Clare-Louise English and Jo Sargeant are Co-Creative Directors of Hot Coals Productions an award winning production company making compelling stories in theatre, film and TV. Hot Coals specialise in making work accessible to both Deaf and hearing audiences, through Creative Captions and visual storytelling and strive to break down barriers and challenge conventional Access methods in all their work.
Founded in 2012, Hot Coals is formed of Clare Louise English, a Deaf screen director, writer and producer who lost her hearing as a teenager, and Jo Sargeant a neurodiverse producer and writer.
Film credits include the 2020, multi award winning short, My Darling Christopher, which combines English, BSL and Creative Captions. They have since made a further 3 films, their most recent, Indefinitely, already having been nominated for 6 awards and winning the Vanguard Award for Cinematic Achievement at Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema 2023.
The pair were also the Producer and Director behind the ABOUT TIME event held at BAFTA in 2022 presented in partnership with ITV and Disney+ which was a celebration of Deaf, Disabled and/or neurodivergent talent in TV.