Spotlight.
Michelle Chantelle Hopewell
INTRODUCTION
Michelle Chantelle Hopewell is a Scotland-based actor, playwright and writer creating emotionally driven work that centres Black voices, with a commitment to representation and inclusion.
She is currently developing Black Tommy – Research into the Life and Legacy of Arthur Roberts (2026) funded by Creative Scotland. She is a recipient of the Edinburgh Council Artists’ Parents Bursary (2026).
Developing her first project for children's theatre, Michelle is supported by Visible Fictions – Working Title Project (2025/26), and the Playwrights’ Studio Scotland 2025 Bursary. Her work was recently placed in the top 10% of submissions for the Women’s Prize for Playwriting (2025).
Her debut play Detained received its first professional production as part of A Play, A Pie and A Pint’s 20th anniversary season, opening to 4 star reviews.
Michelle was runner-up for the St Andrews Playwriting Award (2024) and winner of Spotlight’s Into the Spotlight competition (2022) for her monologue Change, selected from over 1,000 entries by casting director Sophie Holland. She is a graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
INTERVIEW
How did you get into your creative practice? What initially inspired you?
I grew up in very creative family and so my upbringing was steeped in arts and popular culture. Being the youngest in my family meant that I was consuming a really eclectic mix of media, music, film and TV. It definitely cultivated a rich inner world which always responded to performance and to writing. I was inspired by so many incredible writers like Maya Angelou, and my own grandfather who was a journalist. I was and still am heavily influenced by poetry and lyrics. My work as a writer often features quite sonic landscapes for world building and audience immersion. And as a performer, with a musical theatre background, music I feel moves me on a somatic level.
As a little girl we had the incredible opportunity to see The Lion King on the West End. My parents had saved and sacrificed to make this happen and it was a huge deal for us. I remember sitting down in the theatre and as the lights came down, and the music began, I cried. At the interval, my distraught dad asked me what was wrong? Didn’t I like it? He had been sure that I in particular would enjoy it. And I remember telling him, I’m not crying because I don’t like it, I’m crying because I love it.
And that was it.
Despite all of the incredible influences and artistic interests, due to life circumstances and my self esteem being quite low, I really didn’t seriously throw myself into pursuing theatre and performance until I was around 19 years old. But once I had made up my mind, nothing stopped me. I got my HNC/D, applied for the Musical Theatre degree course at Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and used absolutely every opportunity in between to learn, grow and inform myself.
What themes do you tend to interrogate in your creative practices?
My practice typically interrogates systems and their direct and lasting impact on the most vulnerable members of society, namely Black communities. I’m deeply interested in subverting well known classical structures and unpacking historical contexts that have erased or flattened us. Whether I’m looking at classical stories like Peter Pan, institutional healthcare, the military archive, or classical art, my work constantly inspects the psychological dynamics Black people navigate when existing, surviving, and asserting power within predominantly white spaces.
What is your favourite project you’ve ever worked on and why?
I’ve had the privilege of working on some really fantastic projects but I have to say that working on my debut play Detained was a career highlight. The joy of creating work and seeing it come to life is second to none. And knowing that the work is an act of service to some of the most vulnerable is truly a gift to me. Storytelling and connection matter now more than ever and any small contribution I can give brings me immeasurable joy.
What advice would you have for creatives of colour looking to get into your creative practices?
The landscape of the industry has shifted so much in the last several years, and in many ways I think that shift is still occurring. During uncertain times, artists and their work are even more important. So my advice is, make work. Be part of making it, create your own. Collaborate and find new ways to be innovative.
Find ways to keep yourself anchored to the reasons you fell in love with the work anyway. Ask questions. Stay curious. Seek out opportunities, be open to learning but remember your worth and ensure you are reasonable compensated for your efforts and talents.
What are you currently working on?
I’m currently working on some very exciting projects. I have a Creative Scotland funded R&D, Black Tommy, which is historical and archival research and will explore the Life and Legacy of WW1 Black Scottish soldier Arthur Roberts. He was an incredibly accomplished and intelligent man who’s diaries were discovered years after his passing. After this period of research I will begin writing a full length play.
I’m working with Visible Fictions through their Working Title Project, developing some children’s theatre that will explore the impact of the immigration detention on young children.
I’m also a recipient of Playwright Studio Scotland’s Bursary Scheme developing a play inspired by the work of painter Johannes Vermeer which explores colonisation and erasure. In its early stages this work was within the top 10% of the Women’s Prize for Playwriting.
On the performance side, my most recent work was under the direction of the wonderful Adura Onashile for BBC Scotland Radio, with her adaption of “Flight”.
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