Dr Susan Liddy lectures in the Department of Media and Communication Studies in MIC. She is the President of Women in Film and TV International, Chair of Women in Film and Television Ireland and sits on a number of industry boards such as Writers Guild of Ireland and Raising Films Ireland. She has published widely on gender issues in the Irish screen industries. Most recently she co-authored The Pursuit of Change: Issues Affecting Parents and Carers in the Ireland’s Screen Industries (2022) for Raising Films Ireland.
Lesley Conroy is an IFTA award nominated actress & award winning writer and filmmaker. Her Screen Ireland/Bow Street actor as creator short CLEANER is screening in the 3rd Catalyst International FF and won Best Cork Short in the 66th Cork International Film Festival. Current participant on the female playwright development programme MAVENS in association with the Mill Theatre/Writers Guild. Steering member of MAM (Mothers Artists Makers) and advocate for DEI in the film & theatre sector.
Ailish Bracken is a producer and line producer working across TV and Film in Ireland. She has worked with most of the leading production companies in the country and is currently working on several projects both as a line producer and producer. She is the chair of Raising Films Ireland and the Administrator of the Production and Accounts Guild of Ireland.
Grainne Bennett is the Founder of Shalom Wellness, Co-Founder of Aligning with Flow, Co-Creator of the Actor As Creator Scheme, a diversity and inclusion advocate, writer, script analyst, creativity coach, wellness coordinator and filmmaker. As an author, script analyst and creativity coach she combines 20 years of experience in helping people develop their abilities in the Screen Sectors and project soul level development work, leaning deeply into the ancestral constellation work of Bert Hellinger and the Consciousness Medicine work of Julie Williams. As Senior Project Advisor at Screen Training Ireland from 2001 she has designed, developed and managed a broad slate of skills development initiatives and programmes designed to provide professionals in all the sectors of the screen industries with opportunities to explore and develop their creativity, talent and projects. She ran the crew skills development and television non-fiction skills development portfolios for over ten years. At Screen Ireland her Creativity and Creative Collaborations portfolio focuses on skills development and project development initiatives for actors, writers, directors and composers, including the Screen Ireland Actor As Creator initiative which she co-created.
