I am an actor, writer and director, with a BA in Acting and an MA in Creative Writing. I’m a long term Associate Practitioner with NPO theatre company imitating the dog and recently received funding from Arts Council England to develop my original play, ‘Spring’. I am also the director of artsdepot Youth Theatre where I am currently staging the National Theatre Connections play, ‘Wildfire Road’ and I write a Substack called 'The Gardening Playwright'.
Born and raised in Wigan, I had early access to contemporary theatre through my dad's job. As a drama teacher for a local school he brought in small-scale touring companies, and at an early age I was exposed to Commedia dell'Arte, puppetry and physical storytelling.
At 18, I went into actor training at Bretton Hall, where my interest in contemporary theatre increased and I developed my acting skills including devising, clowning, physical and applied theatre.
Shortly after graduating, I joined imitating the dog for their show, Kellerman. Since then I have performed in and collaborated on many shows, including playing Catherine Barkley in 'A Farewell to Arms', Barbra in 'Night of the Living Dead - Remix', working in development for and performance of ‘Cinema Inferno’ with Maison Margiela as part of Paris Haute Couture week and on various projection mapping projects as both a director and a writing facilitator.
I also work in performance and healthcare, an area of interest that began when I co-create Lost in Memories with Wellcome Trust fellow, Delia Muir. The show explored dementia as a health condition and the act of caring, drawing on a mixture of real life testimony and research. This area of work has developed through 'Whose Decision is it Anyway', a devised piece of forum theatre about patient participation groups and GROW, a series of short films that I wrote and performed in. I am currently developing another series of scripts for the School of Medicine, University of Leeds, for a project on pressure ulcer prevention.
