Gina Waggott is a writer, editor, disability advocate and former TV professional. She is currently writing the authorised biography of the jazz/pop artist ‘Scatman’ John Larkin, to be published early 2026 by Bloomsbury Publishing, under their Rowman & Littlefield Imprint.
She is a covert stutterer and Vice Chair of Stamily, a worldwide community for people who stutter and their allies.
Gina was a production manager and co-ordinator at the BBC for over ten years, where she worked on award-winning science, nature and factual entertainment series. She later freelanced for Channel 4 and Discovery. In the early 2000s she conducted several exclusive music interviews for BBC news, including the UK’s last known interview with the late singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen, with whom she became good friends. She also runs the official website of her mentor, the 90s pop/jazz artist Scatman John.
Her work has been published in The Times, The Sunday Times, The Independent, Reader’s Digest, Significance Magazine and over a hundred different websites for companies such as Microsoft and Amazon UK.
A strong advocate of equality and human rights, Gina spent over a decade working with several NGOs and charities at a national and European level. She was a member of the European Disability Forum’s Youth Committee, frequently representing the United Kingdom at events held by the European Commission and United Nations.
She served as Trustee of the European League of Stuttering Associations (ELSA) from 1999 – 2007. she was also a regional co-ordinator for the BBC’s flagship charity Children in Need, overseeing the distribution of over £2 million in grants to local charities in the North West. She also served as the BBC’s Nations and Regions Disability Representative, covering the whole of the UK excluding London.
Gina holds several food-related qualifications and loves finding new cooking and culinary adventures, plus mountaineering, hiking, exploring and messing about in boats with her partner, the author and TV producer Graham Hoyland.