Hot Shots 2022: Khurrum M Sultan

Khurrum M Sultan has always dreamed of being a drama director, but his route to success was not easy. After a drama executive told him many years ago that “if someone like ‘you’ ever wants to direct drama, you better keep dreaming” – ‘you’ being a neurodivergent young man from an ethnically diverse background – he was determined to prove them wrong, however arduous the journey.

Through making adverts for brands such as Fifa and documentaries for the BBC, ITV and Sky, where he risked his life tackling tough subjects such as immigration and terrorism, Sultan paid his way and sharpened his storytelling skills on the long path to his goal. Not even being caught up in a terror attack in Northern Nigeria that killed more than 150 bystanders in 2014, leaving him with residual trauma, could deter him.

This year, Sultan landed two blocks on Channel 4’s Hollyoaks, including a week of episodes for the Queen’s Golden Jubilee, and Curtis Brown began representing him as a drama director. Now he is working in primetime, with a standalone two-hour episode of series 12 of ITV crime drama Vera on the way.

Kate Bartlett, creative director of Vera producer Silverprint Pictures, is in awe. “Khurrum’s passion, dedication and talent shine through in both his directing work and as a person,” she says. “He has been incredible on Vera - cinematic in his ambition, always across the script, and the cast and crew thought he was wonderful to work with.”

Picked for the Edinburgh TV Festival’s Ones to Watch scheme, and nominated for a debut director award at the 2020 festival, he’s also using his story in his role as a mentor to aspiring drama directors.