The Making Of

Trish completed her BA in English and Drama in Swansea in 1974. From Swansea, Trish joined Granada Television and worked her way up from producer to become a global format leader. Trish is a highly influential television executive, best known for her leadership at FremantleMedia North America where she oversaw major entertainment formats like American Idol, X Factor and America’s Got Talent. In re...

Jonny Owen is a writer, actor, producer and filmmaker who graduated from Swansea with a BA in History in 1999, and received an Honorary Fellowship in 2023. As an actor he has appeared in Murphy’s Law, Shameless and Torchwood, while we created the cult series Svengali and won a Welsh Bafta for co-producing the documentary The Aberfan Disaster. He has also directed acclaimed sports documentaries, in...

Heather Koldewey is a marine biologist and conservationist who leads the Bertarelli Foundation’s Marine Science Programme at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL). She completed her PhD in Genetics at Swansea in 1992. Heather co-founded Project Seahorse in 1996 and spearheaded Net-Works, a project that recycles discarded fishing nets into carpet, supporting both conservation and local communities...

Raised in Lagos, Nigeria, Nonso graduated from Swansea University in 2016 with a BEng in Chemical Engineering. His career since has seen him develop as a singer, songwriter and producer celebrated for his evocative blend of Afro-R&B, alté and soul. He first broke onto the music scene with his 2015 EP Alone and the hit single “Tonight” has had 20 million streams on Spotify. Nonso’s music is deeply...

Renee is a celebrated Welsh surfer, broadcaster and documentary filmmaker. She graduated from Swansea in 2004 with a BSc Econ in Social Anthropology, and spent her student days catching waves before lectures, showcasing early on how deeply her life is rooted in the sea. A four-time Welsh surfing champion, Renee has combined her love of the outdoors with a passion for storytelling working on high-p...

Paul, who writes under the name Brian Bilston and rarely shows his face, graduated from Swansea with a BA in History in 1991. His poems have earned him the nicknames the 'Poet Laureate of Twitter' and the 'Banksy of Poetry', and he has published multiple collections, including You Took the Last Bus Home, Alexa and Days Like These. He has also written a novel, Diary of a Somebody, which was shortli...

Lara Hallett graduated from Swansea University in 2007 with a BSc in Psychology. Her career since has seen her work internationally in the USA, Europe and APAC, leading communication, and diplomacy teams around the world. Her most recent posting was in Los Angeles, where she served as British Deputy Consul General, overseeing the Consulate team to forge political, cultural, and economic ties betwe...