FRANTIC THEATRE COMPANY - Key Persons
Amelia is a London based Choreographer and Movement Director. She studied at The Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance and got her Masters Degree in Collaborative Theatre with Frantic Assembly in association with Coventry University.
Amelia joined Frantic in 2015 and has toured to Canada, USA, South America and Asia, teaching the Frantic Method of Devising. She also directs, writes and choreographs on many of Frantic's Creative residency programs.
Job Titles:
- Chartered Certified Accountant
- Member of the Board of Trustees
- Trustee
Amit is a Chartered Certified Accountant and has specialised in the advertising and media industry for the past twenty years.
His experience as an accountant covers both technical accounting and reporting as well as commercial business planning and operational management.
Amit is currently working for McCann Erickson Advertising which is part of the global Interpublic Group of companies. He has also held positions at AKA (part of the ATG group), J Walter Thompson and Rapp and has worked with a varied mix of clients including those in the theatre industry.
Amit joined Frantic Assembly in 2018, prior to this he was a trustee for five years with Teatro Vivo, an immersive theatre production company that tells stories in unusual spaces; everything from Shakespeare in your local supermarket to The Odyssey on the streets of Deptford.
Being born to parents who moved to the UK in the 1970s from Uganda in East Africa, Amit is very passionate about diversity, social mobility and access to theatre and the arts for all communities. It was Frantic Assembly's Ignition programme and its commitment to eliminate barriers to entry in the theatre industry that led to Amit joining our Board of Trustees.
Ann is an Actress, Artistic Director, Producer, Writer, Director and Movement Director. A jack of all trades
As an actress she is currently filming JK Rowling's The Strikes Series 2 (BBC1/HBO) as well as appearing in series 1, Michaela Coel's January 22nd (BBC2) and Brave New World (Amblin/Dreamworks). She will also be seen in BBC2 drama, Trigonometry, written by Duncan McMillan and Effie Woods. She has appeared in Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams (Channel 4/Sony), The Unforgotten (ITV), The Javone Prince Show (BBC 2) and Humans (Channel 4).
Ann is extremely passionate about creative accessibility within theatre and pushing the boundaries of how we create work for all audience members. She is currently movement director for Deafinitely Theatre and working with NYT as a writer and director creating shows for an audience inclusive of deaf and visually impaired audience members.
Ann set up her own theatre company, Harts, of which she is Artistic Director in 2013. Through the company she produces two annual festivals, Young Harts Writing Festival nurturing emerging theatre and screenwriters. Also Sound of Mind, an audio and visual arts mental wellbeing festival. Harts also champions new writing and Ann is currently producing two productions, Funeral Flowers by Emma Dennis Edwards returning in February 2020 and Little Miss Burden by Matilda Ibini which will be at the Bunker Theatre in December 2019.
Previous to this she was Artistic Director of award-winning Vintage Star Productions from 2010-2013 and ran the Young Harts drama school from 2013-2018
Job Titles:
- Head of Learning and Participation
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Trustees
- Trustee
- Theatre Director
Denzel is a Theatre Director and workshop facilitator based in London; Denzel trained at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts on the MA theatre directing course graduating in 2017. After graduating Denzel was a part of the resident directors' pool at the Almeida Theatre in 2017-2018. Denzel has worked across several different genres and styles of performance, working with New Writing, Musicals, Opera, Devising and Dance theatre, working alongside the CTC Dance Company as the company's Director. In 2019 Denzel directed the show Identity, which won the award for ‘Exciting New Work' at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Denzel has previously worked with the participation team at the Donmar Warehouse on a number of schools project across London. In 2020, Denzel was the Co-director for Jesus Christ Superstar - The Concert at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre. In December 2020 Denzel was the associate director for Dick Whittington at the National Theatre and again in 2022 as associate director on Small Island.
In 2021 Denzel was awarded the RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award and will direct a full mid-scale production in 2022.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Trustees
- Trustee
Dorcas was an actor for 15 years working in various theatres around the UK and overseas, in the West End, and on radio and TV. She combined her acting work with a career in arts and finance administration before moving into full-time theatre fundraising in 2006. Since that time she has raised £millions for the Unicorn Theatre, Wilton's Music Hall and most recently Park Theatre.
In March 2020, she took over running Little Chick Ltd, to oversee the artistic creation of all work produced by screenwriter and author, Abi Morgan.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Trustees
- Trustee
Kerry joined Frantic Assembly in January 2018 as Executive Director and joint Chief Executive. Prior to that he was Executive Director of multi award-winning dance company, BalletBoyz for 12 years. He has over twenty-five years' experience in the cultural and creative industries and has worked as a theatre producer, venue manager, programmer, arts funder, consultant and advisor.
He has produced projects in theatre and film including international tours and projects in the USA, Australia, Africa, India and Europe, shows at Sadler's Wells, The Royal Festival Hall, The Royal Opera House, The National Theatre and The Roundhouse and produced films for the BBC, Channel 4 and Sky Arts including the BalletBoyz feature film Young Men which won Rose D'Or and Golden Prague Awards in 2017.
Kerry is proud to be a Trustee of DanceWest, a charity that champions dance for all and promotes accessible health and wellbeing programmes to communities in West London. http://www.dancewest.co.uk
His and Frantic's paths have crossed several times over the last 25 years. As a long-term admirer of the company's work and ethos he is delighted to have joined Scott to help lead the company into its next 25 years!
Job Titles:
- Chairman
- Member of the Board of Trustees
- Trustee
Mark was appointed to the Board of Frantic Assembly as Chair in early 2020.
Mark has a substantial track record as a trustee in the theatre. He is the longstanding deputy chair of the board of trustees and performs (unpaid) the lead executive role on behalf of The Royal Theatrical Support Trust (RTST) - a grant-giving and facilitating charity dedicated to supporting the theatre, especially regional theatre, and early-career theatre practitioners. In 2016, Mark originated the RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award scheme involving an annual competition among early-career directors, which he continues to organise and manage each year in collaboration with a different regional mid-scale producing theatre company and its co-producing theatre partners, together with a different panel of judges each year, typically comprising some of the leading names in British theatre. Each roll-out of the scheme catalyses a career-transforming, first-time opportunity for the winning director to originate and direct a fully-funded production on the mid-scale at the participating regional theatre -supported by a production grant from the RTST- and then to take it on a national, mid-scale tour. The scheme has been successful in propelling the careers of individuals who experience racism (including two out of four winners thus far) and women (including three winners), and in bringing about productions that might otherwise never have been funded because of the risks of backing an early-career director. The scheme has earned prestige in the industry. It was the joint largest beneficiary of the proceeds of ATG's West End run of Sir Ian McKellen's solo show marking his 80th birthday.
Mark graduated in Law from King's College London in 1983, and pursued a career as a City of London solicitor, from which he recently retired in order to pursue his interests in the theatre. He practised for six years as a corporate finance and investment banking specialist with international law firm, Freshfields before joining London law firm, Bristows LLP, where he was a Partner for some 25 years until 2020. He was head of Bristows' Life Sciences and Technology-focused Corporate practice for some 14 years, and head of its Charities & Not-for-Profit practice for the last 10 years. He was recommended multiple times, both as a corporate lawyer and as a charity lawyer, by the annual independent legal directory Legal 500. Matters on which he has advised include: some of the earliest UK university biopharmaceutical corporate spin-outs; AstraZeneca's first-ever corporate spin-out; an international media joint venture that created the world's first digital interactive satellite TV platform, ultimately rolled into Sky Digital; and major governance reforms of some of the UK's leading professional and charitable institutions established by Royal Charter, and of a United Nations-backed international non-profit organisation; and a myriad of governance and other matters for medical research, mental health, animal welfare, arts and heritage charities. He is a continuing member of the Charity Law Association and of the Association of Chairs.
Mark was long-term head of Bristows' graduate recruitment programme and senior member of the firm's Inclusion Committee, and he co-founded Bristows' LGBT+ network.
In 2020, Mark made the most of lockdown by successfully undertaking a unit of a degree course in Theatre Studies at Yale University.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Trustees
- Trustee
- Retired Chartered Tax Advisor
Matthew is a retired Chartered Tax Advisor with over 35 years' experience in advising employers on how to remunerate and reward their employees, with a focus on compliance and governance. He has provided counsel to blue chip clients in the public, private and third sector across all parts of the economy.
Having previously worked at HMRC and PwC, Matthew led KPMG's People Services practice until 2021 with responsibility for over 500 team members in multiple locations across the UK. He has extensive experience of change programmes, Reward and benefits advisory, technology, digitalisation and stakeholder communications. Matthew had regular interaction with employee representative bodies, Unions, HMRC and BEIS.
Matthew champions diversity, learning and development. He was heavily involved in KPMG's Black Heritage Reverse Mentoring scheme and mentored a number of University undergraduates partners and company CEOs.
Matthew has been a Trustee of Frantic Assembly since 2019, and a keen supporter since seeing ‘Othello' at the Lyric Hammersmith in 2008. He is also a Trustee of York Theatre Royal and York St John University Students' Union.
Michelle is an actress, writer, director and Frantic Assembly practitioner. Born and raised in Glasgow, Michelle studied for her BA(Hons) in Performance (Acting option) at Mountview Theatre School. Her professional credits include Taggart, Waking The Dead and BAFTA award winning film Refugee as well as numerous theatre tours. Michelle has a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and has won championships at National Level. She has a Gold Award (Advanced with Recommendation) from the British Academy of Dramatic Combat and is a skilled stage/screen fighter in 8 weapons systems including rapier, broadsword and knife.
Michelle has danced since she was a toddler and has 3 teaching diplomas in tap, ballet and modern. More recently Michelle has written and produced interactive dramas for universities using actors to provide training on a range of topics including diversity and inclusion, gender equality and sexual consent. In 2010 Michelle founded Mishmak Youth Theatre which has branches in Sutton and Datchet and provides theatre training and performance opportunities to young people aged between 5 and 18 years old. Mishmak participates in National Theatre Connections annually.
Myra joined Frantic Assembly in August 2021 as General Manager. Prior to that she worked internationally in both United States and Hong Kong. With about twenty years of working experience as Executive Director, Development Manager and Programme Manager in numerous arts organisations including theatre companies, arts festival, philharmonic orchestra and community arts organisation serving artists with disabilities, Myra is passionate in supporting the arts with her expertise in the areas of fundraising, strategy planning, financial management and marketing.
Myra represented Hong Kong in a federal government programme "International Visitor Leadership Programme" with the title of "Promoting Social Changes through the Arts" in the United States in 2019. She also received an arts administration fellowship and spent three months at Esplanade, Singapore for an all-rounded training in 2013.
As her first connection to the arts industry of the United Kingdom, Myra is excited to make her best contribution to Frantic Assembly and grow with the company.
Neil is a movement director, choreographer, director and teacher.
He is Associate Director for Frantic Assembly having worked closely with the company since 2004.
As Artistic Director of ThickSkin Neil has directed work that has toured the UK and internationally to Brazil and New York.
As an experienced workshop leader and teacher he has led workshops and masterclasses all over the world in devising and physicality.
He also works as associate to Steven Hoggett, most recently working with him on the movement in Harry Potter And The Cursed Child in London, New York and Melbourne.
Riley joined Frantic Assembly in August 2023, as the Learning Coordinator, working with schools and our freelancers to deliver work across the country and sometimes, the globe.
He comes to Frantic Assembly after completing a Cultural Learning and Participation apprenticeship at Chichester Festival Theatre. It was there that he gained a passion for participatory work in the arts, working with young people disengaged with school (a position he once himself was in!)
Riley has experience in both facilitating and project management.
He looks forward to working with the team to engage as many young people with Frantic's work as possible
Job Titles:
- Artistic Director
- Co - Founder
Scott is Artistic Director of Frantic Assembly, co-founding the company in 1994. He has received nominations for his work on Beautiful Burnout (Drama Desk Award, New York), Curious Incident (Olivier, Tony and Fred Astaire Awards). With Steven Hoggett he won the TMA Award (now UK Theatre Awards) for Best Direction for Othello.
He has provided movement direction for shows at the Royal National Theatre, National Theatre Wales and Singapore Rep. He has developed and written extensively about The Frantic Method. With Steven Hoggett, he has written The Frantic Assembly Book of Devising Theatre (Routledge) and is Visiting Professor in Theatre Practice at Coventry University.
Scott is passionate about creating opportunities for people who might see theatre as a challenge or alienating, and believes that these new voices and fresh perspectives are vital to the health of the arts sector.
The company is led by Artistic Director and co-founder Scott Graham and Executive Director Kerry Whelan
Sean Hollands is a Director and Movement Director. He is the Co-Artistic Director of Fable Workshop, Co-Director of Children's Theatre Digital, a Theatre Practitioner for Frantic Assembly, and Associate of the National Youth Theatre of GB. In 2019 he was the Movement Director for the Olivier nominated production of Warheads. He was the recipient of the Bryan Forbes Director award in 2016 with the NYT. Directing Credits include: DNA (Southwark Playhouse, NYT Studios, and Ambassadors Theatre), The Moment Before An Explosion (The Ovalhouse), START (Mountview), Orange Juice (Tristan Bates Theatre), Little Shop of Horrors (Orchard Theatre). Movement credits include: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (UK Tour 21-22), Punk Rock (Stratford East), All The Beds I Have Slept In (UK Tour), One Minute (The Barn Theatre).