Jo Southwell

A multi-award winning director and writer Jo's first production in 2012, Holding On, received nominations for Best Short Film, Best Fiction and Best Director at two major festivals and was an official selection at international festivals including Hollywood Shorts, Galway, Palm Springs, Cannes and London. Since then Cover Me (screened In 7 countries), The Gun Man, Portalis, No Entrance No Exit and Deirdre (screened in 12 countries) have all won and been nominated in all categories at the major shorts festivals. She has since developed Dierdre into a feature-length movie featuring Tara Fitzgerald to be produced by her own Aston Productions alongside producers Jo Nolan and executive producers Jonathan Finn and Catherine Morsehead. In development with a TV thriller series with Lion TV and producer Richard Bradley based on Angela Clarke's best selling novel Follow Me on which Jo holds the film rights. She's attached to a new Irish mini-series based on Maureen O'Donaghue's hit book Winner produced by Rachel Gold. In 2018 Directors UK nominated Jo to spend time being mentored by director Jon East on his 3 episodes of Sid Gentle Films' Killing Eve. This was a rare and valuable opportunity that allowed her to learn and observe and further develop her own skills. Jo was born in Northampton but spent much of her early years in Tipperary. She has a BA Hons in Media and Theology at Leeds University and a Post Graduate Certificate in Education at St Mary's University London. She studied acting at Redroofs Theatre School.