Cheryl Robson

Cheryl Robson was born in Sydney, Australia to British parents. Cheryl attended Bristol University in England before joining the BBC where she was involved in film and TV production for several years. see: www.cherylrobson.net

> As a playwright, she won the Croydon Warehouse International Festival for her play 'The Taking of Liberty' and her play 'Box' was longlisted for the Bruntwood Prize. She has had several stage plays produced in London. She went on to establish a theatre company and introduced the work of Dacia Maraini, Nawal el Saadawi and Marina Carr to British stages.

> She also set up Aurora Metro Books and has published around 300 international writers, inaugurating the Virginia Prize For Fiction in 2009, a biennial competition for women novelists. see: www.aurorametro.com.

> With colleague, Rebecca Gillieron, they established Supernova Books to publish non-fiction books on culture. Her book 'Celluloid Ceiling; women directors breaking through' won the Maverick Award and her book 'Silent Women; pioneers of cinema' was voted Best Book on Silent Film 2016. Her landmark series of books '50 Women in...' continues to make waves. As an editor she has edited over 100 books and co-translated 'David's Story' by Stig Dalager (shortlisted for the Marsh Award for Children's Literature in Translation) and 'The Scream' by Laurent Graff.

> As a filmmaker she has produced and directed a number of films including the arts documentaries 'Jo Brocklehurst' and 'Rock n Roll Island', which won 4 awards in USA and aired on BBC4. It was named a Sunday Times Critics Choice and Radio Times Pick of the week programme. Cheryl was a finalist in the ITV National Diversity awards for Lifetime Achievement in 2019.