Skip to main content

English and Drama

Alumni

Our students and alumni are at the heart of what we do in the School of English and Drama. This page is dedicated to the changemakers who we have been lucky enough to call students, researchers and friends.

Follow us on Instagram for alumni stories

Alumni profile- Amy Sargeant - BA English and Film Studies

I am always on the lookout for interesting stories and people who I think might make a good documentary...

Alumni profile - Costanza Casati - BA English and Film Studies

If you don’t understand your characters deeply, feel and care for them, then no one will...

Alumni profile - Miranda Burns - BA Drama

I have loved radio since day dot. Whilst at Queen Mary, I joined Quest as a new hobby; I started off with two shows a week and threw my all into them.

Alumni profile - Beth Watton - MA Theatre & Performance

I am deeply passionate and committed to debunking both the myth and the reality, that the arts are an exclusive, elitist realm...

Alumni profile - Dr Ben Walters - Drama PhD

Queerness is a normal, natural and consistent part of human life. Acknowledging, celebrating and learning from that would benefit everybody in society

Alumni profile - Annabelle Sami - MA English

I was able, and encouraged, to use what I was learning and apply it to film, global literature and even history topics.

Alumni profile - Evie Lewis - MA English

We were a small group with only 8 or 9 of us on the pathway, which meant the discussions we had in our seminars were always very lively and engaging.

Alumni profile - Lucy Dear - BA Drama

The variation in the course helped me to explore and identify my voice as an artist and what I care about...

Alumni profile - Eleni Sophia - BA English

By the middle of my first year, my collection, Good Morning to Goodnight, had reached number three on Amazon’s best-seller list.

Alumni profile - Emily Yates - BA English

Wherever possible, I use my lived experience as a wheelchair user to add an authentic viewpoint to whatever I’m writing on.

It’s more than a gown

Hear what our students and tutors have to say about their time at Queen Mary and what made the experience so memorable.

It’s more than a gown

Alumni profile - Zara Stone - BA English

My work is a mixture of interviewing, researching, writing and rewriting, with product testing, world travel, and drones thrown in.

Alumni profile - Moneeka Thakur - BA English

I feel like even in the discussion of diversity and inclusion, Muslim representation tends to be on the outskirts, which is a problem.

Chat online with former students

Connect online with students that have already graduated and find out about life during and after Queen Mary

Alumni profile - Deanna Lyncook - English and History BA

In the wake of the global resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement, I felt that it was important for my community to see themselves...

Alumni profile - Rosie Vincent - Drama

"I love the balance that I have from my two jobs. Sometimes I will be sat at a desk and managing many tasks in the morning but then in the evening...

Alumni profile - Um-E-Aymen Babar - BA English

Writing and researching my dissertation was the highlight of my degree. I wrote about two of my favourite things: cricket and literature.

Alumni profile - Dinara Punchihewa - Drama

Inspired by the lives of the women and men around me, I began the ‘Punchi Actors’ initiative; a non-profit organisation...

Alumni profile - Ama Badu - BA English

I love to ask people when they first saw themselves in books. For many of us, it isn’t until university that we really see ourselves in literature...

Alumni profile - Gabriel Krauze - BA English

Booker Prize long-listed author and English alumnus, Gabriel Krauze, discusses the themes of morality, beauty and trauma in his debut novel...

Alumni profile - Paul Clements - BA English

To be in the newsroom at the time an era-defining story breaks is exhilarating; I was there for the credit crunch, the expenses scandal...

Alumni profile - Lucy Sofroniou - BA English

I started Queen Mary at such a pivotal moment in my life and it has become a place of so many great memories for me. It was such a positive experience

Alumni profile - Marissa Landy - BA Drama

I cannot tell you how many people come out of Queen Mary and become performers, writers and artists!

Alumni profile - Mya Medina - BA English and Drama

Both English and Drama provide a synergy; they are entwined and the perfect pairing to study together.

Alumni profile - Olga Kravchenko - BA Drama

My biggest take-away from my Drama degree and what I didn’t realise, probably until my final year, was the ability to think outside of the box.

Alumni profile - Jose Bencosme Zayas - MA Theatre and Performance Studies

If I am an artist and researcher, it is because every day I take some time to work on my art or my research.

Alumni profile - Sebolelo Gebhardt - BA English and Drama

In the words of Joseph Campbell, “we must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.”

Alumni profile - Simon Nader - BA English and Drama, 2000)

I think the television experience that stands out is that I was able to work with Adrien Brody in the miniseries, Houdini...

Alumni profile - Naila Barrett - BA English with Creative Writing, 2021

The support of many fabulous lecturers is a testament to the writer and person I am now...

Caitlin O'Donnell - MA English Studies: Writing and Society 1700-1820, 2012

I discovered that it’s through analyzing text that we understand the world, and therefore ourselves.

Caitlin O'Donnell - MA English Studies: Writing and Society 1700-1820, 2012