nickahad@gmail.com
@NickAhad
Playwright. Scriptwriter.
In 2007 I couldn't ignore it any longer. The nagging feeling that, while I love my job, I had more things to say than I was able to with my journalism. I applied for, and was accepted on, a course at West Yorkshire Playhouse called So You Want to Be A Writer. It was the start of something.
2007 - 2009
As part of the Playhouse's So You Want to Be A Writer, I wrote my first short play, a ten minute piece called Something Wild about a teacher who pulls a gun on a student.
I was proud of the piece, but it wasn't good enough.
A year later I attended another new writing scheme with a theatre company in Oldham called Peshkar and wrote another ten minute piece about a British Bangladeshi family celebrating Bangladesh's Independence. On the strength of that I was commissioned to write my first play, which became Nor Any Drop, produced in 2011.
While at another course, a tutor said that short films are a good way to get your work 'out there'. A week later I pitched a short film idea for the first time and was commissioned to make Where You From?
2012
In 2012 I decided to take a little more charge of my own destiny.
As well as a return to acting for the first time in a decade with Red Ladder Theatre Company, I wrote and directed A Muslamic Love Story (see Plays). Rehearsed at Slung Low's headquarters in Leeds and at Theatre in the Mill in Bradford, it was presented in June 2012 - and two months later we had a producer. I was absolutely over the moon and can't wait to bring this show back.
Meanwhile, I spent much of 2012 working towards a place on an Emmerdale scheme, looking for diverse writers.
Being chosen as one of four writers to trial for the show was a massive step up and ridiculously exciting.
2009 - 2011
While making Where You From? almost killed me, it didn't quite. And I'd been bitten by the bug.
I attended a Writing For Film Course at Bradford's National Media Museum and wrote a script called The Wrong Toilet (see 2013!).
I also applied to a BBC scheme called Northern Voices and was one of four writers selected to work with a mentor, the legend that is Lisa Holdsworth, and developed my first TV script with her.
In 2010 I applied for the BBC's Writer's Academy and got down to the final 20. I didn't get selected. I was gutted.
I picked myself up off the floor and took part in a 48 Hour Film project in Bradford and shot The Game of Life (see Films page).
I also determined to get my head back in the game and started planning more work - meanwhile I was continuing to workshop Nor Any Drop, which eventually toured in Autumn 2011.
I also found a new group of collaborators and wrote and co-directed Seven Miles from Bradford (see Films page).
2013
In early 2013 I decided, four years after having the idea and starting the script, I wanted to finally make The Wrong Toilet.
Shot over a weekend, my best friend and brilliant editor Ben Moore spent many, many hours cursing me for something technically I did very wrong during the shoot.
However, we've ended up with a film that I think is funny. Despite my technical failings.
Fortunately it was shot and done with by April - which was when I started at Emmerdale, where I spent two months in the story office and then spent a month writing a trial script.
In November 2013 I'm over the moon that A Muslamic Love Story is returning - this time with producers DepArts at the helm.