About
About
I'm a socially-engaged creative facilitator, writer, performer and project manager based in Manchester. Below are short and long biographies for professional use – feel free to use either for programme notes, websites or press materials. For something specific or a higher resolution image, please get in touch.
Short biography (approx. 75 words):
Ben Mellor is a socially-engaged creative facilitator, writer, performer and project manager with over twenty years of experience in arts, education and community settings. He holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge (Distinction, 2025) and is a regular Writer in Residence with First Story. He has created seven touring shows, published two poetry collections, and won multiple poetry slams including the BBC Radio 4 National Poetry Slam.
Full biography – (approx. 200 words):
Ben Mellor is a socially-engaged creative facilitator, writer, performer and project manager who has worked in schools, universities, theatres, prisons, arts & community centres and festivals across the UK and internationally for over twenty years.
He holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge, awarded with Distinction in 2025, and is a regular Writer in Residence with national literacy charity First Story. His workshops move between writing and speaking, treating oracy and literacy as inseparable, and draw on flow theory to create the conditions in which participants can become genuinely absorbed in the act of making.
As a creative practitioner, Ben has created seven full-length shows incorporating spoken word, theatre, music and storytelling, published two poetry collections with accompanying audio recordings, and won multiple poetry slams including the BBC Radio 4 National Poetry Slam. He has featured on BBC Radio 4, 4 Extra and the World Service, with writing published by Flapjack Press, Poetry Review, Route and others.
As a facilitator and project manager, Ben has worked with the British Library, Apples & Snakes, Contact, Lowry, the Royal Exchange and many more, and is currently Creative Engagement Manager at imitating the dog theatre company.
For show-specific copy, images, or alternative versions, please get in touch.
QUOTES:
“A pure undiluted talent. Concentrated”
Lemn Sissay, MBE
“A poet of political perspicacity and no little wit”
Bookslam, London’s best literary nightclub
“Simply one of the UK’s most charismatic spoken word artists”
Phrased & Confused
