“The rock that holds it all with strength and humility…”
Meet Joe
“The Rock”
Joe is an award winning film maker with expertise across a multitude of creative, digital disciplines.
Joey Edwards is a filmmaker, cinematographer and creative educator based in Shropshire, with over 20 years of experience creating documentaries, narrative films and digital content for organisations including the BBC, Chester Zoo and The National Lottery.
But long before the professional productions, awards and millions of views, Joey was simply a child with an imagination that never seemed to switch off.
As a child, he would spend hours building elaborate sets for his toys, imagining camera angles, scenes and stories in his head long before he ever touched a real camera. While other children played with action figures, Joey was already thinking like a director — planning shots, visualising worlds and trying to figure out how stories could come alive on screen.
Growing up, he was often told he had “too much imagination” and that filmmaking wasn’t a “real job”. But despite the doubts around him, the dream never disappeared.
At just 13 years old, Joey bought his own VHS camcorder and began making films with school friends. Editing meant connecting two VCR players together and manually pressing play and record at exactly the right moments — a painstaking process that taught him patience, storytelling and problem-solving long before modern editing software existed.
For a long time, filmmaking felt like a world that was just out of reach. The ideas were big, but the equipment, opportunities and industry access often felt impossible to obtain. That experience shaped the way Joey sees creativity today.
Now, technology has changed everything.
A young filmmaker can shoot a cinematic film on a mobile phone, edit it on a laptop and share it with the world instantly. Joey believes creativity should no longer be limited by background, money or access to expensive equipment — and that every young person with a story to tell deserves a place where those ideas can grow.
That belief led to the creation of StageDoor, where Joey now helps young creatives develop confidence, technical skills and storytelling ability through hands-on filmmaking and performance projects.
Alongside his teaching and mentoring work, Joey continues to direct and produce documentaries and creative films which have collectively reached millions of viewers online. His collaborations with poet Evrah Rose for the BBC gained over 4 million views, while his BBC Children in Need narrative short film was viewed by over 10 million people. His documentary work for BBC Sesh and BBC News has also explored powerful real-world stories, including mental health, neurodiversity, disability and community identity.
In 2020, Joey was recognised as one of the “Top 35 Young Business and Professional Men in Wales” for both the rapid growth of his videography work and the launch of Phoenix Academy.
Whether behind the camera, in the edit suite or mentoring the next generation of storytellers, Joey’s passion remains the same as it was when he first picked up that VHS camera all those years ago — helping imagination become something real.
Ethos & Vision
The StageDoor project has been a vision many years in the making that started one sunny day in Holly’s back garden, whilst drinking tea, when they dreamed of a day their academy would have its own space. The seed was planted and the vision grew.
The journey came with incredible highs, difficult lows and moments where they felt close to losing everything, but the passion behind it never disappeared. That resilience, determination and belief in the importance of the arts is what has brought them to where they are today.
Kylie’s ambition for StageDoor Studios is to create more than just a training space. But rather to build a welcoming and inclusive creative hub for the community — somewhere that makes the arts accessible, affordable and inspiring for everyone. She is especially passionate about supporting individuals and groups who may not otherwise have access to creative opportunities or safe artistic spaces as we increasingly recognise the elitist and ableist attitudes towards the creative industries we encounter all too frequently.
Kylie is incredibly excited for what the future holds and to continue evolving alongside the venue as the team grow a creative community built on collaboration, opportunity and passion to thrive.
