Tina Fey and Graham Norton headline Friday In Conversation events as the Edinburgh TV Festival 2025 reveals programme highlights for 50th anniversary edition

The Edinburgh TV Festival brought to you by Screen Scotland, has revealed the key programme highlights for the 2025 Festival. Helmed by Creative Director, Rowan Woods, and this year’s Advisory Chair, Bad Wolf CEO Jane Tranter, the line-up for the 50^th anniversary edition includes masterclasses, In Conversation events, the ever-popular Spotlight Controller sessions, and keynote speeches including the prestigious James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture.

The final day of the Festival (Friday 22 August) will provide three key speakers In Conversation, discussing their incredible careers in acting, writing and producing on both sides of the Atlantic.

Multi-award-winning screenwriter, actor, producer, and author Tina Fey has created some of the most unforgettable moments in comedy and pop culture. She began her career as head writer and performer on the legendary Saturday Night Live before going on to create, produce and star in Mean Girls, 30 Rock, The Four Seasons, and co-create and produce Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. One of the sharpest, funniest, and most fearless comedic voices of our time, Fey brings her distinct charm, wit and insight to this lively conversation with beloved broadcaster Graham Norton.

Writer and creator of Black Mirror – one of the UK’s most lauded and innovative dramas that has had a global impact – Charlie Brooker will take part in a playful and provocative In Conversation event. Brooker is also the creator of Cunk on Earth and zombie horror Dead Set, and as a writer-presenter, he entertained and dismayed viewers for years with his series of Wipe shows for the BBC. Twenty years after his groundbreaking series Nathan Barley was first broadcast on Channel 4, Charlie will be the subject of a wide ranging interview that will cover everything from comedy, AI, evil product design and the TV shows that made him.

CEO of Studio Lambert, the indie behind some of the UK’s biggest entertainment shows including The Traitors, Gogglebox and Squid game: The Challenge, Stephen Lambert will record a special edition of the podcast The Town, hosted by US entertainment journalist Matt Belloni. Lambert is one of Britain’s best-known creative executives and will discuss his career and work – and how that work has shaped the UK and US TV industry.

The Alternative MacTaggart will be given by satirist, comedian, writer and actor Munya Chawawa, who will make the case for why broadcasters underestimate digital creatives at their peril and will issue a call to arms for creative risk.

The full line up, including additional sessions, will be announced on Wednesday 30 July.

The Festival will once again take place at the EICC in Edinburgh from 2pm on Tuesday 19 August to 2pm on Friday 22 August and the full programme will be published at the end of July.

For 2025, the cost of passes to the Edinburgh TV Festival have been frozen, reduced for underrepresented groups and a new, more affordable, introduced for small indies, joining our flexible freelancer rate to ensure everyone can be involved in the most important forum for debate and celebration in television.

To purchase passes for the Festival go to the Edinburgh TV Festival website.

More information

Image credits: Tina Fey headshot credit Miller Mobley; Graham Norton headshot courtesy of the Edinburgh TV Festival