Tutors

Ruth Carney is a professional freelance director. She has just completed a one to one course in Television Directing with renowned TV Director Laurence Moody. This led to her shadowing Director David Kester on Coronation Street. She has most recently spent time at Lime Pictures where she shadowed Adrian Bean, Paul Riordan, Karl Neilsen and Damien Goodwin on Hollyoaks. Ruth is currently prepping to direct her first short film.

Sushil trained at LAMDA and has worked extensively in TV, Film, Radio and Theatre. Sushil has recently delved into directing and he has directed two shows for JB Shorts and is looking to build on this experience.

Acting credits include: Coronation Street, Cops, Clocking Off, Blue Murder, Drop Dead Gorgeous, Last Tango in Halifax, Testing The Echo, Starcross’d, Late Bloomers, United We Fall.

Sue, the Co-Founder of The Actors’ Lab, has been an actress for over 40 years, working in over 85 theatres across the UK before embarking on a long television career.

Sue played Gloria Todd in Coronation St (4 years) and Jackie Corkhill in Brookside (11 years). Other TV credits include, How We Used To Live, Emmerdale,The Beiderbecke Affair, Coasting, Dalziel and Pascoe, Heartbeat, In Deep, The Royal, Doctors, Holby City, Midsomer Murders, Casualty, Being Eileen. She has recorded over 200 plays in BBC radio drama.

Sue produced and directed Night of Stars and Night of Stars II at the Palace Theatre, Manchester, Gala Night of Stars at the Tameside Hippodrome and 2 open air Shakespeare productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and As You Like It. As patron of 24/7 Festival, she directed Shadow Of Your Hand, Build A Bonfire for JB Shorts 15 and has directed the last five Actors’ Lab Showcases.

Illy started his career in Theatre as a chippie before becoming an Assistant Stage Manager, Stage Manager and Production Manager, before moving to Yorkshire TV. He then moved to Mersey TV progressing through the various production jobs as Assistant Floor Manager, Location Manager and 1st AD/Production Manager. Illy first had the opportunity to direct Doctors and moved on to direct many other shows.

Directing/producing credits include: Rising Damp, Emmerdale Farm, Glory Boys, Harrys Game, Doctors, Casualty, Coronation Street.

Lee Mountjoy is a Casting Director for Film, Television, Theatre and Commercials. Lee has vast experience working on projects in the UK and America for reputable companies such as Hollywood Entertainment, Universal Pictures and The BBC.

Casting credits include: Adverts for Selfridges, ASDA, Bensons for Beds, films and TV shows.

Jake Norton has acted professionally for sixteen years on stage screen and radio. Since 2012 he has lectured at University level, first for Liverpool John Moores University, he currently is a lecturer at The Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts. Jake particular enjoys leading courses designed around naturalism and scene study, Shakespeare and Ensemble theatre.

Jake Norton’s theatre credits include The National Theatre, Theatre Clwyd, The Octagon Theatre, The Liverpool Everyman, The Royal Court Theatre Liverpool, The Unity Theatre, The Torch Theatre, The Oldham Coliseum Theatre, The Stafford Gatehouse, The Brewhouse Theatre, The BAC, and The Met Theatre, his work has seen him perform nationally and in Mexico, Zambia and Sweden. He has toured with Ridiculusmus, Company FZ, Periplum and Ullaloom Theatre, of which he was a founder member

Jake’s TV credits Include ‘Coronation Street’, ‘The Bill’, ‘Emmerdale’, ‘Hollyoaks’, ‘The Royal Today’, and The ‘Unknown Stuntman’. His BBC Radio 4 credits include ‘A Kind of Loving’, ‘Brief Lives’, ‘Writing The Century’,’ The End of the World’, ‘Bright Day’ and ‘Sherbert Dolls’. His film credits include ‘The Violators’, ‘Powder’, ‘Salvage’, ‘The Edge of Empire’, ‘Blue’, and ‘The Meeting’.

With an MA Voice Studies from Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, Nic works as a voice and accent coach across the UK. Her work encompasses all things voice from vocal health issues and practical spoken voice training for actors, to voice in text analysis and accent and dialect coaching. Currently a Visiting Professional at LIPA, she has taught at RADA, Arts Educational, East 15 Acting School, Identity Drama School, The Actors’ Guild and The University of Staffordshire.

Recent accent coaching credits include Hatrick Productions and Radio 4 Comedy. Nic also has a thriving one to one practice where she assists any professional voice users including comedians, teachers, presenters and anyone with a voice, in spoken voice technique. As a voice actor with an ongoing career in the voice over industry, Nic also specialises in voice for voice over and character voicing for gaming and animation.

Nicholas Hale is an actor and writer. He studied English Literature at Liverpool Hope University, and trained as an actor at the Liverpool Playhouse Youth Theatre and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), where he was sponsored by Sir Ian McKellen, Jeremy Irons, Tom Hiddleston and Richard Wilson.  Nicholas is a four-time finalist of Monologue Slam UK, writing and performing his own monologues.  He has recently worked at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Birmingham Repertory Theatre and the BBC.

Callum graduated with a degree in Acting Studies back in 1998 and since then has worked consistently as an actor, street theatre performer, director and fight director. He has worked in theatres and venues all over the world in a range of different productions with a tendency towards the more physical style of performing. He has worked with The Royal Exchange Theatre, Vienna’s English Theatre, national number one tours, Frinton Summer Theatre, TNT Theatre in Munich and 15 pantomimes. He has many Shakespeare productions under his belt, primarily as an actor, but also as a director and fight choreographer. TV and radio work has also featured along the way, credits include Coronation Street, Fresh Meat, Fat Friends and Queer As Folk and BBC Children’s radio.

Darren has been acting professionally since the age of fifteen on stage and in television, as well as writing and directing various pieces of theatre over the years. His lessons tend to explore script preparation and analysis, on-camera technique, comedy skills and industry navigation

Emma Bird is an actor and director, improviser and teacher. Emma has performed at theatres such as The Royal National Theatre, Hampstead Theatre, Norwich Playhouse, Finborough Theatre. She was a regular character in BBC TV’s Casualty. She has worked with writers such as Jimmy McGovern, Peter Bowker and worked alongside great actors such as Pete Postlethwaite, Tom Wilkinson, Frances de La Tour, David Morrissey. She co-starred in a feature film alongside Minnie Driver.

She received Best Director award at Liverpool’s Page to Stage Festival (2016), and directed three productions in 2017 in Liverpool and at Manchester Fringe Festival. Previously her directing work received a 4 star review at Brighton Fringe.

She founded and performs with Liverpool Comedy Improv Actors Troupe ‘The Unscriptables’ who regularly rehearse and perform in the North West. She previously co-founded The Hee Ha’s, an improv troupe in Brighton in 2009.