Vicki Kisner is a director and writer for film and television, and has recently directed on UKTV’s Shakespeare & Hathaway. She has directed on a number of other returning dramas, most recently on BBC’s flagship cosy crime period drama Father Brown, and previously for Hope Street for BBC One, BBC Northern Ireland and Britbox, and BBC One’s medical drama Casualty. She has also directed on BBC One’s EastEnders, Channel 4’s Hollyoaks, CBBC’s The Dumping Ground and was lead Director on the second season of surreal sketch show/ sitcom The Amelia Gething Complex (BBC iPlayer).
Vicki has written and directed over ten short films that have screened at various international film festivals including Raindance, The Broadcast Awards, Durban International Film festival, Zimbabwe International Film Festival to name just a few. She is in the process of financing her first feature State of Emergency which is set in South Africa at the height of the Apartheid Regime. The project was selected to pitch at JETS Co Production Initiative at the Berlin Film Festival in 2020.
Originally from Johannesburg in South Africa, Vicki has grown up in London. She has worked in the film industry for over twenty years in both development and production. In 2015 she completed her Master of Arts in Fiction Directing at the Met Film School where she was awarded a full scholarship. She has been nominated for a number of awards for her short films and won the Emerging Talent Award at the British Urban Film Festival in 2015 and was nominated for Best New Director at the Broadcast Awards for her first short film Human Territory. She is passionate about telling character driven stories that deal with complex emotions and human relationships.
Showreel: Vicki Kisner
| Television (broadcast): | |
|---|---|
| Shakespeare & Hathaway: Private Investigators | BBC Studios / U&alibi & BBC Content Director on the successful crime drama (2025/2026) 2 x 60 minute episodes |
| Father Brown | BBC Studios / BBC One Director for the returning period-drama series (2025) 2 x 60 minute episodes |
| Hope Street, Series 4 | Long Story TV / BBC One Director of a block on the new series (2024) 2 x 45 minute episodes |
| Casualty | BBC Studios / BBC One Director on the BBC prime time drama (2023) 2 x 50 minute episodes |
| EastEnders | BBC Studios / BBC One Returning director for the BBC One continuing drama (2021-present) 30 x 30 minute episodes |
| Hollyoaks | Lime Pictures / Channel 4 Returning director for the Channel 4 drama (2021-2023) 15 x 30 minute episodes |
| The Dumping Ground | BBC Children’s Productions / CBBC Director of four episodes on the CBBC drama series (2021) 4 x 30 min episodes |
| The Amelia Gething Complex | BBC Children’s Productions / BBC Director of the second series of this surreal comedy (2020) 8 x 18 min episodes |
| The Dumping Ground | BBC Children’s Productions / CBBC Director of a block on the CBBC drama series (2019) |
| Feature film (in development): | |
|---|---|
| State Of Emergency | Fuse Box Films and Focus Films Ltd Writer & Director Set in South Africa in 1985 at the height of the Apartheid regime, State of Emergency is a domestic thriller about two women across the racial divide who have to learn to trust each other at this frightening time of high stakes politics and civil unrest. |
| Short film: | |
|---|---|
| Pulling | Writer & Director Drama about a teenage girl, Sylvie, suffering from an impulsive control disorder called trichotillomania (hair pulling disorder) and her troubled relationship with her parents and best friend Jenna.Selected By Directors UK and Arri for the Alexa Challenge. Vimeo Link – Password: Pulling2017 |
| Sheila | Director Sheila is working as a maid in present day Johannesburg when her relationship with her controlling boss is put to the test.Winner: Golden Knight Award, Gold Knight Malta International Film Festival 2015. Nominated: Best Short Film, British Urban Film Festival 2016; Best Student Film, Rapid Lion South African International Film Festival 2016; Best Drama, Limelight Film Awards 2015. Official selection: Zimbabwe International Film Festival 2016; Jozi Film Festival 2016; Afrika film festival in Cologne 2016; International Short Film Festival in Drama 2016; Durban International Film Festival 2015; British Urban Film Festival 2015; Aesthetica Short Film Festival 2015. Vimeo Link |
| Still Water | Writer & Director Charlie, a gardener encounters something magical and entirely unexpected in the shadowy depths of a small lake.Nominated: Best Sci Fi / Fantasy Film, Screentest: Student Film Festival 2015; Best Experimental Film, Limelight Film Awards 2015. Official selection: British Urban Film Festival 2015. |
| Mia’s Story | Writer & Director Mia’s Story is an anti stigma and awareness film commissioned by the West London Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service. Mia (16) has been contemplating suicide. She discovers she’s been suffering from depression and anxiety and is referred to a specialist unit and starts to learn how to cope with her feelings.Winner: Film of the Month, Art With Impact March 2017 Official Selection: Mental Health Channel Online Film Festival 2015; Mind Rights Film Festival 2015; London Short Film Festival 2015. |
| Charlie Boy | Co-writer & Director A simple story of a brother and sisters’ love for each other and how that devotion, when confronted with a severe circumstance, can drastically alter the course of their lives forever.Official selection: British Urban Film Festival 2014, Kino International Film Festival 2014. |
| Human Territory | Writer & Director A short, sharp insight into the mind of a crazed and frustrated female.Nominated: Best New Director, Broadcast Awards 2003. Official selection: Portobello Film Festival 2003, Raindance Film Festival 2002. |
| Professional training and qualifications: | |
|---|---|
| Selected for Directors UK Inspire Mentorship Programme 2018 / 2019 | |
| Shadowing placement on Channel 4’s Hollyoaks 2018 / 2019 | |
| Selected for Directors UK / Channel X shadowing scheme for So Awkward | |
| Shadowing placement on CBBC’s The Worst Witch | |
| Shadowing placement on ITV’s Emmerdale | |
| Distinction in Master of Arts in Fiction Directing – Met Film School 2015 | |
| Diploma in Script Development – Script Factory / NFTS 2011 | |
| BA (Hons) Media & Cultural Studies – Southampton Institute 1997-2000 |