Based in North Yorkshire, Noah Lei Underwood is a story teller and artist with a focus on interdisciplinary projects, seeking to disrupt the current media landscape, challenging both dominant narratives and audiences. They’re interested in manipulating storytelling structure and hallmarks of genre in order to communicate the complexities of an intersectional experience, all whilst creating space for unheard voices.
Their creative projects are informed by their academic work, which has previously focused on the phenomenology and homo-spectrality of fictional spaces, examining how they are manipulated through transformative works in service of queering the original text. At the moment they’re reading around cinema’s lesbian vampire myth and Julia Kristeva’s work on the abject.
INTERESTSExperimental Projects, Working Non-Traditionally & Intentionally
Directing, Writing, Art Direction & Development
Queer Period Pieces, Speculative Fiction & Horror
Noah was selected to work with Leeds-based queer production company Oxygen as a creative producer. Whilst there, they worked as Art Director on short film ELECTRIC LOVE (2022).
Noah worked as an administrative assistant, helping to facilitate the launch of Transforming Film, run by Cat Marshall (she/her) and Nim Ralph (they/them). Transforming Film offers training and consultancy to organisations and productions across the industry surrounding trans identity and the trans experience.
Noah participated in XR Stories’ Immersive Digital Accelerator course, as well as SIGN’s Fundamentals of Virtual Production programme.
They were part of Livity’s In Future List 2023 of up-and-coming creatives and took part in Film Hub North x NFTS’ Directors Training, where they began developing their short film, THE JOURNEY HOME (2023).
Not only was THE JOURNEY HOME selected to be screened at festivals internationally, including BFI Future Film Festival 2025 and Final Girls Berlin Film Festival, but it also won Film Hub North’s BFI Film Academy DIY Filmmaking Challenge, securing Noah £1000 of development funding.
They are working on the development of their next project at the moment and they have been selected to take part in NFTS’ Under-Represented Voices Writing Lab 2026.
This is what I’m into.
If any of this is up your alley, reach out. Let’s make something together.
I’ve been away for a while; as a person with a disability I’m taking steps to carve out a more sustainable working practice that runs on crip time.