EDI Advisory Group Refreshed & Refocussed

Amanda is an award-winning arts consultant, and columnist for theatre news publication The Stage.

She’s led award-winning campaigns across education, broadcast, arts and culture – including as Director of the London Short Film Festival and Editor of Arts Professional magazine.

As CEO of Inc Arts UK, the national collective which from 2019 – 2022 Parker advocated for the creative, contractual and economic rights of the UK’s ethnically diverse arts sector workforce.

Previous EDI campaigns include driving the BBC’s recruitment and awareness campaign for the launch of BBC Radio 1Xtra, and leading the UK’s first industry-wide research into gender diversity in TV directing for Directors UK.

A former BBC broadcaster and programme maker for BBC Arts (TV) and BBC Radio and Music, recognition for her broadcast and EDI advocacy campaigns include CRE Race in the Media, Royal Television Society, MIND Mental Health in the Media, Stephen Lawrence Foundation, Webby awards, 4 International Anthem and Alfred Fagon awards.

Amanda has served on the London Government Task Force Covid-19 Arts and Culture Strategy Group, the University of Sheffield’s culture and arts recovery advisory board and the London advisory group for the Government Arts Collection Committee. She is a former trustee for Film London, serving on the FLAMIN visual arts committee and supporting the Jarman Awards; Amanda is a trustee of Intermission Youth, a trustee of the Royal Shakespeare Company; a Critical Friend to Glyndebourne Opera and visiting Researcher at UWE Bristol.

Arit Eminue MBE is a commercially astute and values-driven people leader with nearly two decades of experience driving inclusive talent strategies across the creative, education, and tech sectors. She is the founder of All Things People & Talent and previously built and exited DiVA Apprenticeships, a multi-award-winning business that partnered with leading employers like the BBC, Universal Music and Sony Music to diversify talent pipelines through government backed apprenticeships.

A trusted advisor to senior leadership teams, Arit brings expertise in governance, succession planning, DEI, and people-centred culture change. Her strategic work has included influencing government policy, securing over £2.6 million in public funding for youth employment, and designing national mentoring and apprenticeship programmes. She is also the creator of the High Potential Talent Summit, a one-day leadership development event that convenes rising talent and senior leaders to build future-ready organisations. Arit holds an ILM Level 7 in Executive Coaching, is a LinkedIn Learning instructor, a member of the BPI’s Equity Justice Advisory Group, and a regular media contributor and thought leader on inclusive leadership and career development. Arit Eminue was awarded an MBE for services to Further Education in the Creative Industries.

Website: https://www.ariteminue.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ariteminue/
Email: hello@ariteminue.com

Ayan Aden is Birmingham’s 24th Poet Laureate (2024–26), a performance poet, cultural strategist and founder whose work bridges heritage, community and creative infrastructure. Rooted in Somali-British identity, she merges Somali oral tradition with contemporary poetics to advance cultural equity and shape narratives of belonging.

As founder of Somalinimo UK and the Birmingham Poetry Network, she creates impact through community-led programming, strategic consultancy and educational outreach. Her work spans art, policy and storytelling- building frameworks that honour the past while imagining what is yet to come

A director, choreographer, senior lecturer, teacher, digital artist and producer. She brings a wealth of experience to stage that excites the minds and bodies of all audiences. ​ She is the founder and Artistic Director of CreaTech Forest Tribe Theatre, an Award-Winning, carbon-neutral immersive digital, dance- theatre company creating pieces for all audiences, including audiences with additional needs. She has produced, created and directed innovative XR / VR pieces that pushes the boundaries beyond the forth wall of entertainment. ​ She choreographs and directs shows for mainstream audiences, children and young people including audiences with additional needs. She has co-directed multi-sensory theatre for PMLD audiences (profound multiple Learning needs) at Folkteatern in Gävle, Sweden and with The Oily Cart, where she is the Former Associate Director. ​ She is a choreographer and her direction is influenced through emotive presence on stage and screen. Her background in Artificial Intelligence, Motion Capture and Virtual Reality, multi-sensory Storytelling for immersive experiences are also embedded into her practice-based research and teaching. She has longstanding partnerships with industry which has led to real-time outputs related to her research. Factory International, Royal Exchange Theatre, Digital Catapult, HOME Theatre; for example have both been part of her practice-based projects. Recent projects include a multi-sensory digital immersive theatre piece ‘Sensorial Dreams’ in collaboration with Business School and SODA as part of CDI (Centre of Digital Innovation) and The Royal Exchange Theatre. Also, “Kindred Spirit” an AI companion art installation piece in collaboration with The Level Centre, The Science Museum and Factory International co-designed by adults with learning and physical additional needs. She also shares her knowledge through specialist panel talks including the London Stock Exchange, Adobe, Beyond Festival and Tech UK.

Dom Jinks is a British Asian strategic cultural consultant and sector leader with over 25 years’ experience driving inclusive change across the UK’s creative industries. He is the Founder and Director of Imagine My, a citizen engagement platform amplifying community voice in city development. Dom’s work spans cultural policy, placemaking, heritage, and diversity strategy—shaping cities into vibrant cultural ecosystems through visionary leadership and lived experience.

He led the process behind Exeter’s successful UNESCO City of Literature designation and five-year Cultural Strategy, and has been involved in securing multi-million-pound investment for city development programmes in Plymouth and beyond. His career includes senior roles at Arts Council England, the University of Exeter, and Plymouth Culture, where he championed equitable practice and sector innovation.

Dom previously served on the board for Creative UK’s Create Growth programmes in Devon and Cornwall, supporting inclusive creative sector growth and investment across the region.

Drew is an experienced, international award-winning sports producer and journalist.

Over his 20+ year career, Drew has written, produced and directed content for elite broadcasters and companies in Britain and the Middle East, including BBC Sport, Endemol, Abu Dhabi Media, News UK and Discovery.

Drew is a founder member and Chair of the Black Collective of Media in Sport (BCOMS), a Black-led organisation that works to help diversify the UK sports media. Taking a lead on consultancy with some of BCOMS high-profile partners, he is committed to helping drive positive change in equity, diversity and inclusion across the sports media

Ed Matthews-Gentle is Strategic Team Lead for Culture & Creative Industries at Creative Lancashire, with over twenty years’ experience working with and developing creative organisations. Key projects and collaborations include British Textile Biennial, National Festival of Making, and overseeing Lancashire’s Cultural Strategy. Ed was invited by Crafts Council to join as a Trustee and is a member of the associated Craft UK – Anti-Racism Working Group, working closely and chairing meetings of the related Global Majority Branch & Equity Advisory Council. In 2011 Ed co-founded Conversations in Creativity as a forum for creative dialogue and ideas, and as a platform for practitioners from around the world and across disciplines to explore how creative inspiration informs process. Ed also sits on the Advisory Panel for the Granada Foundation.

Faye Stewart is a Deaf creative leader, advocate, and maker based in the South West. With over 20 years of experience across the arts and cultural sectors, she focuses on embedding accessibility, inclusion, and intersectionality into organisational culture and governance. As Senior Project Manager for Arts Council England’s Access Changemaker initiative, she led national work on the Accessibility Action Plan and championed adoption of the Social Model of Disability — making Arts Council England the first National Lottery Distributor and non-departmental public body to formally adopt it. Alongside a decade as a Relationship Manager supporting the Creative People and Places programme, Faye brings deep experience of community-led and equitable practice. A co-founder and former co-chair of Arts Council England’s Disability Network and current Trustee of the Centre for Deaf and Hard of Hearing People in Bristol, she continues to shape change through creativity, collaboration, and community.

Hazel has over 25+ years’ experience of working at the senior management level within the creative, social impact, education / vocational and social enterprise sectors.

Over that period, she has built up expertise in fundraising, business development, project development, impact evaluation and critical review, legacy planning and change management (policy development, capital infrastructure, people management, corporate governance structure and financial sustainability).

She has secured more than £70M income from public, private and HNWIs to support the work of the creative industries.  This has spanned theatre, music, architecture and design and the contemporary arts.

She has helped to fund and deliver over 200 community development and regeneration projects and has helped to create two new charities and 6 CICs.  She has set up and found investment for CYP, education and vocational development programmes working with organisations such as The Barbican, Hackney Empire, UD Music and Black Lives, A New Direction and Create London.

Her work has focussed on securing social equity and justice for underserved, marginalised and discounted communities. Mainly Black and other global majority communities and for those on low income who live in the most socioeconomically deprived areas of London (according to IMD data).

Jasmine Dotiwala OBE is a media and culture leader with over 25 years’ experience across global platforms including Netflix UK, Media Trust, Channel 4 News and MTV International. An award-winning producer, broadcaster and D&I specialist, she is passionate about creating access and opportunity across the creative industries. 

At Media Trust, Jasmine founded the acclaimed London360 programme, training hundreds of young creatives from underrepresented backgrounds who have since gone on to shape the UK’s media landscape. 

Jasmine sits on the Boards of Arts Emergency and ILUVLIVE, and contributes to the BAFTA Voting Academy, Royal Television Society Futures Committee, Edinburgh TV Festival Jury, and BPI Equity and Justice Advisory Group. 

A sought-after speaker and commentator, Jasmine regularly appears across UK and international media, inspiring audiences on creativity, representation and cultural change. 

Rupert Jones-Lee is Head of Research and Impact at the Film and TV Charity. In this role he has overseen the creation of the UK’s leading evidence base on workforce wellbeing in film, TV and cinema, influencing industry-wide wellbeing strategy and informing related political debate. The department’s work has also significantly sharpened the Charity and sector’s understanding of the relationship between inequity and wellbeing. 

Before joining the Film and TV Charity Rupert spent ten years at Northern Film and Media, the screen agency for the Northeast of England (now North East Screen). His earlier career was in social policy and political communications. He is also a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Excellence in Media Practice at Bournemouth University. 

Tajpal Rathore is an actor, writer, producer, director, dramaturg and presenter whose creative work is shaped by a fearless decolonised vision, spanning over two decades across TV, film, radio, and theatre. In 2013, he co-founded Tribe Arts, an actor-led theatre and arts production company focused on amplifying contemporary British black and Asian stories. As the Artistic Director, he drives bold, multidisciplinary storytelling rooted in cultural identity and social change. He is also the founder and current Editor-in-Chief for Off/Stage, the UK’s only dedicated social digital platform centring British black, Asian and Global Majority artists and cultures.

Ali Jafarey, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Lead at the Victoria and Albert Museums

Ali Jafarey has been involved in the equality for over 20 years, initially focusing on racism experienced by London’s ethnic minority young people and supporting race -specific case work in all community issues. His passion for the arts led him to the V&A where he heads up the Museums’ equality, diversity and inclusion strategy. He also is an active member of the National Museum’s Directorate EDI Network which brings together the increasing number of employees with EDI in their role within the museum and the arts sector.

He is a highly impactful, strategic human resources, equality, diversity, inclusion and wellbeing thought leader, with a proven ability to improve workforce diversity, cultural change and inclusion and wellbeing in many organisations. He has a strong sense of empathy, which has enabled him to co-design and deliver multiple change programmes, events and activities that promote and improve inclusion, realising benefits across the employee life cycle, service design and provision and developing great community relations.

Anneliese Harmon is a multifaceted music, entertainment, film, fashion and brand professional with over 25 years of experience in music management, international marketing, promotions and business development with both major and independent artists & companies. Specialising in global strategy and blueprints for businesses, emerging artist talent and established artists she has worked in the UK, US & key International markets, with a vast network of contacts across the global entertainment industry.

Anneliese has run her own global music management, branding and business consultancy company for over 15 years. She is also a documentary film producer, public speaker, mentor and entrepreneur. She started her career in fashion in New York City before working for Def Jam during the Golden Age of Hip Hop and crossing the Atlantic to do Global Promotions and Marketing for Richard Branson’s record label V2. Fast forward to the last few years, Anneliese recently left her post as GM of the MMF UK where she was responsible for increasing the company’s effectiveness by creating strategy and identifying new opportunities to grow the company and benefit members.

She also had the honour of serving as the MMF’s first employee of colour in its 30-year existence and led on Mental Health, Tech & AI, Equality & Diversity, and Women’s Rights, bringing a unique voice and lens to the many UK Music working groups tables she was given a seat on as a rep for the company. Anneliese is also a Director and Board Member of the Scottish Music Industry Association (SMIA).

Initiating the UK’s first British Sign Language Banking Branch launched Emilie’s career, co-creating with communities and finding innovative ways to make existing things accessible to everyone – particularly people that the original creators didn’t have in mind when designing.

Emilie leads EDJI at the Royal Shakespeare Company, and brings over 14 years of EDI leadership experience spanning a variety of industries including the arts, non-profit, health & wellbeing, financial services and retail. She contributes through numerous arts, access & inclusion, future thinking networks, creative labs and advisory boards around the world, and specialises in the development of neuroinclusion across the creative industries.

Emilie is also a musician and trained sound therapist, supporting academic research programs into music & sound therapy, as well as international projects to build new tools, products and environments. She founded the arts collective Atmostherapy in 2021 which creates immersive sensory experiences for mental health, specialising in therapy for neurodivergent minds.

Isabel Sachs is the founder of I LIKE NETWORKING, a D&AD award-winning platform. 

Isabel is an entrepreneur and public speaker with over 18 years of experience in the Creative Industries, passionate about fostering diverse talent in the creative industry – from artists to arts managers.

She has worked on a variety of nonprofits, culture organizations and consumer-led companies, conceptualizing and producing branded experiences that engage core consumers, as well as communications campaigns, having worked with clients such as Converse, Red Bull and Lollapalooza, amongst others.

She created an award-winning cultural agency, based in Brazil, producing over 50 events a year including international tours, and managing a roster of artists and a theatre company.

Isabel was listed as one of the top 21 most influential women by Startups Magazine and 2022 The Dots 100 Rising Star. 

Sarah Leigh is a disabled, working-class filmmaker & advocate. She is the founder of INCLUSIVITY FILMS, a company committed to at least 50% of cast & crew identifying as d/Deaf, disabled and/or neurodivergent on every production. She was on Creative UK’s Accelerate programme 2022, & was a WFTV-UK mentee for 2023. She is also the co-founder of INCLUSIVE TALENT.

Sarah adapted, & directed, award-winning short film TYPICAL? She also wrote & directed ONE FOR THE ROAD, based upon a Stephen King short story and ONE DAY, an Official Selection in the Screenplay category of the BAFTA/OSCAR-qualifying festival FLICKERS’ RHODE ISLAND FILM FESTIVAL.

Sarah is a mother to two boys, one of whom is disabled, and her advocacy work includes developing Healthcare Passports with the NHS. She speaks publicly & consults on access & equitable workplaces/practices within the screen industries, & also within healthcare & every-day life. 

Sarita Malik is Associate Pro-Vice Chancellor (Research Impact) at Brunel University London where she holds the post of Professor of Media and Culture. Sarita has made a major contribution to research on the cultural and creative industries and her work regularly informs the sector’s policy directions and practices. She has published widely on diversity frameworks and policies, culture and inequality, and cultural representation in the screen sector. Sarita has been Principal Investigator on several UK Research and Innovation grants, building partnerships between higher education, the creative industries and diverse communities. Sarita was a Member of the Research Excellence Framework 2021 exercise, assessing research quality across Communication, Cultural and Media Studies, Library and Information Management. Sarita has been a Trustee for the Voice of the Listener and Viewer and in 2021 was appointed to the Department for Culture, Media & Sport College of Experts.

Scarlett Kefford (they/them), is a screenwriter and ‘sit-down’ comedian whose style and sense of humour are influenced by their lived experience of being a working-class, disabled, neurodiverse, queer person born and bred in Birmingham. 

They have been nominated for multiple awards including the Edinburgh TV Festival/ TV Foundation New Voice Awards 2022 & the RTS Midlands Breakthrough Offscreen Award for Producing and Writing and Short Film Category in 2022 & 2023. They have also worked as a contributing writer on series 6 & 7 of ITV’s Iain Sterling’s Celebability, Mighty Bunny’s Writey Funny radio sketch comedy development writers’ room and ITV’s Entertainment Writer’s Initiative. 

They previously worked as a Production Co-ordinator and Second AD on popular shows such as BBC’s Doctors and Casualty as well as being a Production Manager for short films, stop motion animation and commercials before retiring due to struggles with their physical disabilities and neurodivergence pushing them out of the industry. Since then as well as developing their career as a creative, they became a Bridge06/ScreenSkills trained Access Coordinator.

They also founded Script Sirens, which was nominated for a National Diversity Community Organisation Award in 2021 – to try and push back against an industry that lacks representation on multiple intersectional fronts

Tanya Vital, a RADA graduate, boasts two decades of experience as both a seasoned Actor and Creative Producer in the entertainment industry. Her journey reflects a profound dedication to the arts, showcased through award-winning contributions across the creative sector. With her expertise, she has enriched various production and media companies, refining skills in management, networking, event planning, and mentorship.

As the founder of Vital Culture UK Ltd, Tanya pioneers innovative live events, micro-short films, and immersive experiences, merging gaming technology with interactive storytelling. Her work has earned various nominations and acknowledgment as one of the UK’s Top 100 CreaTech ‘Ones to Watch in 2021’. Tanya’s relentless pursuit of artistic excellence and inclusivity continues to shape the creative landscape in the North of England.