Film4 and Channel 4 Docs presents THE SHADOW SCHOLARS. Airing on Wednesday, 24 September on Channel 4 this documentary offering unprecedented access to the secretive, multi-billion-dollar “fake essay” industry.

Executive produced by Oscar-winning filmmaker Sir Steve McQueen, and directed, written and produced by Eloïse King, the film follows Oxford professor Patricia Kingori as she travels to Nairobi to uncover the hidden industry in which an estimated 40,000 highly educated Kenyans earn their living by ghost-writing academic papers for students worldwide. 

From the UK to the US and Australia, these “shadow scholars” enable students to gain degrees and build lucrative careers – often without ever completing the coursework themselves. By travelling to meet the writers behind the essays, Patricia confronts the invisible workforce and questions the true value of academic qualifications in an era where degrees can be bought. Using generative models to create synthesized new faces, the filmmakers have changed the identities of the Kenyan writers with digital disguises or masks to protect them.

THE SHADOW SCHOLARS is directed, written, and produced by Eloïse King for White Teeth Films, Anna Smith Tenser and Bona Orakwue for Lammas Park, and Tabs Breese. Executive producers include Sir Steve McQueen and Patricia Kingori, alongside Ben Coren, Sacha Mirzoeff and Ollie Madden for Film4; Anna Godas and Oli Harbottle for Dogwoof; and Shanida Scotland and Hannah Bush Bailey for BFI/ Doc Society. The film was commissioned for Channel 4 by Senior Commissioning Editor, Documentaries, Sacha Mirzoeff and Ben Coren.

The documentary has screened at twenty festivals including BFI London Film Festival where it had its world premiere in the Best Documentary Feature competition and was also awarded a Special Jury Mention in 2024. Further selections include IDFA, FIPA Doc (nominated for the Grand Prix for Impact Documentary & Michel Mitrani Discovery Award), Tribeca (North American premiere), and Johannesburg Film Festival, where it won Best Documentary Special Jury Mention.

THE SHADOW SCHOLARS is supported by BFI Doc Society, Film4, Field of Vision Fund, Firelight Media Fellowship, Wellcome, Bertha Foundation, Kaplan International, Perspective Media, Women Make Movies, Film & TV Charity John Brabourne Filmmaker Award, and Logan Non-fiction Fellowship, and Dogwoof who handles international sales. 

THE SHADOW SCHOLARS will air on Channel 4 on Tuesday 24 September at 10 pm, with select UK cinema screenings from 16 September.

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Appendix

The Shadow Scholars will also be showing in select cinemas from 16 September:

• Tuesday 16th September: A Q&A Preview at The Ultimate Picture Palace, Oxford
• Thursday 18th September:  Bertha Doc house Bloomsbury London + Q&A