byron vincent

Biography:  

Byron Vincent is a working-class, neurodivergent writer, performer, broadcaster, DJ and activist with a long and varied career. He spent the aughts doing spoken word at music and literary festivals for which he was picked as one of BBC poetry season’s New Talent Choices.

In more recent years, Byron has turned to theatre, radio, film making and Television, working as writer-director and performer for the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) , Battersea Arts Centre (BAC), British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and other notable acronyms.

Byron is a passionate social activist with lived experience of issues around poverty, neurodivergence, addiction and mental health. He has written and presented several documentaries for BBC Radio 4, often exploring the social problems arising out of poverty, ghettoization and mental ill-health. 

Many of these can still be found on BBC iPlayer; here’s a selection:

Nothing to Lose, Four Thought:

Byron Vincent discusses nature versus nurture and society's obligations to its weakest in this powerful and personal talk:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03vgnjv

The Glasgow Boys: Chaos and Calm:

Byron Vincent joins the Violence Reduction Unit in Glasgow to see how they turn young men away from lives of violence and chaos.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09fy5xl

The Trouble with Social Mobility:

Byron Vincent raises some practical and moral questions about social mobility.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001y8x

Byron was one of the writers commissioned to write about poverty for the BBC series Skint. His episode was described as ‘blistering’ and the ‘Standout’ by the Guardian. The short monologue No Grasses No Nonces, starring Micheal Socha and directed by James Price, is available to watch on BBCi Player here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0bmv926 

Byron is a popular keynote speaker who regularly talks on social issues to charities, police forces, government bodies and the private sector.

Byron is also the host of a Community and Social justice podcast called Justice, Disrupted.

Here he is talking to Chris Daw QC about drug reform:

https://open.spotify.com/show/4IOfvDAjLSS5G2FUrIgXHS

…and former Pop Star turned Vicar The Reverend Richard Coles about grief:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/25SOaBs2vKc9h0UJzh32lh?si=eQyX_osYTNOCMAFBGb1fTw

Byron has a diagnosis of Autism and ADHD and is one of the directors of Gadfly Arts LTD. A company that puts on raves for people with neurodivergent and anxiety-led sensitivities and provides neurodivergence awareness and mental health access training. 

Instagramming the Apocalypse is an exploration of trauma, truth and social media written, shot and edited by Byron using an iPhone, a handheld digital recorder and Final Cut Pro X. Kindly funded by Unlimited and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IbJ3HHQgicrCEgdO6nPcHawp9MG6r6qI/view?usp=sharing

Byron also made these podcasts during Lockdown:

https://soundcloud.com/byron-vincent-427764279

Others on Byron’s writing:

Byron Vincent manages to write and speak about the state of support in this country for our most vulnerable in a way that sparks something in people. I booked him to do a panel at The Southbank centres, being a man festival, and hands down, every single member of the audience was captivated by his honesty. But most importantly, I'm always so impressed by how he can use this honesty in his artistic practice to articulate real solutions to the problems he's critiquing. That's why I rate his writing above all else, and that's why he's a genuinely rare voice- because he can capture an issue with such detail and nuance whilst guiding an audience or a reader towards an answer. One that doesn't feel preachy or reductive. Quite frankly, I'm jealous of the bast**d. I really am.

Jack Rooke – Writer of Chanel 4’s Big Boys.

“Standout, filled with rage, despair and bewilderment.”

Lucy Mangan - The Guardian