Micheline Steinberg Associates is a boutique UK literary agency specialising exclusively in writers for stage, screen, radio, opera, and animation — one of the few agencies whose entire focus is dramatic writing rather than prose fiction or non-fiction.
In brief
Micheline Steinberg Associates is a pure-play dramatic writing agency: theatre, TV, film, radio, opera, and animation only — prose novelists and non-fiction writers should not query.
The client roster reveals a strong gravitational pull toward radio drama (BBC Sounds, Drama on 4), opera libretti, and stage adaptations of literary works — areas Steinberg has cultivated with multiple repeat clients.
Several clients recur across multiple projects — Glyn Maxwell (stage, opera, poetry), Sarah Woods (opera, audio drama, theatre), Kate Ferguson and Susannah Pearse (musicals), Saviour Pirotta (stage, Malta), and Mark Robertson (TV animation) — signalling deep, long-term partnerships that are a hallmark of how the agency operates.
Commercial reach is genuinely broad: clients have placed work at the BBC, Netflix, Apple TV+, ENO, Welsh National Opera, and CBeebies, demonstrating relationships spanning prestige broadcast, streaming, and major performing arts institutions.
Query status was last confirmed closed in March 2022; there is no subsequent confirmed open signal — writers must verify the live submission form before querying.
Lately
400 STRANGERS, a powerful new audio drama by KATIE FARR. When 400 asylum-seeking men are housed in two East Midlands hotels, a once close-knit community is pulled apart with tragic consequences. 🎧 this Saturday 28 March 3pm Drama on 4: bit.ly/4uLsYGx @almost-tangible.bsky.social
The agency celebrated five-star reviews for Jane Upton's SCENES FROM A FRIENDSHIP, described in one major arts publication as a 'luminous, heart-exploding play', running at Nottingham Playhouse through mid-June 2026.
What Micheline is looking for
Original plays and bold stage adaptations are at the core of what the agency represents. The roster spans intimate new writing (Eastern Angles tour productions, Offie-nominated work) through to world-premiere stage versions of major literary properties. Work with a strong dramatic voice and clear theatrical vision is welcomed — from writers at the start of their careers through to established names.
BBC radio and audio drama is a genuine strength of the agency's list, with multiple clients placing work at BBC Sounds and Drama on 4. Long-form serialised audio (multi-episode drama), single plays, and adaptations of existing works are all represented. Recent activity suggests this is an area of active growth.
Opera and music theatre libretto writing is unusually prominent here compared to most UK literary agencies. The agency has placed libretti with ENO, Welsh National Opera, and smaller innovative opera companies. Musicals and opera-adjacent projects with serious literary ambitions are also sought — not commercial jukebox fare, but work where the writing is the primary creative engine.
TV drama writers are represented, with credits spanning major broadcasters and streamers. The agency's TV presence leans toward prestige drama and long-running series rather than procedurals or light entertainment. Writer-directors with a strong authorial point of view fit particularly well.
The agency specifically notes that it represents writer-directors as well as writers, suggesting film projects are most welcome when the writer is also directing. A recent opera feature film written and directed by a client signals openness to ambitious hybrid or crossover projects within this space.
Children's animation writing is represented, with credits at CBeebies and Nickelodeon. Writers with experience in scripted animation for younger audiences, particularly series television, are a good fit.
Poetry appears on the list only in the context of an existing client (Glyn Maxwell, shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize). This does not appear to be an area where new poetry clients are actively sought — it likely reflects a deep relationship with a specific writer rather than a general appetite for poetry submissions.
Not the right fit
On Micheline's list
Taste fingerprint
How to query Micheline
Verify the form is open before writing a single word of your query — the last confirmed observation had it closed, and there is no dated re-opening signal on record.
This is a dramatic writing agency only. If your project is a novel, non-fiction book, or poetry collection (and you are not already a client), do not query.
Lead with the medium and format first — stage play, radio drama, TV pilot, opera libretto, animation script — before anything else. Steinberg needs to know immediately which part of the list your work belongs to.
The agency represents both new and established writers, so emerging writers with strong work should not self-exclude — but the work must be genuinely production-ready or have a credible development trajectory.
If you are a writer-director with a film or theatre project, make that dual role explicit upfront; the agency specifically flags this as a category they represent.
Socially engaged work with a strong community or political dimension has a visible recent track record here (audio drama about asylum seekers, opera about migration, Cardboard Citizens community theatre). This sensibility is worth acknowledging if your work shares it — but only if it genuinely does.
Audio drama writers should highlight any BBC or independent audio production credits, however modest — this is a busy lane for the agency and demonstrable experience in the form will carry weight.
Do not conflate the agency with a general entertainment or book agency — Micheline Steinberg Associates works exclusively in dramatic writing. Tailoring your submission letter to this specialism signals that you have done your research.