Hot Shots 2024: Avril Evans

Avril Evans’ career has recently shifted from advertising to drama, where Alex Pillai (director of Doctor Who, Riverdale and Bridgerton) says she has “a huge amount to offer”. And it’s evident that as London-based Evans climbs up the ladder, she’s quick to pull up others too.

Championing fair representation in front of and behind the camera, Evans has worked with Bectu to campaign for and help shape its diversity and inclusion policies, and was involved in the Bafta steering group for inclusion.

In May, she was chosen by Doctor Who indie Bad Wolf as the first participant in a scheme to address the under-representation of women of colour in directing. Funded by the BBC and Sony Pictures Television, the scheme expanded Evans’ experience to incorporate high-end TV. “At Bad Wolf, she has excelled at mastering the complexity of this show. She is a director with a bright future,” says Pillai.

Evans sidestepped to drama after nearly a decade working as a promo director at the BBC, where she won awards for her campaigns. Her first drama projects were as writer/director of the Film London-supported short films Playground and Famous Last Words, and director of 18 character films for the Webby award-winning EastEnders: E20.

Catching a break after that proved to be tricky – hence her passion for removing barriers to entry and progression for others – but her perseverance paid o when she directed her first episode of Channel 4’s Hollyoaks in 2022. This break also led to working on BBC1 primetime drama Call The Midwife.

In tandem with these projects, she was chosen as a One to Watch at the Edinburgh TV Festival in 2021, selected for The TV Collective’s Breakthrough Leaders 2022 cohort, and was nominated in the Best Debut Scripted Director category at the New Voice Awards in 2023.