Hot Shots 2024: Jingan Young

“Commercial, yet with a plentiful supply of swagger and originality,” is how Lachlan Mackinnon, executive producer of Bad Wolf’s recent ITV drama Red Eye, sums up Jingan Young.

As a Hong Kong-born London resident, Young was instrumental in ensuring the smash hit series captured the nuances of two sisters who were central to the airborne thriller’s narrative: one born in the UK and the other in Hong Kong.

She wrote its fourth episode and her role as the series’ cultural consultant reflects her wider mission to fi ght for British East Asian representation. Young writes about cinema and TV for The Guardian, and edited a collection of plays that rounded up a decade of new writing from playwrights she had championed through her company, Pokfulam Road Productions.

Young trained on the BBC Writersoom’s London Voices scheme and the C4 Screenwriting Programme, and went on to the Sky Studios/Birmingham Rep scheme for upcoming comedy talent.

She came to Bad Wolf’s attention following a Guardian piece she wrote about Disney animation Turning Red. She also has the claim of introducing the first British East Asian family on children’s TV, in an episode of CBeebies’ Bi & Chip.

Cinema is her next target: she’s developing what could become the first British East Asian romcom, No 2. Daughter, with Bona Dea Films and the BFI.

“Jingan’s work will surely pave the way for more East Asian-led stories in the UK,” says the company’s founder, Alice Hunter-Vernazza.