Lionsgate UK is partnering with Idris Elba’s Green Door Pictures to launch a writing competition for UK residents who want to write a TV drama series.

The Write To Green Light initiative, which is open for submissions now, is designed to discover new creative voices for television. The competition will draw from a pool of UK resident writers looking to break into writing their own original material for broadcast. 

Lionsgate UK CEO Zygi Kamasa and Elba, the actor who is also CEO of Green Door, will also join a panel of industry experts to judge the entries.

The competition, open for submissions until Aug 8, will select 10 shortlisted scripts and then three finalists scripts to go through to a live reading in London. The winning script will be announced at that live event, and will receive a paid option with Green Door and Lionsgate UK to potentially develop the series for production. The two categories for entrants are for writers who have professional credits in TV and also for writers who have no UK broadcast credits.

Kamasa said, “Partnering with Idris and Green Door Pictures on this project underscores our ongoing commitment to nurturing and supporting creative talent. I’m excited to see what new talent will be discovered.”

Elba added, “We are excited to be partnering with Lionsgate UK on “Write To Green Light” to search out and support new TV voices. We are proud to support new and diverse talent at Green Door Pictures and look forward to discovering fresh writing voices, through this competition, to add to the family.”