Catherine Wignall (Meynell 2000-2009)

Catherine attended Ellesmere from the age of nine and was one of the first students to study for the International Baccalaureate Diploma at the College. She developed her interest in writing while still at Ellesmere. She made a number of short films and directed the Meynell House Play for both her Lower and Upper Sixth years.

After leaving Ellesmere in 2009, Catherine took a gap year and joined the National Youth Theatre where she received training as an Assistant Stage Manager. This led to work experience in the West End. She also wrote and directed a play called 'Imitation of Life', which was staged in the Arts Centre, during this time. Catherine continued her involvement with theatre at the University of Warwick, writing and directing her own work, but gradually began to focus more on screenwriting and film.

Graduating with First Class Honours in English Literature, Catherine went on to become the youngest-ever winner of the national Euroscript-Underwire Screenwriting Competition. She secured work as a Production Assistant on advertisements and shows for ITV, and also gained worked at film festivals, as well as becoming a member of the National Youth Film Academy.

Her photography has been featured on websites and in publications, as well as in the opening credits for the Sky-HBO television show Strike Back: Project Dawn. She has also written for various websites, reviewing TV shows and producing articles on popular culture, developing an international following. Catherine has had several short films produced.

In 2017, Catherine was awarded a prestigious Fulbright Scholarship alongside a Fellowship from UCLA in recognition of her potential. She completed her Master of Fine Arts course in Screenwriting at UCLA Film School, in Los Angeles in 2019.

While she was studying, Catherine started to meet with many production companies, including NBC, HBO and Netflix, to name a few. In a meeting that took place in her last semester, she pitched a script to an Executive at Blumhouse. The script was called ChristMASS INVASION and was a comedy horror alien invasion Christmas movie that she was writing for fun. Blumhouse were blown over with the script which they have gone on to make in to a St Patrick's Day holiday horror movie called Crawlers.

Nine months after graduating, Catherine's first Hollywood movie is due to be released with several projects bubbling away in the background, we can't wait to see what Catherine achieves next!

28th February 2020  Back to Where are they now?