Made in Chelsea Star Olivia Bentley Joins Leeds International Festival of Ideas as LIFI Futures Launches

With four weeks until it takes over Leeds Playhouse from October 6 to October 10, the Leeds International Festival of Ideas (LIFI26) has announced a major expansion to its line-up.

TV personality and mental health advocate Olivia Bentley, best known for E4's ‘Made in Chelsea,’ has joined the panel for Are Kids Still Part of the Plan? on October 10, with the debate examining falling birth rates across the developed world, career pressures, the cost of living, and the changing definition of modern family life.

Bentley will be joined on the panel by BBC Radio 5 Live broadcaster Johnny I'Anson - bringing a male perspective to a conversation often framed solely around women - alongside host Laura Hamilton, Dr SJ Beard, Yousra Samir Imran, and Betty Mukherjee.

Alongside the new panellists, organisers have unveiled LIFI Futures, a significantly expanded, four-event strand designed specifically around the questions facing young people across the region.

Building on the inaugural Young LIFI initiative launched in 2025, three of the events will be free to schools, colleges, and universities across Leeds.

The flagship public session within the strand, How to be unapologetically you? (October 9), will be hosted by BBC Newsround presenter Shanequa Paris.

The panel features dancer and disability advocate Tasha Ghouri, NHS GP Dr Radha Modgil, actor Ash Palmisciano, and former Leeds Rhinos captain Stevie Ward, tackling topics from body image and gender identity to neurodiversity and mental health.

Other LIFI Futures events focus on alternative career paths—tackling apprenticeships with law firm Weightmans and dissecting employment barriers with Luminate Education Group - while Countdown’s Rachel Riley MBE will lead a session exploring Leeds' legacy as the UK’s first City of Maths.

Martin Dickson, Festival Director, said: "Young LIFI was the best thing we added last year, and it was one event. LIFI Futures is now four events. Identity, apprenticeships, the NEET label, and maths - these are the conversations shaping what young people in Leeds think is possible for them, and they deserve the same stage, the same speakers and the same seriousness as everything else on the programme.

"Leeds is a city of many voices. Our younger ones are the most important for the future of this city."

LIFI26 Day-by-Day Highlights

Delivered by LeedsBID and Welcome to Leeds, the festival brings five days of high-profile keynotes and panel debates to the city:

• October 6: Opening night features a fireside chat with broadcaster Louis Theroux, looking back across four decades of documentary filmmaking.
• October 7: Includes Is Maths the Root of Everything? with Rachel Riley MBE, a panel on suicide awareness featuring Roman Kemp and Andy Airey MBE (3 Dads Walking), and an evening keynote on resilience with author Elizabeth Day.
• October 8: Features Strength Beyond The Silence with percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie and Tasha Ghouri, alongside a climate debate hosted by naturalist Chris Packham CBE.
• October 9: Is It Time To Switch Off Social Media? with BBC cyber correspondent Joe Tidy and Megan McKenna, plus a 90s culture retrospective with Harriet Harman, Judge Jules MBE, and Denise van Outen.
• October 10: Closes with Are Kids Still Part of the Plan? with Olivia Bentley, an identity debate hosted by Samira Ahmed featuring James O'Brien and Afua Hirsch, and a closing fireside chat with composer and comedian Tim Minchin.

Tickets for LIFI26 events are on sale now, with several sessions already sold out. Full details and booking are available through the official Leeds International Festival of Ideas website.