Six-month placement to boost her comedy writing career

Stand-up Athena Kugblenu has been awarded this year’s Felix Dexter Bursary  by the BBC.

The six-month bursary, run by BBC Comedy, aims at helping aspiring comedy writers from a black or minority ethnic background, underrepresented in broadcasting. 

Athena Kugblenu was a BBC New Comedian of the Year finalist in 2015,  and she made her Edinburgh Fringe debut in 2017 with KMT. She is now a   regular co-host on The Guilty Feminist podcast and has written for Time Out and Stylist Magazine.

She said: ‘I'm thrilled and a little bit stunned to be awarded this bursary, especially one in the name of an indisputable comedy genius. This is a huge opportunity to develop my comedy writing and further my career, and I can't wait to get started.’

BBC comedy commissioning editor Sarah Asante added: ‘We’re very excited to welcome Athena to the third year of the Felix Dexter Bursary and hope that the training on offer leads to finding her voice and cementing her place in the scripted world.’

The Felix Dexter Bursary was launched in 2017 after Dexter's friend Paul Whitehouse and BBC comedy commissioner Shane Allen agreed that supporting and encouraging writers from an ethnic minority background would be a fitting tribute to the late comedy star.

The bursary gives up-and-coming talent the chance to make comedy writing their main focus for six months, while immersed in comedy production on a range of BBC comedies across radio, TV and online, on panel shows, shorts, sitcoms or comedy entertainment shows. 

Past recipients of the bursary were Leah Chillery and Jonny Wright, and Nathan Roberts and Phoebe Roy.

Published: 12 Feb 2020