Who Am I

Shelby Cooke is a freelance writer and David Bowie fanatic. She writes on culture and media, with a specific focus on British cinema and society. Her articles have included topics such as: the role social realism films play on cultural identity, the queering of the aristocracy in British costume dramas, David Bowie as a transnational identity and Paddington Bear in a post-Brexit Britain. 

Shelby completed her masters degree at the University of East Anglia, researching the cultural and societal impact of cinematic representations. Her thesis, "David Bowie is the Englishman from Mars: An Examination of Englishness through Stardom", explores the representation of Bowie's national identity through his on screen performances. The completed thesis is archived in the British Film Institute's Reuben Library, and the first two chapters are published in the Celebrity Studies Journal. 

Shelby is a founder of Film East, a member of the BFI's Young Film Programmers Network. The group provides a platform for young audiences to experience cinema through immersive and interactive film screenings. The transcontinental group offers events, screenings, workshops and more, serving the East of England and the Eastern United States. 

She was previously the Film Editor at Concrete Newspaper, where she worked with student journalists to write in-depth film articles based around philosophical art concepts. She is now the Editor-in-Chief for Film East online, providing a place for new writers to improve their skills via film writing.

In addition to writing, Shelby is also a freelance social media marketer, working with art organisations throughout the UK. She is currently working on the audio art piece, Locality, which is an avant-garde musical project that uses the sounds of a city to create an experimental musical narrative, reflecting the movement of a local community and bringing musicality to the mundanity of everyday life. The project has been included in the Young Norfolk Arts Festival's 'no space, every place' exhibition and in Curat10n's exhibition, 'Movement.'

Shelby is open for commissions, and you can contact her at shelby.l.cooke@gmail.com or via any social media link below. 

This Blog

Upper Ground Production serves as a portfolio for the work produced by Shelby Cooke. Here you'll find a range of articles written by Shelby for her own site and as a freelance writer.  She has written for popular film sites, such as Screen Queens, and for academic journals, as well as writing for own film website for over 8 years.  

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Originally titled Actor.Nerd.Fashionista, this blog began in 2013 as an entertainment and fashion blog. Weekly posts covered a wide spectrum, from film reviews and fashion critiques to lifesaving beauty products. Eventually, the blog rebranded to Upper Ground Production and began producing content solely on film and television, with a particular emphasis on the British film industry.  

​Content written exclusively for this site includes film and television reviews, opinion pieces, monthly film clubs, understanding cinema articles, and scholarly analyses. All content on this site is produced by Shelby.