Bella Heesom

Bella wrote episode 7 of SEX EDUCATION season 4 for Netflix.  She currently has TV projects in development with the BBC, NBCUniversal and Studio Lambert. She was one of 11 writers selected for the BBC TV Drama Writers Programme 2020, during which she worked with Firebird Pictures on a script commission for an original drama from the BBC. Since then, Bella has worked with a range of production companies, including Bad Wolf, The Ink Factory, The Forge, Sid Gentle Films, Happy Prince, Two Rivers Media and Mam Tor Productions. She’s also worked in audio drama, after being invited to write an episode of The People Outside, a fiction podcast in which she also performed. As a brown, bisexual woman and mother, and the daughter of a Black, disabled, lesbian, Bella is especially drawn to stories that centre dramatically rich characters that have traditionally been marginalised.

Bella began her creative career as an actor. After studying philosophy at the University of Cambridge, she trained at LAMDA, and has enjoyed lead roles and ensemble work in theatre, film and TV projects. In 2016, she founded theatre company All About You with Olivier Award-winning director and dramaturg Donnacadh O’Briain. She’s written two plays, both published by Oberon Books.

Bella’s bold debut play, My World Has Exploded A Little Bit is an autobiographical piece exploring grief, which mixes tender intimacy with philosophical debate and clownish silliness. It received acclaim at the Edinburgh Fringe 2016, went on an ACE supported national tour, and was Highly Commended by the awards committee at VAULT Festival 2017. Following this she was commissioned by Stylist magazine to make a video on the subject of grief and invited to give a Tedx talk on the value of vulnerability at Newnham College, Cambridge.

Bella‘s second show, Rejoicing At Her Wondrous Vulva The Young Woman Applauded Herself, is a celebration of female desire. Encompassing shame, pride, fury and liberation, it tells the story of a secret battle between a woman’s wildly uninhibited sexual appetite and her ego’s desperate need for approval. It premiered with an ACE supported run in the downstairs theatre at Ovalhouse in May 2019, to critical acclaim. (★★★★ ‘the glittering poetry in Heesom’s script, so vivid and visceral that sometimes the stagecraft feels redundant in comparison to the glory and guts of the words’ ‑ The Guardian)