Emily Gascoyne – Writer/Story Consultant/Producer Is Headlining Penistone Arts Week
We were honoured to have Emily with us in March 2025, putting on a fantastic event for our young adults. One that might set them off on a career path just as lofty as Emily’s own.
Emily Gascoyne is a Writer and Story Consultant for Channel 4’s flagship soap, Hollyoaks. In her role, she writes episodes for the show and works with the Producers to develop short- and long-term stories that really resonate with their young audience.
Emily previously wrote for Coronation Street (ITV) for four years. Before that, she was a writer on Hollyoaks and was also the Series Producer there for five years, working closely with the Executive Producer to develop the overall creative vision for the show, and leading the editorial and production teams to deliver that vision. Her career highlights include winning the Broadcast Award and the RTS Award for Continuing Drama and being BAFTA nominated three times.
In her twenty-three-year TV career, much of that time has been spent in story offices. She estimates she has been directly involved in the storylining of almost 2000 hours of continuing drama and indirectly involved in many more. She has been the Story Producer at Hollyoaks, Emmerdale and EastEnders and has also spent time north of the border at River City.
In 2010, she used her story know-how to create a new TV drama for the Cambodian Television Network, storylining the entire 52-episode series on location in Phnom Penh and writing several episodes. She has consulted on two more dramas in Cambodia since then, and in 2022, she worked as a freelance Consultant for MBC in the Middle East, using her soap opera experience to help develop a new teen soap. She also offered advice on how to sustain interest in MBC’s existing portfolio of serial dramas.
Outside of the soap genre, she wrote and produced a short film, Late, that was screened at the Filmed Up Festival (HOME, Manchester) and Liverpool Film Night (FACT, Liverpool) in 2015. She also wrote and produced a play for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2000. This was her route into television, in fact. She was hired as a floor runner for Linda Green (Red Productions) later that year.
Emily is working on other projects. She is writing a fantasy novel for young adults and is developing a number of TV drama ideas.
In her free time, she likes to read crime noir and fantasy, she runs a weekly netball club for local ladies, but mostly she enjoys being outdoors on her smallholding with her three children, three goats, five chickens and nine pigs!
Penistone Arts Week - THE Destination To Be This March 