Hiran Abeysekera and Shanaya Rafaat are an exciting South Asian writing duo collaborating on various film and television projects.
Film:
Block Out the Moon: a colonial era horror film about a British official of the East India company sent to a remote outpost in Sri Lanka.
Block Out the Moon 2: a contemporary sequel set in London following one of the surviving characters.
TV:
Pray For Me: a crime drama told from the point of the view of an ancient demon we encounter, navigating his way through present day London. A grittier, steamier cousin to American Gods.
Baroness: a Breaking Bad Esque story of the rise of a Parsee clan in Bombay, from respectable genteel beginnings to ruthless crime family, set during the opium wars.
Hiran Abeysekera trained at RADA. His work in theatre includes Hamlet (title role), The Father and the Assassin(2023), Behind the Beautiful Forevers and War Horse (at the Proms; also for the BBC and Royal Albert Hall) for the National Theatre; Cymbeline, Hamlet and The Taming of the Shrew for the RSC; Tempest and The Prisoner for Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord; Botticelli in the Fire at Hampstead; Peter Pan at Regent’s Park; You in Mid Air for RADA at the Circus Space; Rats’ Tales at the Royal Exchange; Tartuffe for English Touring Theatre; EQUUS for Joint Effort Company; Romeo and Juliet in Sri Lanka for the British Council; and The Life of Pi at Sheffield Crucible, on Broadway and in the West End (Olivier Award). TV includes The Good Karma Hospital, Holby City, Find Me in Paris and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Films include The Magic Faraway Tree. Radio includes Dear Harry Kane (BBC Audio Drama Award for Best Actor), Broken Paradise and The Last Time I Saw Richard.
Shanaya Rafaat trained at RADA. Theatre includes Great Expectations and Frankenstein (The Royal Exchange), The Homecoming (Theatre Royal Bath, UK tour), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Leicester Curve, Liverpool Playhouse, English Touring Theatre), Jude(Hampstead theatre), Romeo and Juliet/ Richard III (Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre, York), Uncle Vanya (Theatr Clwyd, Sheffield Crucible), Terror (Lyric Hammersmith), The White Devil, King Lear (Shakespeare’s Globe), A Tale of Two Cities (Royal & Derngate, UK tour), Great Expectations (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Stateless (Tristan Bates Theatre), Around the World in 80 Days (St.James Theatre), Twelfth Night and The Malcontent (Custom/Practice), The Illusion (Southwark Playhouse) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (RSC, Dash Arts, International Tour). Theatre in India includes Judith, Sexual Perversity in Chicago, Blackbird 13, Beyond Therapy, Hayavadana (National Centre of Performing Arts) and The Maids (National Gallery of Modern Art). Television includes Ellis, Dalgliesh (Acorn/ Channel 5), Doctors, EastEnders, Lewis and Silk (BBC). Film includes Goldfish, Complicit and Honeycomb Lodge.