Jo Ho is a British-Chinese screenwriter, director and author, best known for creating the BBC series Spirit Warriors.[1]
She has been credited as the first East Asian person in the UK to have successfully created an original television drama series. Spirit Warriors is also the UK's first TV drama series to star a predominantly East Asian cast.[2]
Early life
Ho was born in Dagenham in London, and studied Mixed Media Arts at the University of Westminster.[3]
Career
Ho taught herself screenwriting by studying The West Wing and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.[4] She went on to work as a production manager on several projects, before writing and directing her first short film Isolation 9 in 2006. The film won the Audience Festival award at the Buffalo-san Short Film Festival.[5] Her next short film Monkey Nut Tales, shot just two months later, was funded by the UK Film Council and Film London as part of the 2006 Digital Shorts Pulse Scheme.[6]
In 2008, Ho was a judge on the BBC Bites Scheme, created to find and encourage British born Chinese writers.[7]
After three years in development, Spirit Warriors began filming in 2009.[8] The series aired in 2010, on BBC HD, BBC Two, and CBBC, and was nominated for "Best Children's Programme" at the 2011 Broadcast Awards.[9]
Ho herself won the Women in Film and Television's "New Talent Award"[10] and was nominated for the Cultural Diversity Network Award for "Best Breakthrough Production Talent".[11]
Known for her high concept work, following Spirit Warriors, Ho has worked as a storyline consultant on a supernatural BBC drama series Bishaash and has been engaged[failed verification] to write three feature films: an action film, a teen supernatural romance and a dark fairytale. In 2012 she was working on scripts for on several original feature films[12] and several TV series including a big budget medieval series for acclaimed producers Morgan O'Sullivan and James Flynn (producers of The Borgias, The Tudors and Vikings).[13]
In addition to screenwriting, Ho is also an author. WANTED, Book 1 of The Chase Ryder Series is Ho's first novel. With over 150 five-star reviews, it has been a best-seller in over 15 Young Adult categories on Amazon and recently won the YA Sci-fi category for the Readers' Favorite International Book Awards (2018). Her second YA book series, TWISTED, an urban fantasy serial about four troubled girls who discover they now command some super dark powers was published in 2018.[14]
Ho is a voting member of BAFTA and repped by The Dench Arnold Agency.[15]
The Independent noted her among "five to watch" in the context of ethnic minority writers for British television and film.[16]
