11/04/2026
What a wonderful day alhamdulillah, at our latest networking event in London. I left feeling energised and inspired after meeting lots of new people. We started with Qur’an recitation by Faiz, and then dived into icebreaker bingo. It REALLY got everyone chatting and getting to know each other.
Faraz Osman, founder of production company Goldwala, gave us a fascinating (and amusing!) insight into how the UK’s TV industry works, top tips for navigating it (“find a family”), and the trajectory the industry is going in.
Next we had lunch, chatting with both attendees and speakers. It was eye-opening to meet so many Muslims with varying creative backgrounds and at different stages in their careers! Afterwards, we all prayed together and listened to Rehaan’s spiritual reminder.
Nina Karwalska spoke about her career trajectory from accounting into production management! She told us about Screen Sisters & Futures in Film, which I really recommend getting involved with if you want free industry-level experience on sets, while also making social impact films. We had a surprise guest: her co-founder of Screen Sisters, Rizwan Wadan, who is a specialist cinematographer. He invited us to their workshops and told us about the exciting camera tech we could learn to use!
Raisah Ahmed, writer-director, told us about her creative journey through the industry, short film-making, what writers rooms are like, and how you shouldn’t compromise on your storytelling. A piece of advice I concluded with was: get in the room, and stop complaining from outside of it. Also, move to Scotland and work on Balamory 🙂
Last was group discussions with the speakers, who answered our (many!) questions & gave advice. It was a real highlight. We also talked about our individual journeys which was very helpful.
Some of us stragglers went out for dinner after with Nina & Rizwan, where the conversation was buzzing and full of ideas (also dad jokes). All in all I left with lots of new connections and a newfound determination that a creative career in TV & Film is attainable, inshallah.
~ Karima
