EXCLUSIVE: Issy Knowles, a former winner of the emerging writer scheme The Brit List, is preparing to get into the mind of an OnlyFans star for her next project.

The former model has created and written the one-woman Edinburgh Festival Fringe show Body Count, which will explore the online universe created by the likes of Bonnie Blue and Lily Phillips, who have shocked the internet by sleeping with up to 1,000 men in one day.

In her first interview about the show, Knowles told Deadline that OnlyFans stars had become an obsession in group chats with her female friends and she felt the subject of amateur porn was ripe for theatrical interrogation.

She will play an OnlyFans model named Pollie (the part is not based on one individual), as well as the roles of 10 men who queue up to sleep with the star. Pollie has a Catholic upbringing, a failed consulting career, and a desire to make quick cash. She devises a plan to sleep with a thousand of her subscribers at Edinburgh. The title, Body Count, is a nod the a phrase used by some OnlyFans stars to describe the number of men they have had sex with.

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Knowles hopes the darkly comic play is a compassionate interpretation of the viral OnlyFans stunts, seeking to examine the meaning of sex and why people, particularly women, have such visceral reactions to the likes of Blue and Phillips. “For many of us, we know how it feels to be objectified, and we can’t help but put ourselves into that scenario and see this queue of men, and inherently feel like we understand,” she said.

Knowles added that there is also a feeling that “women should know their sexual limits” and are held to a higher standard than men when it comes to bedding multiple partners. “There’s this real need to other these women, when actually I think there’s more that unites us,” she continued.

Knowles has not spoken to any OnlyFans stars for her play and is, instead, drawing on her own experience as model and previous interactions with sex workers. She said there is a “theatricality” to the sex stunts, and she hopes that sex workers would enjoy the play if they came to watch.

Knowles’ script Model Behaviour, a #MeToo comedy-drama set in the fashion industry, topped the BritList in 2022 and was picked up for development by Carnival Films, producer of Downton Abbey. Named as a Rising Writer by Deadline, Knowles is also penning a horror feature with Meduza, run by Julia Godzinskaya and Sophie Vickers, producers of Robert Eggers’ The Witch.

Body Count previews at the Seven Dials Playhouse in Covent Garden on July 18-19, before moving to the Pleasance Courtyard in Edinburgh, where the show will run from July 30 to August 25. The play is directed by Mimi Pattinson, winner of the 2025 John Fernald Award for directing.

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