of talent from across the industry. The Breakthrough U.K. cohort announced today comprises such an exciting range of names, and it is an honor to continue to support an initiative that will help these brilliant creatives build connections, improve confidence, and ultimately launch the next phase of their careers.”

Millichip highlights how the initiative fits into the cross-career work of the organization. “At BAFTA, we work at all levels,” she tells THR. “We start working with talent in schools, with our schools outreach program. We then move into bursaries for Kickstarter programs, scholarships and then we start to look at the mid-career work that we can do. And Breakthrough is about that, really. It has a real breadth of talent across film, games, and television.”

The artists selected may have had a big moment, but BAFTA and Netflix want to help them with their next career steps. “It’s taking people who’ve had, as the title suggests, a breakthrough moment, a key project that they have broken new ground with, received great credits for, and it’s really about picking them up at that point in their career and saying, ‘What do you need next? How can we help you?’” explains Millichip. “Because managing your own career, particularly in a freelance environment, can be very difficult. … You’ve had a breakthrough moment, and what you do next with your career is really important, not only to you, but to the people you work with. So, we’re really proud of Breakthrough, and we work really closely with Netflix on how we design the program to make sure it is as impactful as possible for our participants, but also it’s where they take that and pay it forward.”

Concludes the BAFTA CEO: “The important thing about Breakthrough is not just the impact that BAFTA can have on the cohort, it’s the impact that the cohort has on the industry and the public.”

She adds that those who have gone through past Breakthrough experiences can then give back to others. “None of them has pulled up the ladder behind them,” highlights Millichip. “They are all reaching down to bring others with them, to share their knowledge, to break new ground, and that’s what BAFTA is about. The biggest impact is the impact they have on the industry.”

Check out the full list of the 2025 BAFTA Breakthroughs below:

FILM

Akinola Davies Jr – Director/Co-Writer (My Father’s Shadow) 

Laura Carreira – Director/Writer (On Falling)

Marie-Elena Dyche – Producer (Harvest)

DOCUMENTARY

Megumi Inman – Co-Director/Producer (Atomic People)

Olaide Sadiq – Director (Grenfell: Uncovered)

Pinny Grylls – Director/Writer/Editor (Grand Theft Hamlet)

TV

Alderney Middleton – Series Producer (Maddie + Triggs)

Ellis Howard – Performer (What It Feels Like for a Girl)

Jodie-Simone Howe – Costume Designer (Mr Loverman)

Nathaniel Price – Writer/Associate producer (Mr Loverman)

Matty Gurney – Performer (Reunion)

Nathalie Pitters – Director of Photography (Brian and Maggie)

Owen Tooth – Director (EastEnders)

Stephanie Taylor – Composer (The Search for Nicola Bulley)

Vivian Eguridu – Senior Casting Producer (Love Is Blind U.K. season 1)

GAMES

Cara Ellison – Writer and Narrative Designer (Ghost Town)

Kyle Banks – Lead Developer/Lead Writer/Lead Artist/Director (Farewell North)

Mark Choi –  Composer/Orchestrator/Pianist (Empire of the Ants)

Sally Beaumont – Lead Voice Actor/Script Consultant/Additional Writing (Old Skies)

Stanley Baxton – Solo Developer (Latex, Leather, Lipstick, Love, Lust)