"One employer asked him, Have you thought about taking elocution lessons? Others told him his film ideas which explored diversity in innovative ways - were a bit niche. I was 28 and at the end of my tether, he recalled. I was working a minimum wage job in a call centre, my life on hold, trying to break into TV. But the industry felt very Oxbridge and very white dominated by people with cut-glass BBC accents."
"Today, just over a decade later, Thomas is co-owner of Big Deal Films, a BAFTA-winning and EMMY-nominated production company known for bold storytelling that puts minority and underrepresented voices front and centre. The company has sold more than 100 films from five-minute shorts for The One Show on BBC One to documentaries and sitcoms and is best known for their critically acclaimed BBC Three hit comedy series Dreaming Whilst Black."
Thomas Stogdon faced repeated industry rejection and minimum-wage work while trying to break into film and television. He encountered remarks about elocution and was told his diversity-focused ideas were niche. Personal loss and professional setbacks left him close to giving up on his creative ambitions. A business course at the Bernie Grant Arts Centre, run by The Prince's Trust (now The King’s Trust), proved transformative. Thomas co-founded Big Deal Films, a BAFTA-winning and EMMY-nominated company that has sold over 100 films and is known for championing minority and underrepresented voices, including the BBC Three series Dreaming Whilst Black.
Read at www.standard.co.uk
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