Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity

The Sir Lenny Henry Centre was established in 2020 with a mission to improve the diversity of representation and employment across contemporary British media.

Uniquely, the Centre brings together the expertise of media professionals and academic researchers to develop an evidence-based approach, one that supports different media sectors to become more inclusive and representative of the diverse audiences they serve.

By identifying the interventions that work (and those that don’t) the Centre aims to bring about real and lasting change where people from all backgrounds can participate in, and contribute to, the stories that make sense of who we are as a country. 

In our first 4 years we have already made quite an impact.

Our research into the term ‘BAME’ (rhyming with ‘name’) made a critical intervention in current debates and resulted in the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 committing to the recommendations.

Our report into the impact of Channel 4’s Black2Front day led to their Chief Content Officer citing our recommendations when bringing in a new set of off-screen diversity targets for all productions.

So far we have produced over 16 pieces of original research.

Read about them, and our collaborative journal Representology, below.