Emerald Fennell

Emerald Fennell's first feature grew out of a single scene: a drunk girl being undressed on a bed asks what is going on, then sits up completely sober. She built Promising Young Woman, by her own description, as a revenge film with a real woman at its centre. It won her the Oscar for original screenplay and a nomination for directing, and Film Independent handed her the same pair, the screenplay award and a directing nomination. Before that she was writing and acting for television: the second season of Killing Eve is hers, she appeared in Call the Midwife and The Crown, she has written three books, and she co-created a reworked Cinderella musical. Saltburn came next, then Wuthering Heights. Her view of adaptation is that the only thing you can put on screen is what the book made you feel.