Kulsum Hafeji & Georgia Levy-Collins<\/span>BBC Newsbeat<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n After a lifetime of loving film and TV, Rose Wenje realised she wanted to work in the industry.<\/p>\n The 17-year-old, from Northamptonshire, says she first started to seriously consider it as a career during the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n “At first I wanted to be an actor to play a superhero,” the Marvel fan tells BBC Newsbeat.<\/p>\n Rose has since shifted her focus towards directing, and admits opting for a creative career felt risky.<\/p>\n “It did feel like I was going out of the norm,” she says. <\/p>\n Rose says teachers encouraged her to take a more conventional route into a STEM career instead, but this only strengthened her determination.<\/p>\n She went on to win a place on Bafta’s Set the Stage initiative, which recruits 16 young film-makers from around the UK to work on a short film.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n One of the tutors is actor David Jonsson, who made history as the first black lead in a screen adaptation of an Agatha Christie novel.<\/p>\n As a person of colour herself, Rose says “it’s important to allow people who look like me to see people like themselves in the jobs that they want and on-screen”.<\/p>\n “It just makes it feel possible to other people, makes it feel that bit more achievable”.<\/p>\n David, who also appeared in HBO’s Industry, tells BBC Newsbeat how important it is for young people to see those from different backgrounds in the industry. <\/p>\n “That was me,” as someone with a working-class upbringing, he says. <\/p>\n “My family is creole, we have African Caribbean inside us, which is all the ingredients for ‘just choose a regular job’.”<\/p>\n David says his family supported his ambitions to become an actor.<\/p>\n “They also believed in art,” he says.<\/p>\n “My dad loved movies and he was a huge advocate for us watching and appreciating art.<\/p>\n “I’m eternally grateful for them taking a chance and saying ‘do what you want’.” <\/p>\n David says movies from black American film-makers, such as Love and Basketball, Friday and Mahogany inspired him “to dream a bit” and fuelled his own love of movies.<\/p>\n Despite relatives having his back, he admits it felt almost “impossible” to see a way to into film-making from his home of East London.<\/p>\n But he says it didn’t stop him from looking for one.<\/p>\n “I always say whatever you love, you’ll fight for,” says David.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Research from Ofcom shows that those certain backgrounds are less well-represented across the UK broadcasting industry.<\/p>\n In a recent report, the regulator said “people from minority ethnic groups (across the industry as a whole) only account for 11% of those in senior management roles.”<\/p>\n It also found under-representation in creative, production and on-screen roles.<\/p>\n Ofcom encouraged broadcasters “could be doing more with regards to specific career development initiatives for under-represented groups”. <\/p>\n David hopes Set the Stage can be one of the schemes “opening up doors for more people like myself”.<\/p>\n “This is a real career path,” he says.<\/p>\n “I am truly grateful to be working in the time that i am, and i want to radiate that not just to our generation but to older ones as well.”<\/p>\n Research conducted by EE on Bafta’s behalf suggested there was also a generational divide over perceptions of creative careers.<\/p>\n For those who don’t have the backing of their parents, it can be a further obstacle, says Rose.<\/p>\n She hopes Set the Stage can help to change that.<\/p>\n “Before the industry was a little bit elitist,” she says.<\/p>\n “Film courses were thousands of pounds which is not very viable if you’re young and not from a wealthy background”. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Initiatives aimed at boosting equity, diversity and inclusion can sometimes face backlash.<\/p>\n But Sarah Adegboyega-Ayeni, 17, another budding director on the Set the Stage scheme, believes film can be a powerful force to unite people.<\/p>\n “That’s how we bond with each other,” she says.<\/p>\n “Film brings me closer to all different people, of all different ages and sectors of life and society.”<\/p>\n Sarah says her favourite movie is Rush Hour, starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, because the two lead characters come together and “work out problems despite their very different backgrounds”.<\/p>\n “Film can bridge gaps in communities,” she says.<\/p>\n Her coursemate Senu Dissanayake, 17, from Glasgow, says that getting more people producing art improves the range of what’s on offer.<\/p>\n “Where you’re from has a huge impact on the art that you create,” he says. <\/p>\n “So if you’re seeing the same stories told by the same types of people over and over again, the only things available to watch are very similar and you’re missing out on a huge part of the human experience.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"Getty](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/0b4c\/live\/c5308c60-8c9e-11f0-b6c9-fd3740fd2112.png.webp\")
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