• TEDx Whitehall Women, May 2016

              Scheduled speaker at 2016 conference at The Foreign and Commonwealth Office

            Speaker Biog http://www.tedxwhitehallwomen.com/mariaesposito

            Tedx Talk      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37Cmk0VGKAE

            Read about my experiences of the day https://twitter.com/mespo99/status/797825219541012480

• TEDx Whitehall Women, May 2015

Invited to give a short TEDx ‘talk in the making’. ‘Coming Out is Not a One-time Deal’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwAc8U1_Y4s   (12’20”)

• Sky News Morning Stories. October 2015

Invited to deliver a short opinion piece for Morning Stories.  ‘The Courage of Coming Out’

http://news.sky.com/story/1565749/morning-stories-the-courage-behind-coming-out

• Sunrise Care Homes, Sept 2014

40 minute talk including example short films on the benefits of biographical digital storytelling for Alzheimers dementia.

• European Prison Education Association, Cyprus, November 2009

30 minute talk and short film, about the success of The Media House delivering media education to prisoners.

• Brighton Youth Justice Board 2011

30 minute talk on the success of The Media House delivering media education to prisoners and the successful employment and higher education of prisoner alumni upon release.

       Other speaking engagements include

• National LGBT Social Workers Conference
• Labour Party Conference LGBT Society
• National UK Gay Pride
• Michigan Women’s Music Festival
• Glasgay

Letter in The Times 2014

Campaigning for the care fees for those with Alzheimer's Dementia

Chapter 'The Laugh That Dare Not Speak its Name'

Abstract

This piece is an exploration into the world of lesbian humor, lesbian comedy and the lesbian comedian. A brief look at the history of lesbian comedy shows us that it is definitely not a contemporary movement but has been around for well over a decade. How do we define lesbian humor and what is a lesbian comic? The answers to these questions are discussed with reference to my own performing career as a lesbian comedian in Britain. The difference between the lesbian comedian and the gay comedian is explained and examined along with the attitudes of acceptability in Britain toward gay male humor and the gay performer. But what does the future hold for the lesbian stand-up comedian and what of the introduction of lesbian characters into mainstream sitcoms? Lesbian humor will certainly not be going away, but it is finally finding its own niche in the big wide world of comedy.

Author biographies

Maria Esposito has been performing lesbian stand-up comedy for eight years. She has performed regularly at Pride UK, Pride Scotland, Glasgay, Queer Up North, Leicester Comedy Festival, May Fest as well as numerous gay clubs around the UK. She has also performed at Michigan Womyn's Music Festival and Spring Fest in the USA. She was the presenter for Channel 4's lesbian and gay series Out and is currently a comedy producer and director for the BBC