Theme: This is not a Rehearsal

Few people have the tenacity and determination required to stand up to the systems and institutions that represent the norm and fewer still the strength to overcome the opposition and set backs they face on their journey towards positive change. But some do …

This year, TEDxSoho will celebrate the people and organisations who dare to dream AND have the strength, skill and resolve to take action, beat a new path and make ‘better’ a reality.

We will bring to the stage the innovators, leaders, mavericks, creatives and ground breakers who have chosen to rewrite the rules, throw away the book and set their sights towards a brighter future.

Cambridge Theatre
Earlham St
London, Westminster, WC2H 9HU
United Kingdom

Sirine

Singer, Songwriter, Musician

At the age of five, I had a deep love for dance but that was quickly cut short after we found out that I had multiple tumours. I lost my sight officially at the age of 11 where I was introduced to a whole new world of "living in the dark". I was seven when I wrote my first song and, I guess, I didn't stop. I dove into the art of songwriting, singing, playing piano and guitar, and it went from being a heartfelt hobby to a need for it to be a lifelong career.

Aindrea Emelife

Art Historian, Writer and Curator

Aindrea Emelife is an art historian, writer, independent curator, author and presenter from London. Aindrea trained as an art historian at the prestigious Courtauld Institute of Art and has quickly gone on to become a ground-breaking new voice in an art world otherwise steeped in tradition. Aindrea debuted her first column for the Financial Times aged 20 years old, and has been published widely and internationally, including articles in The Guardian, Vanity Fair, The Telegraph, BBC, GQ, Frieze, The Independent, BBC and ArtNet. She features regularly on podcasts, most recently Talk Art and The Art Newspaper Podcast and is dedicated to public speaking, usually pertaining to discussions of contemporary art, popularising art history and championing female, black or artists of colour.

Bee Adamic

CEO Liberty PR

Serial disruptor, mother, mentor and music industry evangelist, Bee Adamic is an inspirational leader in the world of music. She is the CEO and Founder of Liberty Music PR which she launched whilst pregnant back in 2016. She is also the Founder of MAMI - a movement that pushes for change, educates, empowers the next generation of women in music through celebrating mothers who have had children in the music business. Bee Adamic was awarded the She Said So - Alt 100 Power List for 2020 for her contribution to the industry. The list was made up of individuals who inspired them with their adaptability and resilience. Collectives, individuals and pioneering organisations have all been nominated for their strength, passion for community and support for others during a particularly challenging year.

Danny Robins

Author, Writer, Journalist

Danny Robins is an award-winning British writer, broadcaster and journalist. He created The Battersea Poltergeist, a podcast series for the BBC that combined drama and documentary to tell a real-life ghost story, starring Toby Jones and Dafne Keen. It became a global phenomenon – the #1 Drama Podcast across the whole world, with more than 4 million downloads and counting – sparking a bidding war for the TV rights. Danny is now adapting it with Hollywood producers Blumhouse. The series won the Gold Award for Best Serialised Podcast at the New York Festivals Radio Awards.

David Ellis

Singer, Songwriter, Musician

London-based musician, David Ellis released his debut single ‘Eyes To The Sky’ to critical acclaim and was swiftly selected as BBC introducings Record of the Week. As former lead guitarist for Razorlight, Ellis has over a decade of experience touring the world with some of the biggest names in the music industry.As well as directing musical performaces David will be performing and releasing new material exclusively at TEDxSoho

Dr Camilla Pang

Computational Biologist and Autism Advocate

Dr Camilla Pang is a scientist specialising in computational biology who is crazy about proteins and is an active researcher in cancer evolution. She has also written an award winning book called 'Explaining Humans' which won the Royal Society Insight Science book prize in 2020 making her the youngest ever person and the first person of colour. Her second book 'Perfectly Weird' is her debut children's book (March 2022), making her an advocate and voice for the neurodiverse community which she believes are the hidden treasures of human evolution. She is a trustee for charities such as the lightyear foundation and is passionate about enabling neurodiverse minds in the education system and representing Autism in women.

Gabrielle Sey

Singer, songwriter, musician

South London-born singer/songwriter Gabrielle Sey describes her sound “like a round trip from London to Accra with a stop-off at a Cali Sunday Service”. She has gained praise and recognition from the likes of BBC Radio 6 Music, BBC Introducing, Worldwide FM, Fresh on the Net, Exile fm, Gal-Dem and AFROPUNK. Richly rhythmic, lyrically lead and soulfully infused, Sey draws from her Ghanaian heritage to craft a distinctive sound true to her roots. Sey’s artistry is incomplete without her signature performative flair; a characteristic of her music that can only be appreciated at her live shows. Sey’s latest EP ‘Vapour’ is now available on all streaming platforms.

Janet Wang

Wine Author & Journalist

Janet is the author of The Chinese Wine Renaissance (published by Penguin Randomhouse and shortlisted for Louis Roederer Wine Book of the Year 2019 and overall winner of 2020 Gourmand Awards World Wine category). She has appeared on BBC and Channel 4 (a fairly regular wine pundit on Sunday Brunch.) She is an internationally acclaimed specialist on Chinese wine and culture, and the principal Chinese speaking member of the prestigious Circle of Wine Writers and Association of Wine Educators. Janet spent her formative years in China before immigrating to the UK as a teenager. From her education in Chinese history and classics since an early age, she noted that wine’s social effects on humanity were profound and continuous. Janet has been learning, researching and writing about wine since 2012. Drawing from this experience and from her own cross-cultural perspectives ignited an interest in bringing Chinese and Western audiences closer through the language of wine.

Karl Lokko

Campaigner, Mentor, CEO of BlackSeed

Karl Lokko is a former gang leader turned activist, poet, influencer, public speaker and adventurer. Having grown up on a gang-ridden estate in South London, and witnessed the murder of his close friends, a church outreach group helped hum turn his back on street violence. Since then he he has managed to harness his life experiences which has propelled and uniquely situated him as an activist/influencer within the U.K and globally and among other things, advisor to Prince Harry.

Lukasz Konieczka

Founder - Mosaic LGBT+ Young Persons’ Trust

Lukasz Konieczka has been working with young LGBT+ persons for the past sixteen years and even when he was made redundant due to austerity in 2016 it didn’t stop him as he set up an award winning Mosaic LGBT+ Young Persons’ Trust as a charity to carry on serving young LGBT+ community of London. He is a guest lecturer at Goldsmiths and Imperial University where he teaches inclusive practice. He holds qualifications in social work, community development, psychology, youth work, management as well as pedagogy and in his spare time volunteers for Refugees at Home as home visitor and is a chair of Greater London Youth Foundation.

Michael Sheen

Actor, Producer & Political Activist

Sheen is an actor, producer, political activist and campaigner for social change. He has starred in three films nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award: The Queen, directed by Stephen Frears, Frost/Nixon, directed by Ron Howard, and Midnight in Paris, directed by Woody Allen. His many award-winning stage performances include Caligula and Frost/Nixon at the Donmar Theatre, and Hamlet at the Young Vic. He created, co-directed, and performed in the groundbreaking three-day live event The Passion in Port Talbot for National Theatre Wales.

Paul Scanlan

CEO Legion M

Emmy Award-winning entrepreneur, producer, technologist, and adjunct professor obsessed with disruptive ideas and the power of digital communities. Paul Scanlan is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Legion M, the first media company in history designed to be owned by fans. The result has led to successful film projects from “Colossal” (starring Anne Hathaway and Jason Sudeikis), “Mandy” (starring Nicolas Cage), “Jay and Silent Bob Reboot” (directed by and starring Kevin Smith) and the upcoming “Man in the White Van” (starring Sean Astin and Ali Larter). Aside from his professional endeavors, Paul is an active contributing journalist for several media outlets and events, including Huffington Post, The Hollywood Reporter, CNBC, MSNBC, Streaming Media West, Digital Hollywood, and more.

Paulo De Tarso

Restaurateur

Paulo began work in the restaurant business at 16 years of age in New York, and later Los Angeles. He worked his way up through the ranks, gaining an in-depth knowledge of the inner workings of restaurants, all the while becoming enamoured with the industry. He began to build his reputation in London at The Wolseley, followed by three years as maître d’ at the iconic Scott’s in Mayfair. Paulo moved on to open Bar Boulud London under the tutelage of the inimitable Daniel Boulud, who became both mentor and friend. His Bar Boulud team won over 29 awards. During this time, Paulo also completed the excellent Senior Management Development Programme with the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group. In 2016, Paulo launched acclaimed Italian restaurant, Margot in Covent Garden, where he was director and co-proprietor.

Prof Katy Shaw

Director of Cultural Partnerships at Northumbria University.

Prof Katy Shaw is university director of cultural partnerships at Northumbria University and Director of Creative Communities for UKRI/AHRC. Her research interests include contemporary literature, especially working class literature, cultural representations of the North and culture in the levelling up agenda. Katy is the author of five monographs, three edited collections and more than 20 journal articles on these subjects. Most recently, she is the author of the Case for Culture: the APPG Northern Culture inquiry report into post-covid cultural recovery and is researcher in residence on the Michael Sheen, Mirror, New Statesman and Joseph Rowntree project, A Writing Chance. Alongside her academic work, Katy is a journalist, public intellectual, literary festival host, media presenter and Twitterer. She has been a spokesperson for IWD for several years through national media campaigns and role modelling work to break down boundaries for women in Higher Education leadership.

Ray Panthaki

Actor & Producer

AFTA Breakthrough Brit and 2021 BIFA nominee Ray Panthaki is finally being recognised as one of the industry’s most diverse hybrids. The British actor/producer/writer/director is beginning to make waves across the industry in all of the above disciplines; consistently pushing artistic boundaries and choosing to do things against the norm. Having worked with filmmakers such as Danny Boyle, Wash Westmoreland, Gavin Hood, and Ed Zwick as an actor; not much is known about Ray’s involvement behind the scenes in many ground-breaking films. At just 23, unfulfilled with the roles he was being offered as a British Asian actor, he decided to teach himself how to make movies and create roles for himself. As a result, he was the first person to read and champion the culture defining Kidulthood, which he went on to co-produce.

Sam Orams

Film Producer

Sam has been involved with TED events for nearly a decade playing an integral role growing TEDxBrighton from grass roots to a celebrated, sell-out, 2000 seater event. In 2019 he was awarded the opportunity of creating TEDxSoho from scratch an opportunity to good to pass up. By day Sam is an independent film and commerical producer and co-founder of Kindred Communications, specialised in film, photography & content production for brands, agencies and channels. By night he’s a husband, father, pianist, modern jazz drummer, meditator and a fierce film and drama enthusiast. Sam has played in both the World Series of Poker and European Poker open and as a child won a collection of pet care books after entering a competition on Saturday Superstore.

Tom Odell

Singer, songwriter, musician

Singer, songwriter and musician, Tom Odell was propelled straight to the forefront of the mainstream when his debut EP, Songs From Another Love, was released in 2012, leading him to win a BRITs Critics’ Choice Award in 2013 and a place in BBC’s coveted Sound Of list. Later that year, his platinum-selling debut album Long Way Down was released to critical acclaim and went straight to #1 on the UK Albums Chart. In 2014 Tom won the prestigious title of Songwriter Of The Year at the Ivor Novello Awards before his stunning cover of The Beatles’ ‘Real Love’ accompanied the highly anticipated and long-cherished John Lewis Christmas advert. Tom went on to release his second studio album, Wrong Crowd, in 2016, which charted at #2 and is BPI certified Gold, and his third studio album, Jubilee