The Shadow Scholars documentary explores power dynamics in fake essay industry
Image: © Channel 4
Screenings across the UK beginning 16 September 2025
A new documentary film featuring the research of Professor Patricia Kingori investigates the hidden, fake essay industry, where around 50,000 highly educated Kenyans earn a living writing academic papers for students in the global north. The Shadow Scholars follows Professor Kingori as she questions the true value of academic qualifications in a world where degrees can be bought.
The film will be screened in cinemas in the UK during September* and on Channel 4 on 24 September 2025.
Professor Kingori, Professor of Global Health Ethics at Oxford Population Health’s Ethox Centre, travels to Nairobi to explore the undercover industry enabling students in countries like the UK to secure degrees and launch lucrative careers without doing their own work. She meets brilliant young essay ghostwriters to understand their motivations and speaks to activists and academics about their perspectives on the industry of essay mills and its questionable power dynamics.
The Shadow Scholars reveals that 72% of online labour work in Kenya is engaged in writing. In Nairobi alone, 40,000 workers participate in the industry. Research in 2018 found that essay writing services have been used by 37 million students globally, primarily in the US, UK and Australia.
Professor Kingori says: "Power makes itself invisible so we don't question whether things should be the way they are. This film, based on my research, investigates the global structures that allow an industry of brilliant young Kenyans, who cannot get other work, to support others who buy their degrees rather than doing their own work. It enrages me! This should not be why Kenya is on the map, and if the world was fair, these scholars would be able to operate on the world stage as themselves."
Professor Kingori is a British Kenyan sociologist and the University of Oxford’s youngest Black female professor in its 925-year history. Her research career has been dedicated to asking questions about power, fakes, frauds and who gets to say what is real and what is not. The Shadow Scholars raises complex questions about inequality, ethics, and education. It is directed by Eloïse King and executive produced by Steve McQueen.
*List of cinema dates:
16th September - Preview screening - UPP Oxford - + Q&A
18th September - Bertha Doc house Bloomsbury London + Q&A – with screening dates to 1st October
19th September - BAFTA Piccadilly, London + Q&A tbc
22nd September - Picturehouse Oxford + Q&A
23rd September - Picturehouse Leeds + Q&
16th October - Oxford University Black History Month + Q&A
The documentary has already 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, in select UK cinemas from 16 September and on Channel 4 on 24th September at 10pm.
Notes for editors:
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.
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 which handles international sales.