Laura Henry-Allain MBE

Laura Henry-Allain MBE is a global award-winning producer, consultant, educationalist, and keynote speaker. She is also the mother of two grown-up sons, one of whom is autistic.

She is the creator of the well-loved BBC cartoon JoJo and Gran Gran, which is based on the relationship she had with her own grandmother. The series was produced by BBC Studios Kids &Family, and she is the associate producer.

In 2021, Laura received an MBE for Services to Education as well as a Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual Nursery World Awards.

Contact Great British Speakers today to book producer, author and consultant Laura Henry-Allain MBE for your next event.

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More About Laura Henry-Allain MBE

Laura Henry-Allain MBE began her career as an Early Years teacher, and has since worked in the education, care, and health sectors, working with children, families, organisations, and governments. She also sits on a number of boards or organisations, such as:

– Vice-President of the British Association for Early Childhood Education

– Board Member on the Children’s Media Foundation

– Member of the judging panel for the Nursery World, GESS, and TES

– Patron of the Grenada Community Library

LAURA HENRY-ALLAIN | CONSULTANCY WORK

She is also a consultant for several well-known brands, as well as children’s media, television and publishing. Her voluntary work includes mentoring a number of young people, and supporting the Grenfell Memorial Quilt team.

Laura Henry Allain MBE hire award-winning international producer, storyteller and consultant speaker book at agent Great British Speakers

LAURA HENRY-ALLAIN | AUTHOR & WRITER

As well as her consultancy work, Laura has published the bestselling children’s books My Skin, Your Skin (2021), which helped children and adults have meaningful conversations on race and anti-racism, and My Family, Your Family (2023), which explores how all families can be different. Both books made their way onto Amazon’s bestselling children’s book list.

Laura Henry-Allain is also a regular contributor to Nursery World and other trade and national press. She even co-authored a research and evidence-based piece for Mattel, looking at how parents can raise an anti-racist child. She also wrote a booklet for publishing house Random House for parents on “introducing books to your baby and young child”.

She uses her educational expertise to work alongside production, distribution, and animation companies, from concept to screen, in order to make sure the voice of the child is truly represented on screen.

Laura has acted as an expert advisor to brands, market researchers, and a range of suppliers whose products are aimed at children and their families.

LAURA HENRY-ALLAIN | KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Laura is a passionate and popular speaker, and has travelled the world sharing her story of:

– Leaving school with nearly no qualifications

– Being dyslexic

– Having had 10 units of blood after an operation that went wrong

– Raising an autistic adult

– Becoming the creator of the characters of the first animation that features a black British family

LAURA HENRY-ALLAIN MBE Childrens author educational race inclusion equality speaker book at agent Great British Speakers

LAURA HENRY-ALLAIN | PUBLIC SPEAKING FORMATS

Laura Henry-Allain is very flexible and can offer bespoke Q&A sessions, keynotes, and/or panel discussions. She also visits schools, from junior to secondary to colleges. In junior schools she leads writing workshops with children in the hope of planting a love of story writing. At secondary and college level she delivers inspiring and impactful talks for students, sharing her story, and inspiring the students to be the best they can be.

She also offers library sessions similar to her junior school sessions.

Call +44 1753 439 289 or email Great British Speakers now to book education consultant and writer Laura Henry-Allain MBE for your next live event or corporate video.

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Testimonials

Laura joined us part way into the development of an animated preschool project but it immediately felt like she had been part of the team from the very beginning. Right away she began to inhabit the concept, instantly bringing valuable insight and input about our characters, their world and their authenticity. In addition, she carried out key research with our show’s demographic, assessing the impact and effectiveness of the key underlying themes and curriculum as well as the show’s more universally appealing elements. On top of this, Laura is a thoroughly great person and a pleasure to work with, which never hurts!
Chris Bowden, Producer, Mackinnon and Saunders

With her wealth of experience and knowledge of Early Years children and education, Laura was a natural choice to work with us on our pre-school publishing projects. We worked closely on magazine development and were delighted with our result. Laura is a charm to work with – always professional and allowing us to be creative while keeping the reader firmly in mind. I would not hesitate to recommend Laura to prospective clients.
Alexandria Turner, Editor in Chief, DC Thomson, Scotland

Laura has used her Early Years expertise to support Three Stone Media with our children’s properties. Her knowledge has been invaluable in bringing a new dimension to our productions.
Greg Boardman, Managing Director, Three Stones Media Ltd

We invited Laura into our Reception classroom to share her book ‘JoJo and Gran-Gran’ with the class. She retold the story interactively using props and then discussed with the children different family members and activities that they do with their families. The children were so excited and enjoyed reading her book and discussing her visit afterwards too! Thank you so much Laura, we will be inviting you back again for sure!
Georgina Betts, Early Literacy Lead and Reception Class Teacher, Redriff Primary School

It was an honour to have such an influential and successful woman spend time with us at Sutton High School to celebrate our study of Inspirational Women in Literature. Laura spoke to the girls about her fascinating life with warmth, truth and joy, which embraces perfectly our school ethos. She shared her own story demonstrating perseverance and determination to overcome any obstacles to success, encouraging the girls to never give up and to remain true to yourself.
Tracey Hill, Prep School Literacy Lead, Sutton High School

Laura Henry-Allain toured several libraries in Lambeth retelling from her wonderful intergenerational story between grandchild JoJo and her grandmother Gran Gran to our under 5 Storytime sessions. These sessions were very successful with parents being able to meet Laura and speak to her about her book which is very relatable to many young children. Lambeth Libraries wish Laura every success with tales of JoJo and Gran Gran and hope she will visit us again.
Sandra Davidson, Development Librarian – Children and Young People, London Borough of Lambeth

Laura Henry-Allain delivered one of our keynote addresses at the recent international 3rd HCT Education Student Research Conference in Abu Dhabi. The session was extremely well received and we are already in discussions as to how we can continue to work with Laura for the benefit of both our students and faculty.
Phil Quirk, Executive Dean Education, Higher Colleges of Technology, UAE