Hacktivists by Southfields Academy

by Ben Ockrent
When Eloise is tasked with showing new girl, Beth, around the school, she takes her to the “Hackerspace” where her and her gang of nerdy friends hang out – a disused portacabin they’ve turned into a student-run IT lab.
Although the gang call themselves Hackers, their activities are entirely harmless… Until the gang’s self-elected leader, Archie, is humiliated by the school bully and Beth inspires them to use their tech-savviness to avenge him. Revelling in their newfound power, the group allow Beth to lead them in an increasingly dangerous direction. With Archie usurped and everyone in Beth’s thrall, just what kind of hackers will they become and what will it take to stop them?


Ben Ockrent’s television work includes: For BBC 1, The Secrets; Waterloo Road and Material Girl. Other TV includes Youngers (E4); Joe Mistry (ITV2 pilot). His theatre work includes: Breeders (St James); Provenance. (Manhattan Theatre Club rehearsed reading); Carrot (Latitude Festival), Bedrooms, Dens and Other Forms of Magic (Theatre503), The Pleasure Principle (Tristan Bates Theatre) and Honey, which was nominated for an Olivier Award as a part of the Tricycle Theatre’s season, Afghanistan: The Great Game (which toured the US, including a one-off performance in the Pentagon). Radio includes: Cordite For Breakfast (BBC Radio 4); Vital Statistics (BBC Radio 4) and Honey (BBC Radio 3).

Ben recently co-directed and co-wrote his first short film, Dust, starring Alan Rickman, which was long-listed for a BAFTA. He’s currently under commission to write original comedy pilots, This Ability, for TV LAND in the US and, Genius, for Tiger Aspect in the UK. He has been nominated as a Broadcast Magazine “Hotshot”.

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