Ellen Waddell is an up-and-coming comedy and drama writer. In 2015 she was awarded funding by Creative England and the BFI NET.WORK for her comedy short Stages. It has since been selected for LOCO festival, London Short Film Festival and Broad Comedy Festival in LA amongst others. Her debut feature film, The Photographic Memory Recalls the Highlights of the Year, received funding from The Wellcome Trust Development Awards. It was co-written with Tom Betts for Western Edge Pictures and is based on her short story of the same name.

Her debut play (co-written with Oliver Milburn) Don’t Be Terrible was performed at the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe with The Pleasance. It received four and five-star reviews and The Royal Court said the show had the ‘most sophisticated use’ of stand up that they had ever seen employed in a stage play.

Her short film script The Birthday Party, was shortlisted for The Kevin Spacey Foundation Artists of Choice award in 2017, and in 2018 she was a semifinalist in the ScreenCraft Screenwriting Fellowship. In the same year she wrote the screenplay and accompanying novella for The Last Faust directed by Philipp Humm (former Chief Executive of Vodafone Europe). In 2019 and 2020 she was long listed for The Funny Women Comedy Writing Award, and is an invited participant in the ITV 50:50 scheme. In 2020 she was a semi-finalist in the Austin Film Festival comedy TV Pilot competition, advancing to the top 2% of 13,000+ entries.

Ellen is also a stand up comedian and performer (sharing the stage with the likes of Adam Hills), and has taken several one woman shows to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She also appeared on the David Letterman Show with her old band Los Campesinos! She runs and hosts popular comedy fan fiction night and podcast “Dear Harry/Spock,” where comedians read out their original fan fiction. The show is part of the Australian podcasting network Sanspants Radio, in conjunction with Acast.

Ellen is part of the BFI NETWORK x BAFTA Crew 2021.