Tutors
Each class is led by an industry professional currently working within the business. Tutors include actors, directors, casting directors and fight co-ordinators from stage and screen who take workshops on specialist subjects. All our tutors are able to provide relevant training whilst ensuring classes are engaging and creative. Students receive personal tutor feedback and are encouraged every step of the way.
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Sushil Chudasama
Actor
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.
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Sue Jenkins
Actor & Director
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.
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Lee Mountjoy
Casting Director
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.
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Emily Fleeshman
Actor and Presenter
Emily has worked as an actress from the age of 11, beginning her career at The Library Theatre, Manchester in Neil Simon’s Jake’s Women where she played the daughter to real life father David Fleeshman. Early TV work includes regular characters in the children’s series My Parents Are Aliens and 24:7. She has also recorded many Radio Plays for BBC Radio 4 Drama.
Emily graduated in 2008 with a degree in Theatre Studies from Lancaster University and travelled throughout Asia and the Far East before settling back in her home town of Manchester. Her Television credits since have included: The Wright Way, Still Open All Hours, Welcome Home, Shameless, The Royal, Doctors, Jimmy McGovern’s The Street and Moving On. Theatre credits include: Rita, Sue and Bob Too St. Helens Theatre Royal, The Crimson Retrubution as part of the 24:7 Theatre festival and Once in a House on Fire at The Lowry Theatre, Salford.
Emily currently presents for Your Manchester.
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Callum Arnott
Actor, Director and Fight Director
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.
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Emma Bird
Actor, Director and Improviser
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.
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Gerard Kearns
ACTOR and DIRECTOR
Gerard Kearns is a professional actor of 18 years from Oldham and based in Greater Manchester. He was worked in Theatre, Television and Film and has a keen interest in creating, developing and working with people who have a passion and want to explore, create and develop with Drama.
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David Fleeshman
Actor & Director
David has worked as an actor, director and workshop leader for over 40 years. He was Associate Director of the Coliseum Theatre Oldham and for the Library Theatre David directed the European Premiere of Neil Simon’s Biloxi Blues and My Night With Reg, which won the MEN award for best production. He has directed Peter Pan and The Wizard of Oz at The Lowry as well as several pantomimes for Qdos Productions.
As an actor David has worked extensively in most theatres across the country and spent nearly 20 years at The Library Theatre Manchester, where amongst many major roles he won the MEN award for best actor in Arthur Miller’s The Price. More recently he has spent two years with the National Theatre in their acclaimed UK and International tour of WarHorse. Numerous TV appearances include: All The Small Things, Boys from the Blackstuff, Edge of Darkness, Trial and Retribution, The Innocent, Donovan, Spooks, Silent Witness, Coronation Street, Eastenders, Brookside and 3 years in Emmerdale. David has recorded well over 200 radio plays for the BBC. Films include Pink Floyd’s The Wall and Unstoppable with Wesley Snipes.