Meet the team

Sir Lenny Henry is an actor, comedian and campaigner. He was the Chancellor of Birmingham City University from July 2016 until 2024. Born in the West Midlands town of Dudley in 1958, Lenny rose to fame through the television shows Tiswas and New Faces, as well as co-founding the charity Comic Relief. Since then, he has enjoyed an extensive career in film, TV and onstage. In recent years, Sir Lenny has enjoyed widespread acclaim for more dramatic roles, including playing the title role in a stage production of Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’. In 2015, he was made a Sir in the Queen’s 2015 Birthday Honours List for services to drama and charity. He was then presented with a special BAFTA award in 2016, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to television. Sir Lenny released his memoir, Who Am I, Again?, in 2019. In academia, Sir Lenny became a Doctor of Philosophy in 2018, for his research investigating the role of black people in the media. In 2020 Sir Lenny was made a visiting Professor of Media Diversity at Birmingham City University

Jaldeep Katwala is Director of the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity at Birmingham City University. He joined in January 2026. He has worked in journalism and media for more than 40 years. He began in BBC local radio and BBC Scotland, then produced for Channel 4 News at ITN. At Radio Netherlands Worldwide he presented and made documentaries. He went on to lead media development work in conflict and post-conflict settings, including DR Congo, Haiti, South Sudan and Papua New Guinea, and with UN peacekeeping missions. He led the undergraduate journalism degree at Bournemouth University. He was Operations Lead and a non-executive director at the Bristol Cable, and Network Manager at the Public Interest News Foundation, where he built a network of more than 120 independent publishers. Jaldeep chairs the Independent Media Trust, sits on the DCMS Local News Fund Steering Board and is a trustee of the Stephen Spender Trust.

Angela has worked in the UK television industry for twenty years as a documentary director, commissioning editor diversity champion. Most recently she was Head of Creative Diversity at C4, where she was responsible for the broadcasters inclusion strategy onscreen and off. Prior to this she worked at the BBC as their Independents and Diversity Executive, ensuring diverse representation in its programming, supporting SMEs and diverse suppliers, and implementing the BBC’s supply strategy across the nations and regions. Her specialism has been in unlocking the potential of small creative businesses from under-represented groups.  

She holds an Executive MBA in the Creative Industries from Ashridge Hult Business School, a degree in Social Anthropology from Cambridge University & a Masters in Fine Art Photography. Angela is now a consultant, lecturer and doctoral researcher at Royal Holloway University specialising in inclusive innovation and creative industries policy.  Her research explores the business models and behaviours that drive successful inclusive growth in the digital and immersive sector.

The Film and TV Charity, CEO  

Marcus is CEO of the Film and TV Charity. Prior to that he was Head of External Consultancies at the Lenny Henry Centre as well as one of its founding members.

He's a leader on the issue of diversity in the media industry, backed by a track-record of award-winning news and current affairs productions delivered by diverse teams for a range of organisations including the BBC and China’s largest digital broadcaster CGTN, spanning a period of over 25 years.

He has been actively involved in nearly all major UK diversity developments over the last five years, and been asked to give evidence to the UK Parliament twice on the topic. He is regularly asked to write articles on the topic for newspapers such as The Guardian and FT, as well as industry magazines such as Broadcast.

He blogs at https://blackonwhitetv.blogspot.com. 

 Erika was born profoundly Deaf and is a fluent British Sign Language (BSL) user. She has over a decade of experience in broadcast current affairs, having worked on a range of programmes including See Hear, Points West, Newsnight, Antiques Roadshow, and Countryfile. In addition, she has served for more than five years as a screen industries trade union representative. Erika is also the lead researcher and co-author of one of the first reports to focus exclusively on the experiences of Deaf professionals working in off-screen industry.

Karon is a barrister practising principally in the fields of equality and human rights law. She is the author of the leading textbook, Equality Law (OUP). She is a member of the Equality and Human Rights Commission Panel of Preferred Counsel. She has undertaken advisory work on promoting media diversity through the innovative use of equality laws. 

Diane Kemp is former director of the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity, was Deputy Chair of the Broadcast Journalism Training Council for 8 years and still chairs the committee which oversees their Placement Assistance Scheme.

She was made a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in 2016. In 2019 Diane started the Women’s Professoriat for the then 27 women Professors to meet and exchange information at Birmingham City University. She was on the University’s committee to gain Athena Swan recognition and worked on the cross-city initiative ‘Birmingham Partners’ of which Birmingham City University was a founder member. For ‘Birmingham Partners’ she was also on the city’s child poverty action forum and was a Poverty Truth Commissioner for two years.

Diane has been a consultant for the Council of Europe on diversity in journalism over  a number of years and projects, most recently coordinating their ‘Div-A’ project – Diversity Accelerator. She was the lead consultant on their two year MEDIANE programme and produced training resources, and acted as facilitator, for the Council of Europe’s previous two campaigns. Diane has taught journalism ethics in Macedonia and Lithuania for the Fundamental Rights Agency of the EU, where she has also done work for Transparency International. She has also chaired panels at the International Journalism Festival in Perugia, Italy and been a judge for the UK’s Royal Television Society’s journalism awards.

Sir Lenny Henry is an actor, comedian and campaigner. He was the Chancellor of Birmingham City University from July 2016 until 2024. Born in the West Midlands town of Dudley in 1958, Lenny rose to fame through the television shows Tiswas and New Faces, as well as co-founding the charity Comic Relief. Since then, he has enjoyed an extensive career in film, TV and onstage. In recent years, Sir Lenny has enjoyed widespread acclaim for more dramatic roles, including playing the title role in a stage production of Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’. In 2015, he was made a Sir in the Queen’s 2015 Birthday Honours List for services to drama and charity. He was then presented with a special BAFTA award in 2016, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to television. Sir Lenny released his memoir, Who Am I, Again?, in 2019. In academia, Sir Lenny became a Doctor of Philosophy in 2018, for his research investigating the role of black people in the media. In 2020 Sir Lenny was made a visiting Professor of Media Diversity at Birmingham City University

Jaldeep Katwala is Director of the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity at Birmingham City University. He joined in January 2026. He has worked in journalism and media for more than 40 years. He began in BBC local radio and BBC Scotland, then produced for Channel 4 News at ITN. At Radio Netherlands Worldwide he presented and made documentaries. He went on to lead media development work in conflict and post-conflict settings, including DR Congo, Haiti, South Sudan and Papua New Guinea, and with UN peacekeeping missions. He led the undergraduate journalism degree at Bournemouth University. He was Operations Lead and a non-executive director at the Bristol Cable, and Network Manager at the Public Interest News Foundation, where he built a network of more than 120 independent publishers. Jaldeep chairs the Independent Media Trust, sits on the DCMS Local News Fund Steering Board and is a trustee of the Stephen Spender Trust.

Diane Kemp is former director of the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity, was Deputy Chair of the Broadcast Journalism Training Council for 8 years and still chairs the committee which oversees their Placement Assistance Scheme.

She was made a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in 2016. In 2019 Diane started the Women’s Professoriat for the then 27 women Professors to meet and exchange information at Birmingham City University. She was on the University’s committee to gain Athena Swan recognition and worked on the cross-city initiative ‘Birmingham Partners’ of which Birmingham City University was a founder member. For ‘Birmingham Partners’ she was also on the city’s child poverty action forum and was a Poverty Truth Commissioner for two years.

Diane has been a consultant for the Council of Europe on diversity in journalism over  a number of years and projects, most recently coordinating their ‘Div-A’ project – Diversity Accelerator. She was the lead consultant on their two year MEDIANE programme and produced training resources, and acted as facilitator, for the Council of Europe’s previous two campaigns. Diane has taught journalism ethics in Macedonia and Lithuania for the Fundamental Rights Agency of the EU, where she has also done work for Transparency International. She has also chaired panels at the International Journalism Festival in Perugia, Italy and been a judge for the UK’s Royal Television Society’s journalism awards.

Dr Ngozi Emmanuel is a Research Assistant at the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity. She holds a PhD in Media, Communication and Sociology from the University of Leicester where she also worked as a Post-doctoral Innovation fellow at the beginning of 2023. Ngozi’s research is in two strands; one explores disability representation in the media and the social implications of such representation on disability rights and inclusion. The other strand seeks to identify and examine disability hate crimes especially within ethnic minority cultures as well as in society at large and how these crimes impact on the identity of disabled people and promote ableism. 

Ngozi has held workshops with disabled people and other non-specialist audiences in the UK interested in diversity and disability rights. She has also received grants from the ESRC/IAA which enabled her to co-produce knowledge with disabled people and to ultimately create a toolkit for representing disabilities and disabled people in cinema and on television. Ngozi’s toolkit can be found on her research website. She is currently an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Sofia Brizio is a PhD researcher looking at the representation of disabled people in mainstream online news in the UK. Combining textual analysis of news articles and interviews with both journalists and disabled news subjects, her research aims to highlight patterns in online production practices around disability news and generate recommendations for a more inclusive media landscape. Sofia is also currently a research assistant on Dr Ngozi Marion Emmanuel’s project examining disability representation in West Midlands arts and cultural spaces. Sofia’s previous research has addressed the marginalisation of disabled people and working class people in the UK’s creative and cultural industries, with a particular focus on journalism and the book publishing industry.  

Sofia is also a writer, editor and disability justice activist working through an intersectional lens across topics such as trans-inclusive feminism, LGBTQ+ rights,