Chewing Gum star and creator Michaela Coel to deliver MacTaggart Lecture at this year’s Edinburgh TV Festival

AWARD-WINNING actress, singer and screenwriter Michaela Coel is to deliver this year’s James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture at the Edinburgh TV Festival.

Michaela, who wrote and starred in E4 sitcom Chewing Gum and had roles in Top Boy, Black Mirror and Star Wars: The Lost Jedi, has a string of accolades to her name and will speak at the centrepiece event on Wednesday August 22.

https://twitter.com/MichaelaCoel/status/979295664973778944

Michaela will be the youngest to present the lecture, as well as the first BAME speaker.

She said: “I am overjoyed to accept this invitation; it seems in some way a celebration of the rapidly changing world we live in.

“But with the constant reshaping of our technological and political world comes a growing need to shine a light and be vigilant rather than complacent about the future of our industry.

“I feel honoured to contribute to this debate on such a prestigious stage.“

The MacTaggart Lecture has been the main event of the Festival since 1976.

It is a described as a unique, global platform offering the speaker creative freedom to provoke, inspire and to set the news agenda

Past speakers include Rupert Murdoch, Janet Street-Porter, Armando Iannucci and Jon Snow.

Festival director Lisa Campbell said: “Michaela is a hugely inspiring figure who has achieved so much in such a short time.

“With her distinctive voice, attitude and ambition this promises to be a ground-breaking and enlivening speech that will offer a completely different perspective.

“Our Talent Schemes delegates voted her as the person who has most inspired them to work in television, and Iike them, I can’t wait to hear the passionate and agenda-setting speech she’s set to deliver.”

For more information, visit http://www.thetvfestival.com/whats-on/news/michaela-coel-deliver-43rd-mactaggart-lecture/