INT. KAMPALA — WRITERS' ROOM — CONTINUOUS
He writes it.
Then he produces it.
Matthew Chan-Piu is a Ugandan screenwriter and executive producer with two decades in East African television — Head Writer on Crossroads, Series Creator of 5@Home, and Head Script Editor on The Hostel — who also directs donor-funded storytelling for organisations including the EU Delegation to Kenya.
ABOUT — DAY
A writer who stayed in the room until the cameras rolled.
Matthew picked up a pen for the first time at 12 and never really put it down. He is a self-taught screenwriter and producer from Kampala, Uganda, whose career now spans continental broadcasters, independent features, radio drama and donor-funded documentary work across East Africa.
He built his name inside Fast Track Productions and Swift Films — first as a script writer, then as head script editor, then as the executive producer trusted to run entire series from concept to delivery. That arc runs through The Hostel, 5@Home and, more recently, DStv Pearl Magic Prime's Crossroads and Junior Drama's Club, where he worked as head writer and head editor respectively, managing writers' rooms and holding scripts to a continuity standard across full series runs.
Alongside the screen work, Matthew writes as a journalist and cultural commentator for TRT Afrika, and mentors emerging writers through Maisha Film Lab — the East African screenwriting institution he has been affiliated with since 2012.
INT. FILMOGRAPHY — CONTINUOUS
Selected screen credits
Full production history →Crossroads
DStv Pearl Magic Prime drama series. Ran the writers' room, tracked story arcs across the season, and reviewed every submitted script before it reached production.
Junior Drama's Club (JDC)
DStv Pearl Magic series. Led script editing and proofreading standards for the writing team and signed off scripts against production guidelines.
5@Home
Fast Track Productions, for Fox Africa Networks. Created the series and ran pre-production, casting and script revisions — the first Fast Track series to reach an international platform.
The Hostel incl. Serenity
NTV Uganda's long-running campus drama — rated Uganda's No.1 TV programme in 2011 and 2012. Started as script writer, rose to head script editor and executive producer for the Serenity season.
Balikoowa in the City
Fast Track Productions comedy series for NTV Uganda. Oversaw story development, budgets and post-production from a story-development credit through to executive producer.
Formula X & Subira
Two features produced with Swift Films and Nairobi's Light Media — early productions that set the collaborative template Matthew and Light Media still work from today.
EXT. JOURNALISM — DAY
Dispatches for TRT Afrika
Hip hop: a genre that is more than music and entertainment
A personal essay tracing hip hop's arrival in Uganda through a mother's gift of a Walkman, and its growth into a shared language across the African continent.
Read on TRT Afrika →A question for an Africa Rising beyond capitalism
An argument tracing Pan-Africanism and Neo-Africanism through the continent's uneasy relationship with capital, asking who really benefits when "Africa Rising" becomes an economic brand.
Read on TRT Afrika →The race is on: African elections to look forward to
A continent-wide survey of the elections shaping 2023 — from Nigeria and the DRC to Zimbabwe — and what each result would mean for regional stability.
Read on TRT Afrika →The unpredictable terrain and relationship between humans and AI
A reflection on AI's leap from science fiction into daily life, weighing dystopian fears against the case for treating this moment as an interlude, not an ending.
Read on TRT Afrika →EXT. DEVELOPMENT COMMUNICATIONS — DAY
Storytelling for donor-funded work across East Africa
Through Swift Films, Matthew has spent over a decade translating development themes into human-centred narratives — most notably as Creative Lead for the EU Delegation to Kenya's Europe Day celebrations in 2021 and 2022, alongside ongoing visibility campaigns and documentary work on donor–community partnerships across the region.
It's a rarer combination than it should be: someone equally at home in a broadcast writers' room and in a donor visibility campaign, fluent in both narrative craft and development context.
EXT. REFERENCES — DAY
What collaborators say
"Matthew stands out as one of the most dependable and consistent creative partners I've worked with — able to translate complex development themes into engaging, human-centred narratives."
Solomon Onyata — Development Communications Expert, 10+ years collaborating via Swift Films Uganda
"Matthew demonstrated exceptional technical expertise, creativity, and a deep understanding of the filmmaking process — instrumental to the success of both productions we made together."
Steve Ominde — Producer/Director, Light Media, Nairobi (co-producer on Formula X and Subira)
INT. CONTACT — CONTINUOUS
Get in touch
Based in Kampala, Uganda — available for writers'-room, executive-producer and development-communications work across East Africa and beyond.