Hannah Ellis is the granddaughter of Dylan Thomas.

After studying at Oxford Brookes University she worked for a number of years as a primary school teacher. She particularly enjoyed teaching English and Drama, co-ordinating and leading in both and demonstrating how drama techniques can encourage the children to fully appreciate stories and poems. She also directed and produced many school productions. Most recently, Hannah also worked on an initiative to support children and their families who faced potential barriers to their learning such as behavioural problems, learning difficulties and attendance issues. Her role was to implement early strategies to prevent future problems.

Hannah was the spokesperson and family representative for Dylan Thomas 100, a year-long festival marking the centenary of her grandfather’s birth. She supported a variety of influential organisations to bring Thomas’s work to a wider audience, while celebrating the richness of Welsh culture, as well as finding ways to teach Dylan’s work in a more creative way to motivate children and young people. As a result of this work, Hannah is now the creative director on behalf of the Dylan Thomas Estate. She has also discovered that she has inherited her grandfather’s enjoyment of writing and is a published author and is currently writing children’s stories.