Press and media
Biographies, appearances and photos. For interviews, please use the contact form.
Short biography
Omar Mentesh is the founder and CEO of Anabranch Plus, a social enterprise supporting people in and leaving prison. He left school at thirteen, first went to prison at fifteen and found his first book in a cell. Released in 2017, he went on to earn a degree and now works to open doors for others.
Longer biography
Omar Mentesh is a Londoner, a father and the founder and CEO of Anabranch Plus, a social enterprise that works with people in prison and in the community. He left school at thirteen and first went to prison at fifteen, where he found his first book, The Eagle Has Landed, in his cell. After his release in 2017 he earned a degree in Business Management and Entrepreneurship and became Social Value Manager on the Department for Education's Turing Scheme at Capita, where he was named Hero of the Year in 2024.
He features in the BBC Two documentary The Book That Changed My Life (2026) with Queen Camilla, and his story is one of four in Impulse: Playing with Reality, the mixed reality documentary about ADHD narrated by Tilda Swinton, which won the Achievement Prize at Venice Immersive in 2024. He is a trustee of Switchback and a Board Advisor for the Health Innovation Network South London (Mindset XR)
Appearances
- —The Book That Changed My Life, BBC Two, 14 October 2026. BBC Arts and Blink Films, with Queen Camilla.
- —BBC Breakfast, 10 October 2026, with fellow contributor Ian Kirby.
- —LBC, the James O'Brien show, 2 October 2026: calling in on the early release scheme and literacy in prisons.
- —Chapter One panel on reading and social mobility, KPMG, Canary Wharf, September 2025.
- —Impulse: Playing with Reality (Anagram), Venice Film Festival and BFI London Film Festival, 2024.
