AJ Sykes

AJ Sykes originally training at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland before going on to work in theatre as an award winning actor, writer and director. After winning Scottish Screenwriters pitching competition in 2010 she wrote the feature script 'A Perfect World' and then in 2014 applied to Screen Academy Scotland. She graduated in 2017 with an MA in Directing and Screenwriting and MFA in Advanced Film Practice. Her MFA graduation film the 35 minute science-fiction short 'Perfect Worlds', staring Mori Christian (Outlander, Taggart) Seylan Baxter (Macbeth, Outlander, Tommy's Honour) Daniel Campbell (In Plain Sight, Tommy's Honour) screened at 18 international Film Festivals, gained 28 nominations and won 5 awards including Best Short at Amsterdam International Film Festival. After graduating AJ directed the short film 'Regrets', for Asib Akram & Chris Martin Films, starring Kate Donnelly (Still Game, Outlander, Shetland), Lenny Mullen (Orphans, A Fire Within) and Sarah MacCardie ( The Legend of Barney Thomas, Rivercity). Regrets has screened at 21 festivals, gained 15 nominations and won three awards including Best Short at the Scottish Independent Film Festival. In 2017 AJ shadowed director Douglas Mackinnon on the BBC/Amazon 'Good Omens' and in 2018 directors Gordon Anderson and Isabelle Sieb on BBC/ITV 'Shetland'. She was short listed in 2018 for the BBC Directors Mentoring Scheme and in 2019 was commissioned to write the science-fiction feature script 'Dandelion'. She is currently (2020/21) working on A Perfect World an international science-fiction series.