Hugh Sheehan is a composer, sound designer, writer and audio producer from Birmingham. Now based in London after spending 10 years living in Helsinki, Hugh produces work for theatre, concert hall, radio, podcast, and moving image. Much of his practice explores questions of gender and sexuality, desire and shame, assimilation and radicalism.

In 2025 Hugh made a 5-part narrative audio documentary series for BBC Sounds entitled Criminally Queer: The Bolton 7. Dubbed “mind-bending” and “a staggering tale” by The Guardian and a “sad, startling story skilfully unravelled” by The Sunday Times, the series chronicles a shocking and scarcely known landmark legal case in 1998, whereby 7 gay and bisexual men had consensual group sex and were subsequently arrested and charged with the archaic crimes of gross indecency and buggery. The series won Gold in the Sex and Relationships Category at the British Podcast Awards and Best Specialist Podcast at Press Gazette’s Future of Media Awards.

Other work for the BBC includes Lost Time – an audio short contemplating LGBTQ+ people’s experiences in getting to live life on their own terms.

Hugh has worked internationally as a composer and sound designer for theatre. Recent credits include: High Value Man (The Big House), Heisenberg (Arcola Theatre), When You Pass Over My Tomb (Arcola Theatre), A Woman Walks into a Bank (Theatre503), SCRATCHES (Arcola Theatre), Pennyroyal (Finborough Theatre) The 4th Country (Park Theatre) The Hole (The Old Rep, Birmingham), Magnificence (Finborough Theatre), Pomona (Richard Burton Theatre, Cardiff and Gate Theatre, London), Beasts and Beauties (Richard Burton Theatre, Cardiff)

In 2023 Hugh released his debut album Shapes That Are Different – a collection of folk songs, electronic soundscapes, and audio interviews about queer selfhood. Under the Radar says of the record “Sheehan offers a poetic ode to queer iconoclasm, examining the daring power inherent in queer existence.”

Hugh’s musical foundations lie in Irish traditional music and contemporary classical music. He holds degrees in composition and music technology from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and the Sibelius Academy. He has been commissioned and performed by ensembles in Europe and North America and through foundations such as Kone Foundation and Diaphonique: the Franco-British fund for classical contemporary music. He plays with and writes for several projects, including his own ensemble and duos with Maija Kauhanen and Timo Alakotila, and is musical director of Comhaltas in Britain’s Youth Orchestra Ceol Le Chéile