Shelley Silas

Shelley Silas writes for theatre, radio and television, and has also written a number of short stories. Her stage plays include Shrapnel, Falling, Calcutta Kosher, Mercy Fine and Eating Ice Cream on Gaza Beach. Plays for BBC Radio 4 include Dead Weight, Series 4 in Val McDermid’s DEAD series, and series 5, Dead Cert. She co-adapted the The Raj Quartet (with John Harvey), The Sound of Silence (shortlisted for the Imison Award), Ink, Collective Fascination, adapted Heat and Dust, The Magpie Stories and the highly acclaimed I am Emma Humphreys which won a Clarion Award. She won a Pearson Award and was writer in residence at The Bush Theatre, and Clean Break. She was commissioned to write a monologue for Kali Theatre’s Winter Solos in 2020, and was one of the contributors on a multi-writer project, United Nations, for BBC Radio 4, broadcast in 2021. She was development producer for Brazen Productions on a TV series based on The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes: The Transgender Trial that Threatened to Upend the British Establishment. Current commissions include a play for Rifco Theatre.

Shelley wrote three audio test pieces for BBC Radio R&D, one had visuals created for it and it became an award winning VR short, The Turning Forest, which premiered at film festivals around the world and which Google used to launch their Pixel phone. Definitely one of the highlights of Shelley’s career!

Shelley has taught for the Arvon Foundation, Clean Break and the National Youth Theatre. She lives in south London with her wife; psychotherapist, writer, yoga teacher and campaigner, Stella Duffy. Shelley is studying for an MA in Existential Coaching at the New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling.