Tolu Okanlawon

Tolu Okanlawon is a British-Nigerian writer for TV, theatre and film from Hackney, East London. His debut play, Shooters, about the photojournalist Gordon Parks, won The Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting 2025. A full production is due to be staged in Manchester at the Royal Exchange in 2027. With a background in documentary development, Tolu has a taste for provocative stories with social and political resonance that blur the line between truth and invention.

A graduate of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama’s Writing for Stage and Screen MFA, Tolu is currently SISTER Pictures' Creative Writer in Residence 2026 and is also on attachment at the Arcola Theatre as a recipient of the Peggy Ramsay Playwrights ‘73 award.

Previously he was selected to be a part of the Diverse Writers Development Programme 2025, a joint initiative from Left Bank Pictures and The National Film and Television School, with support from Sony Pictures Television, where he devised an original drama concept for TV. He is currently developing an original TV series with Siren Television.