A performer and writer from Italy, Cecilia Gragnani has been working as an actress in theatre, television and film since completing her studies at Drama Centre Central Saint Martins (University of the Arts London) and the National Film and Television School in the United Kingdom, while also being one of the United Kingodom’s go-to Italian voices. She has co-written the documentary Maradonapoli by Cinemaundici and the sitcom Che Classe! by Indiana Production. Her first book, Inseguendo un sogno, about a football pioneer, was published by Sperling & Kupfer, adapted as an audiobook by Storytel, and optioned for television development. Her documentary on one of the first stuntwomen of Italian cinema is a Premio Solinas Finalist 2024 and is currently in development with Red House Produzioni. She is a Torino Film Lab and a John Yorke alumna, as well as a trained script developer, working as a script reader and editor for the British Film Institute (BFI), Channel 4 and Silver Reel. Her work, featured on platforms like Repubblica, BBC and LondonLive, has been described as “a very natural kind of funny”.

Dead Grandad — Forty-year-old single mother Grace is on a mission to make her dead father finally become a real grandfather (and the best one) to her daughter Sally. But can a five-year-old really bond with an urn?