Tony Steyger is an award-winning British filmmaker and producer whose career has spanned more than four decades. Throughout that time he has pursued one enduring question: how can media enable people whose voices are rarely heard to tell their own stories?

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His work began in the early 1980s in community video, when he co-created Whose Disability? (1982), a pioneering project commissioned through East Sussex Social Services. Filmed over three months at Montague House Day Centre in Brighton, the film explored how video could empower adults with complex physical and learning disabilities to communicate and express themselves. Screened at the ICA and the Video Roma Festival, and now preserved by the London Community Video Archive, the project established a philosophy that has shaped his work ever since.

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Tony went on to become one of the UK's leading pioneers of participatory television. He helped develop formats that placed ordinary people, not presenters or experts, at the centre of the story. His work on the Emmy Award-winning BBC series Video Diaries and Teenage Diaries transformed documentary filmmaking, and some of its screen language, by handing creative control to contributors themselves. As the creator of the acclaimed BBC series Video Nation, he further demonstrated that everyday lives could become compelling national television.

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Across a career that has included senior creative roles in broadcast and independent television, digital media and higher education, Tony has consistently explored how emerging technologies can broaden participation and deepen human connection. From experiments in interactive production at the BBC to mentoring the next generation of filmmakers, he has remained committed to innovation with purpose.

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More recently, Tony has produced films for BBC's The One Show with People Media UK, bringing warmth, humour and emotional storytelling to audiences across the UK. His work has celebrated remarkable people and communities while continuing to champion those whose experiences are too often overlooked.

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Today, Tony's interests are coming full circle. As artificial intelligence begins to transform communication, he is exploring how AI and assistive technologies might enable people to express themselves creatively and share their experiences in ways that have never before been possible. It is the latest chapter in a journey that began over forty years ago with a simple belief: that technology is at its most powerful when it gives people a voice.

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Selected career highlights

• Co-creator of Whose Disability? (1982), an early community video project exploring communication and disability.

• Directed Paralympics '84 for Channel 4, the first mainstream programming for Paralympic sport.

• Creator of the BBC's Video Nation, an anthropology of everyday life.

• Pioneer of the on the Emmy Award-winning Video Diaries and Teenage Diaries, giving broadcast access via first-person filmmaking.

• Created Trade Secrets for BBC2, putting ordinary people into the spotlight.

• Former Managing Editor of BBC Birmingham New Media, the BBC's first new media department

• Co-founder of Maverick Television in Birmingham.

• Former Managing Director of The Bridge in Brighton.

• Former Head of Production at Victoria Real, generating 27m live streams for the first Big Brother.

• Associate Professor in Film and Television Production at Southampton Solent University.

• Created and led Solent Productions, creating professional real world learning for students.

• Co-founder of People Media UK, producing 20+ films for three series of BBC's The One Show.