About

Night Shift: An Urban Fantasy Audio Drama podcast is a queer-led, urban fantasy mystery that begins as a docudrama but quickly unravels into an immersive cinematic experience. It is available for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all other podcasting apps. It can also be listened to directly on the website, and on Youtube where episodes are released with closed captions.

Night Shift explores the story of narrator Sebastian Fen in a world where magic is dying out, replaced by artificially engineered superpowers. Advised to take up a new hobby by his therapist, Sebastian soon finds himself tangled in the very mysteries and conspiracies he’s trying to untangle, drawn into the dark underworld of Echor City and a social movement surrounding Shades, people mutated by contact with the magical anomaly known as the Veil. Central to Sebastian’s investigations is Dr. Angelo Volta, head of bioengineering at the formidable Augur Corporation.

Podcast Details

Website: www.nightshiftpod.com

Email: sebastian@nightshiftpod.com

Schedule: Night Shift currently shares a new episode twice a month on the 1st and 15th at 8pm GMT.

Social Media:

Twitter: @nightshiftcast
Instagram: instagram.com/nightshiftcast
TikTok: tiktok.com/@nightshiftpod
Tumblr: nightshiftpodcast.tumblr.com

Transcripts for all episodes are available here.

Night Shift is an audio drama from a first-time amateur production team consisting of:

• Julian Maclurg, director, writer, and editor (they/them)

• Ashe Pendragon, co-writer and concept artist (they/them)

• Sasha Aleksandra, co-writer and creative consultant (she/her)

• Angie Gone, production manager, co-writer, and illustrator (they/she/he)

• Rey Archer, project coordinator and co-writer (they/he)

Night Shift hit 49,000 downloads before the release of its season one finale and 90,000 downloads in its first 12 months, and has had 37,000+ unique listeners across 109 different countries. The pilot episode ranked at #49 in the Apple Podcasts USA Science Fiction charts within 48 hours. The show has an expansive cast of 40+ people and successfully crowdfunded for both Season 1 and Season 2, raising more than 100% of its goal both times.

The Creators

Night Shift was conceptualized, written, and produced by Julian Maclurg, a queer, transgender creator from London, who also provides the voice of narrator Sebastian. Julian has been writing and acting their entire life, from stage plays performed in their bedroom as a child to feature film scripts during university. They graduated in 2014 with a first-class bachelor’s degree with honors in Creative Writing. They highly value stories that allow queerness to exist within them as freely as it should be allowed to in real life. Julian won Best New Producer - Silver at the Audio Production Awards 2022.

The Night Shift story began in 2016 whilst Julian spent time bedbound in hospital, a blend of personal feelings and concepts from their favourite media such as survival horror video games, supernatural-themed television and films, and graphic novels. It spent a few years shelved to work on other projects, until it was resurrected when they met Angie and Rey in 2020. In the midst of the pandemic from different sides of the Atlantic, developing the story of Night Shift together became a much-needed escape and release of feelings surrounding world events, and it wasn’t long before they were so touched by their creation that they realised they wanted to share it with the world.

The following year, Julian fell in love with audio dramas, and the two naturally crossed wires until it became clear that a podcast made the perfect format to explore the Night Shift story, something they could create remotely with an international and highly diverse team who weren’t limited by location, travel or time.

Logos

The font used for the Night Shift logo is DIN Alternative.

Get all the information in this press kit in an easily downloadable folder here.

Trailers

Our Season One trailer is available below in audio or video format, or to download here.

Listener Reviews

“I just. I cannot stop thinking about @nightshiftcast: the MUSIC, the worldbuilding, the performances, the LAYERS, the nuance, the twists, the sheer queer urban fantasy pulp fiction of it all! This is what we DESERVE and I need everyone up to date like, yesterday. Best romance involving queer men since The Penumbra Podcast? I think so. Y’ALL ITS REAL GOOD. ITS REAL GOOD” Ella Watts, Director of Doctor Who: Redacted, via Twitter

“Really excellent ★★★★★ Deep and intriguing, open to interpretation on many levels. Great cast, clear sound, well produced. Congratulations.” Nicholas_James3533, via Apple Podcasts

“!!!! ★★★★★ I think this is the perfect podcast?? I'm going crazy. Can't wait to see where this goes!!!” averagerage, via Apple Podcasts

“It’s an incredible epic slow burn world build - think Penumbra Podcast or Silt Verses. It’s also a heart clenching slow burn enemies to lovers romance that will break your heart so hard” auralqueer, via Tumblr

“it's queer! it's spooky! the threads that were brought up in the beginning are coming back and weaving in and it is SO SATISFYING to listen to! the protagonist is FLAWED! did I say queer!! it's so good y'all, it's a great time” @stitchcasual, via Twitter

“★★★★★ I've been following these creators for a few years and their newest project, Night Shift, is right on par with the rest of their work. Absolutely amazing! They put all their heart and hard work into everything they do and it really shows with this first episode. I honestly cannot wait to hear more!” Squidalz, via Apple Podcasts

“★★★★★ Great voice acting and big Welcome to Night Vale vibes which I love” RowenRipley, via Apple Podcasts

“All of it, from the music to the subtle world building to the break between the plot for some character building… you have us all hook line and sinker!” WanderingWordsmith, via Patreon