Factory International Fellows 2026

Finch Murphy

“This fellowship is an opportunity for me to learn from one of the world's leading arts organisations while staying rooted in the alternative queer community that shaped me. I truly believe some of the greatest performances you'll ever see are happening on Canal Street, and I want to use everything I gain through this experience not only to develop my own practice, but to create more opportunities for artists whose work deserves to be seen.

This isn't an opportunity I take lightly, and I'm ready to work harder than I've ever worked before and dive into it headfirst. I hope you support me and keep an eye out for what me and the other Fellows are able to achieve.”

Finch Murphy is an agender neuroqueer performance artist whose practice combines drag, clowning, endurance performance, cabaret, stage magic, spoken word, makeup artistry and movement. Starting out as a scare actor at Alton Towers, Finch developed a unique approach to drag. They most often work under the pseudonym PHØBIA, a genderless drag creature frequently found haunting Manchester's Canal Street.

Their work explores queerness, disability, psychosis, neurodivergence and their lived experience as a care leaver, using horror, humour and spectacle to transform deeply personal stories into immersive performances.

Grounded in their lived experience, Finch brings a punk, grassroots ethos to everything they create, often turning a trip to B&M into an entire wardrobe of costumes and props. They believe in creating opportunities, platforming other artists and proving that some of the best art is found in function rooms and black box theatres.

Finch is currently developing their debut theatre work, Mistoffelees, or the Fear of Magic – an autobiographical performance exploring their lifelong special interest in Cats the Musical and the ways in which fiction and reality blur in the midst of trauma.

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Randeep Assi

“I’m so utterly thrilled and honoured! This Fellowship arrives at a pivotal moment in my practice. I’m hoping this Fellowship will challenge me to think more ambitiously, deepen my artistic practice alongside a generous community of artists, and give me the confidence and tools to realise work on a much larger scale. A year ago I couldn’t have imagined being at this point. I’m so excited to see what will unfold.”

Randeep Assi is an interdisciplinary artist, creative producer, mother and founder of Brown Kuri Productions. She is endlessly fascinated by what we inherit – culturally, emotionally, spiritually and physically and how the body holds the stories we struggle to tell.

Working across live performance, installation, moving image, sound, writing and participatory practice, she explores themes of midlife, motherhood, shame, queerness, grief and belonging. Drawing from her lived experience as a British South Asian woman, she uncovers stories that resonate far beyond identity, searching for what is deeply human and universally felt.

Alongside raising her children as a single mother, Randeep has built a creative career spanning nearly two decades. She has toured with theatre companies, written for Oldham Coliseum and Peshkar Productions, and was selected for Kali Theatre’s Queer Writers Programme. She recently curated and produced the sold-out exhibition Letters to Our Mothers at Factory International and was awarded a two-day residency at HOME Arches to develop new interdisciplinary work. She continues to create ambitious projects that invite audiences to witness, question and reimagine the stories we carry within ourselves and one another.

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