Where to begin...

Matilda Feyiṣayọ (faye • yee • shy • yor) Ibini is an award-winning bionic, Queer playwright, screenwriter and (occasional) facilitator from London... (a Nigerian Londoner if you will). Matilda has Limb Girdle Muscular Dystrophy and is a wheelchair user. Matilda writes for stage, TV, film and audio. Their work often centres women, disabled people, Queer people and the Black British experience through a magical realist lens.

Matilda was awarded a scholarship from BAFTA and Warner Brothers to study a Masters in Playwriting & Screenwriting at City University and gained a Distinction. Their debut play ‘Muscovado’ was produced by BurntOut Theatre, premiered in October 2014 and toured the UK in 2015. Muscovado subsequently co-won the Alfred Fagon Audience Award 2015. Their audio drama 'The Grape that Rolled Under the Fridge' was broadcast on BBCRadio 3 in 2019. Matilda's next play 'Little Miss Burden' was produced by Harts Theatre Company and the Bunker Theatre. It premiered at the Bunker Theatre in 2019, was a finalist for an OffWestEnd Award for Best New Play, won a Popcorn Finalist Award and is published by Concord Theatricals.

Matilda's work has been staged at the Old Vic Theatre, Shakespeare's Globe, Bush Theatre, Royal Court Theatre, Hampstead Theatre Downstairs, National Theatre Shed, St James Theatre, Royal Exchange Manchester, Soho Theatre, Arcola Theatre, Bunker Theatre, Hackney Showroom and Vaults Festival.

CV and Access Rider available on request.

Terms you can use to describe me:

✔Bionic writer

✔Disabled writer

✔Black writer/ writer of Nigerian heritage

✔Nigerian-British writer

✔Black, Queer writer

Terms you should NEVER (and I mean NEVER in this life or the next) use to describe me:

🚫Wheelchair bound / Confined to a wheelchair

🚫Special needs / Specially Abled

🚫Persons with a disability

🚫Differently Abled

🚫Handicapped / Handicapable

Why do you describe yourself as 'bionic'?

I adopted the term ‘bionic’ when I became a full-time wheelchair user and had metal implanted into my leg after a traumatic fracture, even though the term encompasses my experiences from birth, that I have always needed some form of technology, equipment, or adaptation to live. However, it doesn't mean all I write about is the disabled experience (but to be fair I do write about it A LOT – and I won’t stop!). What bionic refers to is the fact that I may not always explicitly write about disability, however every story that I tell or collaboration that I’m part of will always be informed by my experiences of being a disabled person in an ableist society.

Writers room Experience

Firebird & Amazon in 2021 (co-wrote 1 x 60min episode)

All3Media in 2021 (wrote 1 x 30min episode)

Sky in 2020 (wrote 1 x 30min episode)

Kudos in 2020 (contribute material)

NBCUniversal in 2020 (contribute material)

Tiger Aspect in 2019 (contribute material)

Various Artists Limited in 2018 (contribute material)

Tiger Aspect in 2018 (contribute material)

Awards & Nominations

BFI Young Audiences Content Fund 2021 - Development Award with Ardimages UK

The Arts Foundation Futures Award Theatre-Makers Finalist 2021

The Brit List 2020 (feature screenplay)

Screen Daily's Star of Tomorrow 2020

Popcorn Award for New Writing Finalist 2020

Unlimited R&D Award (2019)

BAFTA and Warner Bros Scholarship (2014 - 2016)

Peggy Ramsay Foundation Grant (2016)

Alfred Fagon Audience Award (2015)

Training & Development

BFI Flare x BAFTA programme (2023)

ETT's Nationwide Voices Scheme (2020)

Sphinx Theatre: Sphinx30 Programme (2020)

BFI NETWORK@LFF PROGRAM (2019)

BBC Writersroom Writers’ Access Group - 9 months (2018 – 2019)

Ackley Bridge Shadow Scheme with The Forge/Channel 4 (2018)

National Theatre Studio Attachment (2018)

Channel 4 Screenwriting course (2018)

Soho Writers Alumni Group (2013 – 2018)

Tamasha Playwrights Programme - Year 3 (2016 – 2017)

MA Playwriting and Screenwriting at City University (2014 – 2017)

NT Studio devising workshops – Rufus Norris (2016)

ThinkBIGGER: Writers’ Cramp Screenwriting Course (2016)

Bryony Kimmings Live Art Workshops (2016)

Criterion New Writing Program – Greg Mosse (2016)

BBC Writersroom 10 Scheme (2014 – 2015)

Soho Theatre’s Young Company (2011 – 2013)

English Literature and Creative Writing BA Hons. (2010 – 2013)

Arcola Theatre’s ‘Voices from the Future’ (2013)

Royal Court Writers Programme – Leo Butler (2012 - 2013)

Hollyoaks Storyline Workshop – Kathleen Beedles (2012)

Eastenders E20 Writer’s School (2011 – 2012)

The Script Factory & Second Light Screenwriters Lab (2011)

Royal Opera House Course – The Singing Word (2011)

Royal Shakespeare Court Poetry Workshop – Aoife Mannix (2011)

20/20 Writers Group Blue Elephant Theatre – Shireen Mula (2011)

BBC Writersroom Seminar - Paul Ashton (2010)