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- Adam Rayner was born in Shrewsbury, England but grew up near Norwich in Norfolk. Having an American mother and a British father means he has dual nationality, and the family lived in the United States when he was a child, albeit briefly, before returning to East Anglia. He attended Durham University, and whilst there became a member of one of the university's drama groups. After graduation he took the two-year course at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art before beginning his career on the London stage- in the American play 'This Is Our Youth', where he understudied the star, Matt Damon, taking over from him for the final two weeks of the run.
- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Adeel was born in London on 18th September 1980 to a Pakistani father and a Kenyan mother and attended Cheltenham College throughout the 1990s. His father was keen for him to become a lawyer and he obtained a law degree but was more interested in acting and studied at the Actors' Studio in New York. He has made several stage appearances, including as Guildenstern in the Young Vic's 2011 production of 'Hamlet' but is best known for his television performances, being the first non-white actor to bag a BAFTA award as actor in a leading role for the single drama 'Murdered By My Father' and in 2018 will be seen as the villainous Thenardier opposite Olivia Colman and Dominic West in the BBC's serialization of 'Les Miserables'.- Editor
- Editorial Department
Alan Balsam was born to Michael and Anita Balsam on 2nd April, 1950. He grew up in Los Angeles and attended California State University at Long Beach, graduating in 1972. He began his career making short promotional films featuring entertainers such as Bette Midler and George Harrison and took his first credit as an assistant film editor on 'Fatso' in 1979. He always worked in television on the AFI salute to Bette Davis and 'Heroes of Rock and Roll'.- Alan Fountain was born in 1946 in Chelmsford, Essex, to teachers Harold and Bim Fountain and read philosophy and film studies at Nottingham University, In the 1970s he served as East Midlands film officer and joined the British Film Institute's independent production board before moving to Channel 4 as an independent producer and mentor to novice film makers. After leaving Channel 4 he founded Mondial, his own production company before leaving the media world to become a psychotherapist. Survived by wife Tess and two children he died unexpectedly on 3rd March 2016.
- Actor
- Art Department
Alan Morrissey was born on October 9th 1982. His was not only a home birth but a pub birth as he came into the world at the Golden Buck inn in Stockport,Greater Manchester,where his parents were licensees. Alan studied drama at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School,graduating in 2004,and subsequently appeared in the company's version of 'Salad Days'. Since then he has obtained wide theatrical experience with the Royal Shakespeare Company,Paines Plough,Hull Truck Company and Bolton Octagon as well as playing Romeo at the Globe Theatre. Since 2007 he has been a member of the Factory,a London based stage collective whose members offer each other mutual criticism and advice. On television he played nurse Nicky Van Barr in medical drama 'Holby City'.- Actor
- Writer
Alexander Von Giannini was born on 6 June 1958 in Northamptonshire to an English mother and an Italian father and was educated in England and Luxembourg, where his father worked for the European Commission. In fact he reckoned that he changed schools thirteen times in line with his father's work. Prior to acting he was the lead singer - as Sandy Fontaine - of rockabilly group Coast To Coast, with whom he appeared on TV's 'Top of the Pops' but got into acting after meeting Steven Berkoff and trained at the East 15 school in Essex. On television he appeared in many populist series such as 'The Bill' and 'Inspector Morse' and also wrote two short films 'The other Side of My Sleep' and 'Strawberries'. A prolific stage performer, frequently in musicals including 'Oklahoma!' and 'Oh What a Lovely War' Alex was appearing in a revival of 'Mack and Mabel' in Plymouth, Devon, when he died unexpectedly on October 2nd 2015. He leaves a widow, Jennifer Secombe, daughter of comic actor and singer Harry Secombe, whom he married in 1998.- Writer
- Producer
- Actor
Alex was born on September 10 1978. He studied at Cambridge University where he became a member of the Footlights Revue. In 2000 he made his debut at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with his show How To Avoid Huge Ships and was nominated for the Perrier award for best new comic with his show How To Make Fish Laugh. A man of many talents,he has appeared as a contestant on word-based TV game show 'Countdown' and written two books 'Wordwatching' and 'Birdwatching', fronted a live jazz comedy show 'The Horne Section' and ,with fellow comedian Owen Powell,conducted a survey to find a representative of every country recognized by the United Nations to live in London.- Alex was born in 1982 in the Cornish village of Mawnam Smith, moving at age nine to St Ives where his parents opened a guest house and where, between acting roles, he worked for his brother's gardening business. Graduating from RADA in 2004 he first came to prominence in the television serialisation of 'Fanny Hill', sharing some very intimate scenes with actress Rebecca Night. Aside from his television work he has appeared in a variety of stage productions, including as Stuart Sutcliffe in Beatles biopic 'Backbeat' for the Glasgow Citizens Theatre, 'Horse Piss for Blood' at the Drum, Plymouth, 'Woman in Mind' by Alan Ayckbourn at Salisbury and 'Orestes' for Shared Experience.
- Composer
- Music Department
- Additional Crew
Alexander 'Sandy' Faris was born to a Presbyterian minister and his school-mistress wife on 11 June 1921 in County Tyrone. He read music at Clare College, Cambridge, before war service with the Irish Guards and after demobilization resumed his musical studies at the Royal College of Music in London and - via a scholarship - The Juilliard School in New York. He subsequently conducted and arranged for the Royal Ballet, the Carl Rosa Opera Company and, briefly, for the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and in the 1980s was the musical director for a television series 'The Gilbert and Sullivan Collection' which presented 11 of their comic operas. To many though his best known contribution is the music for long-running period serial 'Upstairs, Downstairs'. Alexander Faris died on 28 September 2015. He was unmarried.- Alexandra Moen was born in Pisa, Tuscany, Italy. Having an oceanographer as a father meant that she and her family - teacher mother and two younger brothers - travelled along with his work and, at age six, she moved to Canada and then to Bermuda, ending up in England, where she completed her schooling. She read English at Leeds University before studying acting at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. She made her professional stage debut in 2003 at the Chichester theatre in Chekhov's 'The Seagull' and has since worked widely on stage and television. To many small screen viewers she is probably best known for her appearance in 'Doctor Who', doing something the doctor failed to and ridding the world of his great enemy, the Master. In addition to acting she sings and is a member of a psychedelic pop band.
- Actress
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Alexandra Roach was born in Ammanford, Carmarthenshire in Wales and was already a veteran of the Welsh television soap 'Pobol Y Cwm' by her early teens. In 2003 whilst studying for her GCSE exams at the local comprehensive school she learned that she had beaten out players in national soaps to win the award for the best juvenile actor in a soap at the Children in Entertainment Awards. Leaving 'Pobl Y Cwm' in 2005 she spent time with the National Youth Theatre of Wales before going on to R.A.D.A. from where she graduated with a B.A, in acting in 2010. A number of high profile roles followed including television series and the role of the younger Margaret Thatcher in the biopic 'The Iron Lady' with Meryl Streep.- Actor
- Writer
Alexi Kaye Campbell was born in Athens in 1966 as Alexi Komondouros, to a Greek father and a British mother. Having spent his childhood in Greece, he went to America as a young man, graduating from Boston University in English and American Studies. He had a year in New York, waiting tables and taking acting lessons whilst working unpaid for an off-Broadway stage group, moving to London to graduate in acting from the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts. For fifteen years, he was a jobbing actor including stage performances at the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal Court and the Shared Experience Theatre Group, and TV work such as in Keys to the Car (1999) and Murder in Mesopotamia (2001). In 2008 his play "The Pride", reflecting gay themes, was staged at the Royal Court Theatre in London directed by Jamie Lloyd with Bertie Carvel, JJ Feild, Lyndsey Marshal and Tim Steed in the wonderful cast, to critical acclaim, also honored with a Laurence Olivier Award, before transferring to Broadway in January 2010 directed by Joe Mantello with Ben Whishaw, Andrea Riseborough, Hugh Dancy and Adam James in the brilliant cast. In 2009, his next play "Apologia" was also warmly received at The Bush Theatre directed by Josie Rourke following notable productions too at the MTC Theatre in Melbourne, Australia, with Robyn Nevin as Kristin and at the Bungakuza Theatre Company in Japan. Describing themselves as leading "not very theatre-y lives", Alexi has lived in London with his partner Dominic Cooke since 1997.- Writer
- Producer
- Actress
Alice Albright Patterson was born in November 1940 to the journalist and former aviatrix Josephine Patterson Albright and her husband artist Ivan Albright. Brought up in Chicago and educated at Radcliffe College and the University of Columbia Alice returned to Chicago to work as a journalist and free-lance contributor to Channel 2, as well as writing a biography of her grandmother, pioneering newspaper publisher Cissy Patterson. First married to newspaper executive James Hoge by whom she had three children she subsequently married author Michael Arlen, moving with him to New York. In 1983 her old friend Nora Ephron contacted her to jointly write the screenplay for the film 'Silkwood' for which they received Oscar and Golden Globe nominations, since when she has worked sporadically in film, as well as continuing as an author.- Alice was born the eldest of four children. She grew up in Burnley, attending St Mary Magdalene's school and came to acting late in life, after her son had grown up and left home. After working as an extra she was spotted by a director who encouraged her to go for larger parts, leading to roles in 'Coronation Street'. Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights' and most famously as the owner of the best little whore house on the Chatsworth estate in 'Shameless'. Alice's sense of humour has been evidenced in her appearances for BBC's Comic Relief appeals when she spoofed the knickerless tennis player in the famous Athena poster and also parodied Mena Suvari's scene in 'American Beauty',Alice being covered in plastic red noses as opposed to the rose petals of the original film.
- Writer
- Producer
- Music Department
Born in Burnley in Lancashire in 1962, Alice Nutter first came to notice as a vocalist and percussionist in the anarchic pop band Chumbawamba. Whilst performing with the group Alice also worked in journalism, writing for the Leeds Other Paper and Northern Star, and left Chumbawamba in 2004 to learn how to be a dramatist at the Yorkshire-based Avron Foundation. Her first play, 'Foxes', about a multi-cultural relationship, was performed to general acclaim at the West Yorkshire Playhouse and she has written other stage plays for the venue and a radio play called 'Snow In July' in addition to her television credits.- Production Designer
- Art Department
- Art Director
Allan Cameron was born on April 1, 1944. He attended art school in his native Oxford, the University of Birmingham and the Royal College of Art in London. Shortly after graduation he went into designing for television shows for ten years - including the comedy 'George and Mildred', 'Born and Bred', 'The Naked Civil Servant' and 'Edward and Mrs Simpson' for which he received a BAFTA award. He also designed all eleven of the Brent Walker series 'The Gilbert and Sullivan' collection. In the early 1980s he moved into film with 'The Honorary Consul' and has since designed for dozens of films, including 'The Mummy' and 'The Da Vinci Code'. In addition he has worked for the Kenyan Government and the British Council and in 2012 was one of four production designers jointly awarded the Art Directors' Guild Excellence in Production Design accolade for their work on the James Bond films.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Born in Stockholm, Sweden to a German mother and Russo-Finnish father, Allan Corduner moved to England with his parents at the age of one year old, growing up in London. His parents were artistic and encouraged his early ambition to become a concert pianist - he is still extremely accomplished on the piano - but after attending Bristol University he opted for the stage and trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. He has worked extensively on stage and TV both in the U.K. and the US, and of his over 40 feature films he's perhaps best known for portraying Sir Arthur Sullivan to Jim Broadbent's Gilbert in the film Topsy-Turvy (1999).- Amara was born to Sri Lankan parents who had moved to England from Zambia to further her father's work opportunities. She went to the Wimbledon High School and, although she enjoyed drama, she regarded acting as a risky profession and studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford University, graduating with a 2:1 degree. She then spent two years working in the City of London dealing in mergers and acquisitions. Whilst at Oxford she had directed and appeared in plays and finally decided to go to drama school. Within a month of graduation she was auditioning for Wes Anderson's film 'The Darjeeling Limited'.
- Andrew 'Andy' Moss was born on June 1st 1984 in Manchester, where he was brought up - along with regular Christmas holiday trips to the family's house in Toulouse. He attended the Sheena Simon sixth form college from where he obtained a diploma in Musical Theatre and the North Cheshire Theatre College, graduating with a diploma in Drama. Aged twenty-one he made his television debut with a recurring role in the hair-dressing comedy drama 'Cutting It', the following year joining soap 'Hollyoaks' where he remained for eight years before his character literally crashed out of the show. In 2016 he was part of a harrowing scenario in the daytime continuing series 'Doctors' as the father of a baby who died in suspicious circumstances but on the lighter side he has also been the front man with rock band Empire, who made their London debut in 2011. In 2015 he was announced as the leading man in a tour of stage musical 'Ghost'.
- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Born in 1965 to Jamaican parents Angie grew up in the London borough of Lewisham. After joining the Second Wave Women's drama group and attending stage school she started work as an actress but claims that dyslexia made it difficult for her to sight-read scripts. She thus decided to become Britain's first black stand up comedienne. In 1994 her debut comedy show 'Funny Black women on the Edge' scored a great success at the Edinburgh Fringe and was subsequently staged at the Theatre Royal,Stratford East whilst her self-penned series 'The Brothers' scored in three media,on radio,television and on stage. As of 2012 she is to appear in sitcom 'The Ryan Sisters' whilst,inn addition to her work as a performer she set up Straight to Audience production company to encourage youngsters in the art of stand up comedy.- Born in Ruddington, Nottinghamshire, 1963, Angus Barnett joined the Theatre of Cooperative Arts in Nottingham whilst a teenager and went on to train as an actor at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, as well as performing with the National Youth Theatre in London. He has performed widely on stage, including in the play 'The Red Daemon' for the Japanese Noda Map Company, in which he toured Japan and Thailand. In the twenty-first century he became well-known to cinema audiences with his appearances in the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' movies and is a familiar face in supporting roles on British television, being a member of the huge ensemble cast of the 2008 adaptation of Charles Dickens' 'Little Dorrit'.
- Anita Reeves was born in Dublin in 1948 and studied acting on a part-time basis at the Brendan Smith academy whilst working as a laundress. Inspired by fellow Irish actress Maureen Potter she appeared at the Gaiety Theatre with the original cast of 'Dancing at Lughnasa' and played Mrs Lovett in 'Sweeney Todd' at the Gate theatre and Juno in 'Juno and the Paycock' both in Dublin and on Broadway in addition to several film appearances, notably for Neil Jordan. Married to Julian Erskine, the executive producer of Riverdance Ms. Reeves passed away following a battle with cancer in Dublin on July 7 2016.
- Actress
- Writer
Annabel Leventon was born in Hertfordshire. She received a state scholarship and bursary to attend St Anne's College, Oxford (1961-64). While studying there, she made several appearances at the Playhouse and toured France as Desdemona in the Oxford University Drama Society's production of 'Othello'. She then joined the Fourbeats pop group, played at the Edinburgh Festival and continued in various other OUDS productions. Upon obtaining her BA she gained a grant to LAMDA and made her professional stage debut in Leicester. In December 1967 she left for the U.S. where she joined Tom O'Horgan's La Mama Troupe in New York and worked with them for seven months before returning to Great Britain. She was in the original London cast of 'Hair' at the Shaftesbury Theatre, which was also directed by Tom O'Horgan. Leventon appeared in the London production of 'The Rocky Horror Show' and made numerous television appearances.- Producer
- Director
Anne Balfour was born in Woking, Surrey, on 10th August 1923 to army officer Bill and his wife Ruth, her great uncle being former British prime minister Arthur Balfour. Originally trained as an opera singer she turned to film making in the 1950s, starting with musical themes and formed the production company Inca to make a series of acclaimed short films. Later, with a new company Samaritan Films, she produced - throughout the 1960s and 1970s - full length documentaries on social and humanitarian subjects as well as a well-received series of films on the lives of the great painters. Away from the camera she was a passionate supporter and fund raiser for the Anti-Slavery Society. In 1947 she married Sir David Fraser and whilst the marriage only lasted for five years they remained good friends until his death in 2012. Lady Balfour-Fraser died on 26th July 2016, leaving a daughter, two grandchildren and two great grandchildren- Costume Designer
- Costume and Wardrobe Department
- Actress
Born Edinburgh 1960 Annie was taught to sew by her mother and became interested in costumes whilst at school, designing clothes for school plays. She also developed a keen interest in film costumes whilst very young. In 1976 she went to London to the National Youth Theatre, from where she studied fine art at Hornsey Art College, where she got her degree, augmenting her student grant by designing clothes for acts at the London Palladium. Whilst dating the record sleeve designer Malcolm Garrett she also designed clothes for rock bands such as Culture Club before moving to Italy to work in a design factory. On returning to England she met the costume designer Sandy Powell, who was looking for an assistant to work with her on Derek Jarman's 'Caravaggio'. Since then she has worked on numerous film and television shows, frequently period pieces such as 'The Hollow Crown', Da Vinci's Demons' and 'The Crimson Petal and the White'.- Art Director
- Production Designer
- Actor
Antxon Gomez was born in 1952. Brought up in the Basque region of Spain, in 1974 he started at the University of Valladoliod to read chemistry but his communist sympathies drew attention to himself and he never completed his course. In the mid-1970s he moved to Barcelona, where he worked in advertising, coming into contact with members of the movie profession. In 1993 he entered films with Bigas Luna's 'Golden Balls', since when he has worked on several occasions with Pedro Almovodar and taken a Goya, the Spanish equivalent of the Oscar for his work on Steven Soderbergh's 'Che, Part One'.- Soundtrack
Asa Elliott was born on December 17th 1981.
Ever musical, in 2002 he made his television debut on the show 'Stars In Their Eyes', where he impersonated Bobby Vee performing 'The Night Has a Thousand Eyes'.
Over the next few years he honed his craft appearing in the United Kingdom and at cabaret venues in the Spanish resort of Benidorm. Here he came to the attention of the makers of the TV sitcom of that name and he has been a permanent fixture in the later episodes.
For all his continental fame he still regards himself as a proud son of Manchester, where he was born.- Barbara Marten was born as Barbara Mason on January 3rd 1947. As a teenager she attended the London School of Music and Dramatic Art but claims that it put her off acting and she worked for two years as a teacher, returning to the stage when she joined a theatre group in Coventry and then a touring company based in Doncaster but travelling Yorkshire putting on contemporary plays. In 1997 she joined the cast of 'Casualty' for possibly her best known television role as straight talking nurse Eve Montgomery and remained with the series for two years. Since then she has appeared in many popular dramas including 'Silent Witness', 'The Bill' and Waking the Dead' and more recently appeared in the period drama 'The Mill' as real-life anti-slavery campaigner Hannah Greg. Barbara married writer Mike Kenny, living with him in Leeds. They have three sons, Billy, Josh and Theo - whose name signifies God's gift, as three years before he was born Barbara suffered an illness which led her to believe she could no longer have children.
- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Barnaby Kay was born into a theatrical family. His younger brother Adam is in the business, his grandfather, Arthur Kay, who died in 1970, was a leading light in community theatre in Northumbria, and his father was the actor Richard Kay, who was killed in a road accident in 1985 before he was able to see Barnaby follow in the family tradition. Barnaby went to drama school but left before completing his course as his father's agent - following the funeral - secured him an audition with the Royal Shakespeare Company, which he successfully passed, debuting with them in the play 'A Jovial Crew', and returning to work with them on several occasions. He has since worked in all media, including television roles in 'Holby City', 'Midsomer Murders' and 'New Tricks'.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Barry came to prominence in the 2017 film 'The Killing of a Sacred Deer' with his truly terrifying portrayal of Martin, an American teenager exacting a grisly revenge on drunken surgeon Colin Farrell, but he was neither an American nor a teenager. Born in Dublin on 17th October 1992, he has a brother named Eric. From the age of thirteen he was raised by a grandmother and got into acting by answering an advert for non-professionals to train at a school called the Factory. Beginning in Irish soap 'Fair City', he played Irish roles in the likes of '71' (2014) but in 2017 bagged the role of Martin as well as appearing in the lauded 'Dunkirk. In addition to acting, Barry is a talented amateur boxer, representing the Celtic Core and is an ambassador for Dior.- Production Designer
- Additional Crew
Barry Reginald Newbery was born in London on 10 February 1927 to Reginald, an insurance salesman and his hair-dresser wife Rosetta. After completing his National Service as a lorry mechanic in India he completed a course in commercial art at the Borough Polytechnic and spent two years designing exhibition stands at London's Olympia before joining the BBC in 1957. His love of history was indulged in such productions as 'The Count of Monte Cristo' (1963) with Alan Badel in the lead, 'The Lost Boys' (1978) about J. M. Barrie and 'Prince Regent' (1979) starring Peter Egan as the future George IV. He also worked on many popular series, including 'Dad's Army and 'Doctor Who', where he designed sets for the first five actors playing the Doctor. His daughter Joanna was a floor runner on the show and later became a television executive. Barry Newbery retired from the BBC in 1984 and spent much of his time painting, as well as publishing a book of his work on 'Doctor Who'. He died in London on February 25 2015 just six months after his wife Zena passed away.- Actor
- Producer
Basil was born in Zurich, Switzerland on January the 9th 1993 and started out by taking singing lessons at the Zurich Music Conservatory before embarking on a two year course at the European Actor School. Having started his career in a German comedy film 'Let's Get a Divorce' in 2009, for two years he was a leading actor in Swiss youth sitcom 'Best Friends' before dividing his time between Zurich and London from where he graduated with an acting degree from the Giles Foreman Centre for Acting in 2013. In 2016 he made his British television debut in costume drama 'Victoria'.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Ben Lewis was born to musical parents on 28 September 1979. Growing up in England he had his first stage role in a school production of 'Bugsy Malone' in Hertfordshire. Moving with his family to Australia he took an Arts degree at Sydney University before winning a scholarship to the Western Australia Academy of performing Arts. In 2006 he was in the cast of the original Australian stage production of 'Priscilla,Queen of the Desert', joining the cast of 'Spamalot, a year later and in 2011 taking on the role of the Phantom of the Opera in 'Love Never Dies' at the Regent Theatre, Melbourne. In 2012 he returned to England.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Ben Pullen was born in Switzerland and was brought up in Hong Kong and the United States before his family brought him to England when he was a teenager. He read film studies at the University of Warwick and got into acting via the Bristol Old Vic Theater School. He is married with a son, Oscar, and lives in London.- Ben Schnetzer was born in New York, to actors Stephen Schnetzer and Nancy Snyder. He began acting in his teens, appearing in the TV drama Happy Town (2010), but, in his own words, wanted to give acting "a proper shot" and moved to London in 2010 to study drama at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Graduating three years later, he went almost immediately into film work and in three movies released in Britain in 2014 showed his total versatility and superb mastery of accents, as a German Jewish fugitive in The Book Thief (2013), a snobbish Anglo-Greek student in The Riot Club (2014) and committed Northern Irish gay activist Mark Ashton in Pride (2014).
- Actor
- Writer
Benedict Sandiford was born on 16th August 1973 at Newark-on-Trent and was educated at Harrogate Grammar School. He made his television debut as a teen-ager in the series 'Children's Ward' but, although he has appeared in many small screen populist dramas, he will probably be best known as Neil, the lazy son of Gwen Taylor in the sitcom 'Barbara'. His stage performances include playing Gooper in the West Yorkshire Playhouse's production of Tennessee Williams' 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' and an unwilling neighbour to 'The Lady in the Van' in Hull Truck Company's version of the Alan Bennett play. Since the second decade of the twenty-first century he has been domiciled in Reading and heavily involved as a writer and performer with local theatrical groups' projects, including the plays ' Jacksons Corner', 'Kaspar.' and 'Amelia', all concerned with the town's history, and 'The Great British Bump-Off', described as Miss Marple Meets Mary Berry. He also wrote and performed the one man show 'The Final Whistle', detailing the history of Reading's football club, staged at their home ground at the Madejski Stadium.- Director
- Writer
- Actress
Caroline Bille Eltringham was born in 1967. Prior to entering the world of film she worked as a boatswain of tall- masted ships and as a theatrical dresser. She attended Bournemouth film school along with Simon Beaufoy - who would later take an Academy Award for 'Slumdog Millionaire' and Mark Blaney, the trio forming Footprint Films on graduation. After producing short films for the BBC Bille went on to make 'Kid in the Corner' for Channel 4. In 2000 she and Mark Blaney and Kate Ogden formed This is Not a Company, in keeping with the title of their 2002 film 'This is Not a Love Song', the first film to be streamed simultaneously on the Internet with its cinema release.- Billy Howle was born in Stoke-on-Trent, England, to a schoolteacher mother and a father who teaches at Kent University, the second of four sons. His older brother, Sam, is a graphic designer. Despite his parents' academic backgrounds, Billy has said that he was not interested in further education, and worked instead at the local Stephen Joseph theater, in community-based projects involving dance and acting. After a year at drama school, he enrolled at the prestigious Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, graduating in 2013. Having appeared at Bristol in 'The Little Mermaid,' his next stage appearance was in New York at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, opposite Lesley Manville in Richard Eyre's production of Henrik Ibsen's 'Ghosts' and a year later was reunited with Bristol Old Vic, the director, and Ms. Manville in a scorching production of 'Long Day's Journey Into Night' alongside Jeremy Irons - another Bristol Old Vic alumnus - Hadley Fraser, and Jessica Regan, more than holding his own with his older, more experienced co-stars. After a couple of small roles in television drama, Billy's first substantial lead came in the youth-oriented murder mystery Glue (2014) in 2014, opening the first scene in memorable style as he rolled nude down stacks of grain in a barn. In 2016, he was in another murder mystery, The Witness for the Prosecution (2016), as the defendant accused of killing his wealthy benefactress, by which time he had filmed his first forays into cinema: On Chesil Beach (2017) and Anton Chekhov's The Seagull (2018), both with Saoirse Ronan, and The Sense of an Ending (2017).
- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Blake Ritson started acting when he was 13, debuting in White Chameleon at the Royal National Theatre, directed by Sir Richard Eyre for which he received rave reviews. He worked with Sir Richard Eyre again two years later on Macbeth, and went on to appear in the original West End run of Tom Stoppard's Arcadia. He won an academic scholarship to St.Paul's School in London before attending Cambridge University, where he studied English and Medieval Italian. Following University, he studied physical theatre at Ecole Philippe Gaulier in Paris.
He has appeared in numerous TV shows and films and played a number of leads for the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 and on American TV. In recent years, he has become particularly well known for his work portraying a variety of villainous characters, following his celebrated portrayal of Riario in three seasons of Da Vinci's Demons. He was subsequently cast by Warner Brothers to portray the Supervillain Brainiac, one of Superman's most famous nemeses.
He is also a much in demand voice actor, having starred in dozens of plays and narrated numerous audio books for BBC radio, narrated a series of children's books and played leading characters in some of the biggest selling computer games of all time, for which he has been nominated for five awards.
In addition to acting, he has also co-directed and co-written four prize-winning short films with his brother Dylan, another Cambridge graduate and ex-member of the Footlights company. He also plays various musical instruments and played banjolele on the album 'Cowley Road' by fellow thespian - and 'Mansfield Park' co-star - Douglas Hodge.- Actor
- Additional Crew
Robert George Barrett was born on March 31st 1966 and attended Bedford School as a boarder before enrolling at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. He made his stage debut in 1991 and has an impressive stage roster with many appearances at the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh in 'The Recruiting Officer', 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', Guys and Dolls' and 'Dancing at Lughnasa' as well as with the all--male Propeller company in 'The Taming of the Shrew' and (as Malvolio) in 'Twelfth Night' at the Old Vic in addition to their other productions at the Watermill Theatre and in various roles in the Chichester Festival Theatre's version of 'Nicholas Nickleby' along with its national tour. In 1992 he appeared on the London stage in 'Cyrano de Bergerac' where he met and later married fellow cast member Rebecca Charles,by whom he has two daughters. In 1993 he made his television debut in 'The Inspector Alleyn Mysteries' and has since appeared in many populist dramas, most notably 'Holby City' (from 2010) in the recurring role of Dr Sacha Levy.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Brett attended school in Sutton, Surrey before reading Film Studies at Warwick University. At twenty-two Brett went to New York to study acting at the American Academy Of Dramatic Art. Aside from performing, he began to write his own plays and take them to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival but ultimately decided that comedy was less depressing and in 2006 began his stand-up career with a show entitled 'Brett Goldstein Grew Up in a Strip Club'. He began appearing to a wider audience in a variety of television sitcoms, including 'Derek', 'Uncle', 'Drifters' and the Emmy award winning "Hoff The Record". In 2015 he wrote and starred in the title role of 'SuperBob', a superhero romantic comedy set in Peckham, directed by his old classmate from Sutton Jon Drever. Brett has become an award winning actor, writer and stand up, and over time has made three more hours of stand up that premiered in Edinburgh and toured the UK and overseas: 'Brett Goldstein Contains Scenes Of An Adult Nature', 'Brett Goldstein: Burning Man', and 'Brett Goldstein: What Is Love Baby Don't Hurt Me'.- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Brian Croucher was born on January 23rd 1942. He started work as an apprentice printer and did a stint as a redcoat at Butlin's holiday camp before applying to train as an actor at LAMDA. Throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s he appeared at London's Royal Court Theatre in several plays by controversial writers and has also worked with the National Theatre as well as playing Fagin at the Marlowe Theatre,Canterbury,having had an early,uncredited role in the 1968 film version. On television he tested for the role of Blake in 'Blake's 7', but ended up playing Travis instead and also appeared in children's cult Sci-Fi serial 'The Jensen Code',though in the mid-1990s he was best known as Ted Hills in the soap 'Eastenders'. He has appeared in most of the populist police TV series,his build and voice frequently getting him cast as a heavy,a role he plays in the 2012 film 'Coolio'. Married to writer Christina Balit - whose plays he has directed for the stage - they have two children.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Jeffrey Beltzner was born in 1964. As a teenager he was interested in body-building and took the title Mr Teenage Pennsylvania in 1984, though he turned down the opportunity to enter Mr America. At university he met Doug Flex, who shared his interest in wrestling and together they formed the tag-team the Brat Pack, Jeff adopting the professional name Brick Bronsky. For two years he wrestled as Mr Canada but had to withdraw following a bicep injury. At this time Troma Films were making action exploitation films and starred in their 'Class of Nuke 'Em High' and its sequels. Retiring from the ring he has subsequently enjoyed a sporadic acting career in addition to going into wrestling promotion with Doug Flex.- Zainub Bukky Ajati was a Nigerian born actress, born on February 2nd 1934 and educated in England on a scholarship. Returning to her homeland to act she was a regular in Nigerian TV series 'Checkmate' throughout the 1980s and 1990s as well as appearing in several 'Nollywood' movies. Bukky died at home, in Nigeria, on July 6th 2016.
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Cal was born Cahal McCrystal on 6th August 1959 to a journalist also named Cahal McCrystal and his social worker wife Stella. In 1964 the family moved from Cal's native Belfast to London and in 1967 to the USA in line with Cal Senior's job as the Sunday Times New York bureau chief. In 1970 the family came back to London where Cal's schoolmates noticed that he had picked up a Stateside accent and his acting ambitions were fostered by drama teacher Helen Woodhouse. Although he attended a catering college his ambition was to pursue a theatrical career and in 1981 he graduated from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, soon afterwards hosting youth programmes for Yorkshire Television. After some ten years as an actor Cal began directing for the Edinburgh Festival and later for the Cambridge Footlights Revue and at Derby Playhouse where he directed Jenny Éclair in 'The Killing of Sister George'. In 2011 he was invited by Nicholas Hytner to be the associate director on 'One Man Two Guvnors', his title later becoming physical comedy director - a highly important role in a fast-moving farce in which slapstick and energetic performances, along with musical interludes and audience involvement, hasten the plot along.- Actor
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Callum was born in London and grew up on a Chelsea estate - he is a huge Chelsea football fan - where, he claimed in a 2014 interview, "I learned more from films than I did through life itself." Six foot two tall, he decided to go into acting at age eighteen taking some courses and working as a model for Burberry, fronting their 2011 campaign photographed by Mario Testino. Whilst continuing to take acting lessons he was cast by John Boorman to play the director's younger self in 'Queen and Country', the sequel to 'Hope and Glory', in 2012 though it was over a year before the project got off the ground. In the meantime he appeared opposite Helen McCrory in 'Leaving'. a television drama about a middle-aged woman's affair with a younger man. On the strength of this and the eventual release of 'Queen and Country' Screen International declared him one of its Stars of Tomorrow in 2014. In 2014 he also appeared in Channel 4's drama serial 'Glue', as one of a group of youngsters investigating the death of Callum's brother in a community of travelers and in early 2016 he could be seen as part of the huge ensemble cast in the BBC TV adaptation of 'War and Peace.'- Born in Denmark in 1974 Camilla began dancing at the tender age of two, and when she was twelve she won the Danish Junior Dance Championship. Re-locating to England she became involved both professionally and - for nine years - personally with New Zealand-born dancer Brendan Cole, the pair of them becoming well-known through television show 'Strictly Come Dancing.' Following her split from Brendan she teamed up, in 2004, with British dancer Ian Waite' and in 2005, they came second in the Latin American section of the UK Closed Championship. In 2007 she and Brendan represented Great Britain in the Eurovision Dance Contest, rather oddly since neither was British.
- Cara was born in Yorkshire in January 1990 and attended Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. Whilst there she won the part of Ivy in period drama 'Downton Abbey' and the school allowed her to finish her final year early in order to appear in the series. In 2012 she was a joint recipient of the Screen Actors' Guild award for the best ensemble cast in a television series, leaving the show in 2013. Since then she has made many television appearances, most notably in drama 'The Syndicate' and in romantic sitcom 'Together'.
- Liverpudlian Carl came to national television notice in 2013 playing Barry Barry (his full character name), one of the nastiest pupils at 'Waterloo Road', though, in common with several of his class-mates he was rather too old for school, having been born in April 1987. Prior to 'Waterloo Road', his small screen debut Carl had spent many years on stage, from the age of eleven in a production of 'Peter Pan' and in his teens was a prolific musical performer singing at the Merseyside Singer of the Year event in 2004, the Stephen Sondheim Student Performance of the Year and in 'Barbara Cook and Friends', both 2007. On stage he has appeared in 'High School Musical', 'The Fantasticks' and as Joe Pesci in 'Jersey Boys'. Post 'Waterloo Road' he has acted in 'Casualty' and in the BBC 's 2016 revival of classic sitcoms played the 'randy Scouse git Mike', the son-in-law of bigot Alf Garnett , the part originated by Tony Booth in a new version of 'Till Death Us Do Part'.
- With a name meaning Bright Headed in Gaelic Ceallach - pronounced Kellak - Spellman's youthful looks ensured him the role of a fifteen year old schoolboy 'Matthew Williams' in the 2016 return of TV drama 'Cold Feet', even though he was actually twenty-one, born on 31st August 1995 to a family of Irish descent in Salford. Cel attended St Bede's Catholic college in Manchester but already by the age of seven he had began his career and trodden the boards at Manchester Palace theatre playing 'Chip' in 'Beauty and the Beast' and at the age of 11 went to London to the Sylvia Young Theatre school. Cel began on television as a child actor, in 'Blue Murder', where he went on to appear in 5 series. While growing up he also made appearances in 'The Cup', 'Holby City', Casualty, ITV's 'Homefront' and in 2010 appearing as a schoolboy in 2 series of BBC TV's BAFTA award winning 'Waterloo Road'. In 2015 he joined the cast of Russell T. Davies 'Cucumber' and the following year portrayed 'Matthew Williams' in Cold Feet, which ran for 4 series. He has also carved out a career on stage form a young age, starring in Oliver at The Library Theatre, Dido Queen of Carthage at The National and Talk Radio at The Old Red Lion. At the same time he began to carve out a substantial career as a presenter on BAFTA award winning 'Friday Download' and presenting his own weekly show interviewing the likes of Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber on BBC Radio 1. More Recently he has appeared in BBC One's WWII drama, World on Fire and Netflix's White Lines. Away from acting Cel is a passion advocate and activist for the planet and young people. He supports and works for WWF as an Ambassador, UNICEF, is also an Ambassador for The Wildlife Trusts, Great Ormond Street, Once Upon a Smile and a president of The Young Peoples Trust for the Environment. Cel is also a proud and passionate Manchester City fan, unlike his 'Cold Feet' character Matthew, who supports the Reds.