Ade Solanke

Ade Solanke is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter, and founder of Spora Stories. Her acclaimed début play Pandora’s Box (Oberon, 2012) was nominated for best new play in the Off-West End awards. Her screenplays include Dazzling Mirage and The Family Legacy. Her first screenplay Femi’s Thirtieth was a semifinalist in the Academy’s annual Nicholls screenwriting contest in Los Angeles, where she worked as a story analyst for several Hollywood companies, including Sundance, New Line and Disney. She has also written for BBC World Service drama.

An experienced instructor, Ade has developed and delivered writing courses and masterclasses for Goldsmiths, London, London Screenwriters’ Workshop, Pan-Atlantic University (Lagos), African Women’s Film Forum (Accra), Africa International Film Festival (Calabar), the Royal Court Theatre, Soho Theatre and the British Council. She was the British Film Institute’s first writer-in-residence, with the support of the Royal Literary Fund, and was the Goldsmiths Pinter Centre artist-in-residence.

Ade has an MFA in screenwriting from the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts where she was a Fulbright Fellow and Phi Beta Kappa international scholar. She has an honours degree in English literature from the University of Sheffield, and a postgraduate diploma in creative writing from Goldsmiths, London. She has been a Hawthornden Fellow and is the recipient of writing awards from Arts Council England, the Peggy Ramsay Foundation, Unity Theatre Trust and the Royal Victoria Hall Foundation. Earlier in her career, she was voted ‘London’s Top Young Entrepreneur’ for her writing business.