Studio21 has announced the six finalists for its 2025 script competition, which is designed to uncover a hit microdrama.
The finalists were chosen from hundreds of entries to the competition, which set out to find series made up of two- to five-minute episodes, with a total of 40 to 60 episodes across the season.
Each project will be presented on Tuesday December 2, with the winning show being optioned to take out internationally by Studio21.
Synopsis
Dani is whisked away in the dead of night to a ‘troubled teen institution’ in Massachusetts. What she doesn’t expect is to wake up in an abusive camp run by the other teen inmates and a handful of staff, protected by corrupt law enforcement, legal impunity and political bribes. This twisty and fast-paced soap is a tale of danger and prison break, but also survival and healing – a Coming of Rage in shortform.
The writer
Steph Ouaknine is an award-winning producer and creative executive with a passion for telling queer stories that resonate.
She co-created and produced Carmilla, the award-winning multiplatform series that ran for 108 episodes and spawned a global and engaged community. Financed by U by Kotex, the series topped 100 million views, earning Ouaknine and the team accolades from Cannes Lion, Rocky Awards, Canadian Screen Awards, Webby and Streamy Awards. It also took home MipTV’s Brand Content of the Year, while Ouaknine’s favourite accolade is the sold-out hall at New York Comic Con and FanExpo.
Most recently, Ouaknine served as senior production executive on the limited series and coproduction team at Wondery/Amazon Studios, managing a slate of premium audio documentaries and coproductions.
First Is The Worst
By Caitlin Magnall-Kearns
Synopsis
Best friends Lisa and Finn navigate the messy firsts of adulthood in bite-sized comedy/drama episodes set in contemporary Belfast.
Plus-size and outspoken, Lisa is learning to take up space in a world obsessed with making her smaller. Dry-witted and unapologetically queer, Finn is charting his own path in a city trying to move forward. From first heartbreaks to first panic attacks, first spray tans to first nights out, they face it all together. But as they grow up, their unbreakable friendship faces its biggest tests. Will growing up mean growing apart?
The writer
Caitlin Magnall-Kearns is an award-winning writer from Belfast with a passion for telling unheard and underrepresented stories with warmth, humour and wit.
Following on from making it to the top 1% of applicants in 2023, she was selected last year from over 1,300 people to be a part of the BBC’s Comedy Collective 2024. She was also a member of BBC Belfast Voices in 2024. Her radio drama Safe Space aired in January 2025 on Radio 4 and was a pick of the week in The Observer, The Sunday Times, the Mail on Sunday and the Radio Times. Her play Trifled was recently one of just three scripts nominated for a prestigious Zebbie Award/Writers Guild of Ireland Award for Best Play.
Flagged
By Danielle Reid
Synopsis
When a government-mandated AI device designed to ‘support’ vulnerable families is installed in her home, a mother’s life begins to unravel. What starts as helpful reminders and parenting advice quickly becomes intrusive, as the system monitors her every move and manipulates her world. When her child is suddenly taken from her, she discovers there may be a sinister, hidden agenda behind the programme. Desperate and running out of time, she must fight a system that seems one step ahead, or risk losing her son forever.
The Writer
Danielle Reid is a London-based writer and filmmaker drawn to stories about outsiders and the social pressures that shape them, exploring themes such as loneliness, belonging and the quiet resilience of everyday lives. Her work spans drama, comedy and genre, with projects recognised by the BlueCat Screenplay Competition, Final Draft Big Break and WeScreenplay Labs. Her audio story MegaMarcus was produced by Wondery’s Little Stories Everywhere, her creature feature currently has an option agreement in discussion, and her comedy pilot was longlisted for the 2025 BBC Open Call, placing in the top 1.8% of more than 5,700 submissions.
Caledonia Dreaming
By Rachel Murrell
Synopsis
Caledonia Dreaming is comedy road movie in which a young London barmaid and a little old lady she’s only just met find themselves caught between rival crime families at a gangland wedding. Forced to flee in a stolen vintage wedding bus, they head for Scotland. But as they roll north, the barmaid discovers they have a stowaway onboard in the shape of a portly Elvis impersonator with a broken heart, the little old lady’s bag contains £1m in cash, and they are being followed by a car full of thugs intent on killing them.
The writer
Rachel Murell writes TV drama, comedy-drama and sitcom, and is a graduate of the 2023 Women in Film & TV Mentoring Scheme, where her mentor was the acclaimed writer Abi Morgan (The Split).
Known for her sassy sense of humour and pacy plotting, Rachel’s scripts have reached the finals of the BAFTA/Rocliffe New Writing Awards, the International Kids’ Emmys, the Children’s BAFTAs and the British Animation Awards. Her development slate includes a Scottish political thriller, a big-hearted sitcom and a drama about three badass older women fighting everyday sexism and lovin’ it!
Life Lessons
By Simon Warne
Synopsis
Life Lessons follows two grandparents, both 60, who decide to separate after decades together. As they wrestle with the fallout of their decision – part furious, part philosophical – they spend more time with their grandson, Jack, who comes round after school for half an hour each day before his Mum picks him up to take him home. Jack, at just 10 years old, is curious, fearless, and sometimes wiser than the adults. Together, the three of them embark on a series of no-filter chats about the big stuff: love, heartbreak, death, sex, failure, growing up and growing old, learning that wisdom flows both ways – and age doesn’t have a monopoly on the truth.
The writer
Simon Warne started writing for the theatre in his early 30s, beginning with a play about euthanasia written on his honeymoon, which grabbed the BBC’s attention, leading to commissions from Radio 4. He won the TAPS Comedy Award at BAFTA for writers new to television. Since then, he has written the book element of musicals and developed screenplays (mainly comedy and mainly for television).
His retirement village comedy Never Too Late, co-written with Lydia Marchant, was broadcast on 5 in November 2025 as part of the new Play for Today series. Two of his comedies have been shortlisted for the Studio 21 Drama Series Script Competition: Barking in 2020 and The Gay Street Chronicles in 2023. As an older writer, Simon champions stories with older characters at their heart. He was longlisted for the David Nobbs Memorial Trust award in 2025 for The Minder, a comedy about a carer for a man with dementia.
Three Little Words
By Megan Smith
Synopsis
Three Little Words is a bold and heartfelt microdrama that follows Faye, a woman in her
30s starting over after leaving an emotionally abusive marriage. The series is a collection of moments from the messy, funny and deeply human process of rebuilding a life. Balancing dark humour and heartbreak, Three Little Words explores modern womanhood. It is about learning who you are without him but with a full-frontal lobe… one small moment, and three little words, at a time.
The writer
Megan Smith is an emerging writer from Northumberland. Working across genres and spaces, she hopes to tell ambitious, character-led stories. Be A Darling, her first feature film, is in development with So Many Stories with support from North East Screen. Her first short film, Wool Coat, has won awards at multiple BIFA-qualifying festivals and was nominated for Best UK Short at Unrestricted View Film Festival.
Audio-wise, her anthology drama podcast SAGA was produced by Dice House Media.
Smith has been a part of the London Library Emerging Writers Programme, SEEFest Writers Lab, Drama International Film Festival Writers Lab and Watersprite Hubs. Her scripts have placed in competitions for Elevate 2025, the Sundance Development Track, Leftbank X NFTS Writers Rooms and the Jed Mercurio Mentorship scheme. She is currently working with Mike Leigh on his upcoming feature, having worked on Hard Truths previously.
