Acting Tutors   Voice Tutors   Movement Tutors   Production Directors

 

Acting Tutors

 

Alicya Eyo - Screen Acting

ALICYA EYO

Read Alicya's Biography

Subject taught at LSDA: Acting Techniques for TV and Film

Alicya studied at the Court Theatre Training Company and has been working professionally for 20 years. Television credits include Clink, Casualty, Band of Gold, Doctors, The Bill, Holby City, Spooks, Hetty Wainthrop Investigates, Paradox, Bad Girls (in which she spent 5 years as a regular) and she was a series regular in Emmerdale in which she played the part of Ruby. Film credits include The Low Down, Tube Tales and Stalin My Neighbour. Alicya has also performed at various theatres including the Royal Court and the Theatre Royal, Nottingham. She also performed in the critically acclaimed play Any Which Way.

DAVID CARLYLE - Acting Tutor

DAVID CARLYLE

Read David's Biography

Subject taught at LSDA: Acting Techniques, Scene Study Director

David trained as an actor at Rose Bruford College.

He is best known for his portrayal of Gregory ‘Gloria’ Finch in Russell T Davies’ multi-award winning Channel 4/HBO mini-series ‘It’s a Sin’.  He received a Best Supporting BAFTA nomination in 2022 for his work on the series and was also nominated for a BAFTA Scotland Audience Award in 2021. The series broke the All4 steaming record, including biggest ever drama launch and most binged series ever, and notably won an NTA award for Best New Drama.

He was also the Proud Scotland Award’s Entertainer/Artist of the Year 2021.

His work as an actor includes theatre productions of The Tell-Tale Heart (National Theatre); You Stupid Darkness! (Paines Plough/TRP), The Outside (L’Etranger) (The Print Room at The Coronet); Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland (Royal Lyceum Edinburgh); The Government Inspector (Birmingham Rep/UK Tour); To Kill a Mockingbird (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre/UK Tour/The Barbican); Three Sisters (Southwark Playhouse); Carpe Diem (National Theatre); Victoria (Dundee Rep); Somersaults (Finborough); Yellow Moon, The Monster in the Hall (National Theatre of Scotland/Citizens Theatre, Glasgow); Caledonia (National Theatre of Scotland); Hansel and Gretel (Citizens Theatre, Glasgow); You Once Said Yes (Look Left Look Right, E4 Udderbelly); Dead Heavy Fantastic (Liverpool Everyman).

Television includes: It’s a Sin, Casualty, Bodyguard, Lip Service II (BBC).

Radio includes: End of Transmission; ANGST! The Teachings of Smart Town; Kitchen Confidential; Behind Her Eyes; The Stroma Sessions; Chernobyl (BBC Radio 3 & 4).

He created the Virgin Radio Documentary ‘Getting Out’ and guest presents across their channels

Samantha Robinson - Acting and Director

SAMANTHA ROBINSON

Read Samantha's Biography

Subject taught at LSDA: Acting Techniques & Production Director

Samantha Robinson is an Actress, Director, Writer and Teacher who trained at Rose Bruford College where she won the Laurence Olivier bursary award.

Her theatre acting credits include: Two (New Vic), Rita, Sue and Bob Too (Royal Court Theatre), Screwed (Theatre 503), Educating Rita (Mercury Colchester), The Grand Gesture (Northern Broadsides), Proper Clever and Dead Heavy Fantastic (Liverpool Everyman/Playhouse), The Tempest (Royal Exchange), Three Sisters On Hope Street (Hampstead Theatre), Order and Can’t Stand Up For Falling Down (The Lantern), The House Of Bernada Alba (Nuffield Theatre), The Laramie Project (Leicester Square), The Lemon Princess (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Untouchable (The Bush Theatre) and Song of the Western Men (Chichester Festival Theatre).

Television credits include: Little Boy Blue (ITV), Cilla (ITV), Five Days (BBC), The Girls Who Came to Stay (Granada), Shameless (Channel Four), Island at War (Granada), Final Demand (BBC), Holby City, Doctors and Casualty.

Film includes: Sixty Six (Working Title), and Jamaica Me Crazy (VBM Productions LTD); also FunTimes, a short film she wrote, and From Lewisham to Llandudno, a film she wrote and directed for LSDA through the initial national lockdown of 2020.

Samantha’s recent directing credits include: Blink (The Lion and Unicorn), The Toad In The Hole (Barons Court), Motherhood Or Madness (Katzpace), Me, Mum and The Patriarchy (Tour/Tristan Bates), Darknet (The Union Theatre), and Attempts On Her Life (Drayton Arms Theatre). During Lockdown she created and directed the play Crazy For Loving You with LSDA’s 2020 graduating students for their socially-distanced graduation project. This can also be seen on YouTube.

Samantha is the Creative Director of theatre company Tiny Wife Productions.

 

Holly De Jong

HOLLY DE JONG

Read Holly's Biography

Subject taught at LSDA: Acting Techniques

Holly is most famously known as Newt’s Mother in Aliens and Lady Farrow in Blackadder. Her acting experience is extensive starring in the National Theatre and throughout the West End. Holly’s television and film work has included: The Duchess of Duke Street, Lytton’s Diary, Van der Valk, Poirot, The Detectives, The Assassination Run, The Chief, Doctors, Daniel Deronda, Electric Dreams, The Hiding Place, Casualty, Eastenders and Soaked. Most recently she has worked at the Sheffield Crucible theatre in Arthur Millers Playing for Time, at the Ustinov studio Bath in Half Life directed by Nancy Meckler, at the Southwark Playhouse in Roundelay and recently received two Best Actress nominations for the short film Development of June and this year won a Best Actress for the film Forbidden Love on the Shores of Greece. She has also written two short films which are currently in post production. 

 

Stephen Billington - Screen Acting

STEPHEN BILLINGTON

Read Stephen's Biography

Subject taught at LSDA: Acting Techniques for TV and Film

Stephen is a professional actor with a wide breadth of experience playing leading roles in feature films, television dramas and on stage. Best known for playing Lysander Hawkley in ITVs The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous and Greg Kelly in Coronation Street (for which he won a British Soap Award).  He has worked with many leading film directors including Peter Greenaway, Franco Zeffirelli and Mel Gibson.

He continues to work in independent movies and in theatre, enjoying classical roles as well as those in challenging new writing. Stephen has been teaching acting and screen acting to students and professionals for over seventeen years and has taught at The Method Studio, The Actor’s Centre and Drama Centre London.

Stephen trained as an actor at the Drama Centre London.

 

Russell Bolam - Acting Techniques and Production Director

RUSSELL BOLAM

Read Russell's Biography

Subject taught at LSDA: Acting Techniques, Production Director

Trained at Middlesex University and GITIS Academy of Theatre Arts, Moscow.

Theatre includes The Woods, Cyrano de Bergerac, Crushed Shells and Mud, Three Sisters, The Seagull, Shivered (Southwark Playhouse) Beetlemania: Kafka for Kids!, The Titanic Orchestra (Pleasance Theatre) The Taming of the Shrew (Patalenitsa Shakespeare Festival), A Month of Sundays (Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch), The Monkey (Theatre 503), Marriage (Assembly), Uncle Vanya (St James Theatre), The Merry Wives of Windsor (Ivan Vazov), Ghost from a Perfect Place, In Skagway, The Road to Mecca (Arcola), The Roman Bath (Arcola Theatre/Ivan Vazov) Alfred (Vineyard Theatre) and Somersaults, Captain Oates’ Left Sock (Finborough) Three More Sleepless Nights, Fourplay (Tristan Bates Theatre) and The Physicists (Aphra Studio).

Russell is also a visiting director at Arts Ed, Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Central School of Speech and Drama, East 15, LIPA, Oxford School of Drama, Rose Bruford College, Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts.

 

Paul Agar - Acting

PAUL AGAR

Read Paul's Biography

Subject taught at LSDA: Acting Techniques

Paul trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) where he won the Brian Cox scholarship. Since graduating Paul has worked as an actor on both stage/ screen and as a fight choreographer and director. Most recently he appeared in the feature film Broken Promise and played King Phillip II of Spain in Juana of Castile – Edinburgh and National and European tour. Other credits include: Acts of Cod (RNT & the Old Vic), The Three Musketeers (Bristol Old Vic), Robin Hood, Macbeth, Richard II (The Tobacco Factory), Theatre Loyalties, Italian American Reconciliation (The Finborough) European Tours of Gone, Macbeth (Paines Plough). TV – Heartbeat BBC. Film – The Date, the Bafta nominated I’m Frank Morgan, the lead in Lucky Man directed by Jim Sturgess and The Shipwreck Trilogy (RSC). He directed Treading the Boards, London-Edinburgh and UK tour.

 

Helen Bang - Life Coach

HELEN BANG

Read Helen's Biography

Subject taught at LSDA: Life Coach

Helen completed an MA in English Literature and a BA in Psychology at Copenhagen University. After performing English theatre in Copenhagen for 8 years Helen moved to London to train at Drama Studio.

She co-founded Yardbird Shuffle Productions at DSL and played Patricia in Brimstone and Treacle and Carol in Oleanna at Krudttoennen. She also performed for several seasons with The Project Makers playing Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Rosaline in Love’s Labour’s Lost co directed by Annetta Laufer. Other credits include Livia, Women Beware Women directed by Matthew Wilde and Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Bedlam Theatre where she also worked with Jamie Reid in The Dead Monkey. In 2010 Helen worked with Edward Bond on the world premiere of his modern bloody classic There Will Be More where she played (Me)Dea directed by Adam Spreadbury Maher. Other recent credits include Countess Gouvarinha in The Maias (Galleon Productions) and Candida in Candida (CandyKing Productions).

Helen Trained as a Life Coach with The Coaching Academy in 2009-11 and greatly enjoys empowering her students to make the best of their lives. She teaches them problem solving skills and helps them set powerful challenging personal and career goals with focus on taking full responsibility for their development and future success.

Helen has worked extensively with film maker Lucy Beech including the art film Credible passion.  Helen has been working with the international theatre company TheatreLab since 2012. She has performed in The Oresteia and Medea at Riverside Studios and had played Queen Herodias in Salome in London, Avignon, Athens and Thessaloniki. Helen received excellent reviews when she reprised her role as DEA in 2016, directed by Edward Bond. Helen played Aunt Patience in TheatreLab’s acclaimed performance of Jamaica Inn in November 2017.  In 2019 Helen performed in several shows at The Suffolk INK festival.

Helen has since 2017 co-written, produced and performed in new comedy webseries The Self Tapers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uE5QmYnKKh0&t=36s.  She is currently filming Canonbie Production’s new Feature film Gentrification – shot in 5 minute episodes, penned by her husband Peter Rae – a cautionary tale about the encroaching dangers of middle-class xenophobia. Helen Produces, directs, acts and provides all the first class vegetarian catering.

Helen is in rehearsals for Great Expectations, a new edition written from the view-point of Miss Haversham whom she is playing. This is a December 2019 Christmas Production.

 

LJ Reeves

LJ REEVES

Read LJ's Biography

Subject taught at LSDA: Acting Techniques – Meisner

LJ is an LSDA alumni who graduated from our Advanced Diploma in Acting programme in 2014.

Her stage credits include: Behind Closed Doors, Beyond the Warzone, In the Net, Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet, Cymbeline, Murder at the Library, Split Ends, Twelfth Night, Gaslight, Hamlet, King Lear, Antigone, Gertrude – The Cry, London Wall.

TV/Film credits include: All the Little Things, Flashpoint, A Slow Suffocation, The Self-Tapers, Overcome.

LJ also trained at Drama Studio London.

Jason Lawson

JASON LAWSON

Read Jason's Biography

Subject taught at LSDA: Acting Techniques, Scene Study

Jason trained at LAMDA and Mountview.

Jason was awarded MA in World Theatres from University of London in 2021 and holds a BA (Hons) English and Drama from University of Leeds.  

Directing credits include: Kissing Sid James (Jermyn Street, 59e59St NYC); Not a Game for Boys (King’s Head); Christmas Concerts (Chichester Festival Theatre); Charlie & Henry (New End Theatre); Danny’s Wake & Huge (King’s Head, Edinburgh Pleasance); Sleeve Notes (Southwark Playhouse, Theatre 503, Union Theatre); Some Afternoons, Red Sky, Blue Sky (Hen & Chickens, Bridge House); Quinto Quarto & The Rose Garden (Union Theatre); Premature Burial (Corsica Arts Studio).  

Associate Director credits: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead (Old Vic), Passion Play (Duke of Yorks’ UK Tour); Backbeat (London, Toronto & Los Angeles) 

Resident Director credits: Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Playhouse) 

Assistant Director credits: Arcadia (Barrymore, NYC), Through a Glass Darkly, New York Theatre Workshop); Being Shakespeare (Harold Pinter Theatre); In A Dark Dark House (Almeida), Triptych (Southwark Playhouse), Nicholas Nickleby Parts 1&2 (Chichester Festival Theatre, Gielgud Theatre, UK Tour); The Syndicate (Chichester Minerva Theatre, UK Tour), Tryptych (Southwark Playhouse), The Pagans (Abingdon Theatre NYC). 

Jason is a Visiting Lecturer at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

Senior Foundation Acting Tutor & Director at Mountview (2018-2021) 

Residency Director at Almeida 2008-2010 

Resident Associate Director Extempore Theatre Company 2003-2010) 

Associate Education Director at Southwark Playhouse (2005-2006) 

Aled Pedrick

ALED PEDRICK

Read Aled's Biography

Subject taught at LSDA: Acting Techniques and Mindfulness

Aled trained at Guildhall School of Music & Drama and is a professional actor, singer and theatre director. As well as teaching at LSDA, he also lectures at Guildhall, Arts Ed, London Southbank University, University of Wales and other institutions across the UK. His most recent work as an actor include S4C’s 35 Awr and Sherman Theatre’s Woof (directed by Gethin Evans), and as director, his production of Saturday Night Forever for the Welsh National Theatre was on National tour earlier this year.

His acting credits include: Doctor Who (BBC); 35 Awr (S4C); Lewis (ITV); Parch (S4C); Woof (Sherman Theatr); Say It With Flowers (Sherman Theatre); The Nutcracker (Theatre Royal, Bath); Poking the Bear (Theatre 503).

As director he has worked at Finborough Theatre (The Doll Mender/Saer Doliau); The Welsh National Theatre (Nos Sadwrn O Hyd; Pan Oedd Y Bydd Yn Fach); Theatre Clwyd (My People); and a national tour with Invertago Theatre Company (The Tower). 

 

Peter Rae

PETER RAE

Read Peter's Biography

Subject taught at LSDA: Improvisation and Acting Techniques

Peter is a London-based Actor, Writer, Master of Ceremonies and Producer. 

Peter trained at Mountview. He was most recently seen as Don Juan in TheatreLab’s Don Juan and as Don John for the Oxford Shakespeare Company’s Much Ado About Nothing. Other theatre credits include: Francis Davey in Jamaica Inn (TheatreLab), Bernard Marx in Brave New World, Bob Cratchit and Marley’s Ghost in A Christmas Carol, and Guy in One Language, Many Voices (TNT); Charles in Blithe Spirit, Claudius in Hamlet, and Felix in The Narcissist (English Rep). He is a founder member of The Woodstock Players in New York. Web-series credits include ShamPain (& co-writer), and Vultures. Audio-drama credits include Doctor Who (Big Finish).

 

Terry Smith - Acting and Text Analysis

TERRY SMITH

Read Terry's Biography

Subject taught at LSDA: Acting Techniques, Text Analysis

Biography to come.

SIMON LENAGAN

SIMON LENAGAN

Read Simon's Biography

Subject taught at LSDA: Screen Acting

Simon has acted on Stage, TV and Film for more than 25 years. He wrote and directed the short film Salvage starring Peter Capaldi and was an Executive Producer on Mrs Lowry & Son starring Timothy Spall & Vanessa Redgrave.
He has also managed his own theatre company Counterpoint, founded Just Voices voice-over agency, set up Professional Communicators Ltd a telemarketing enterprise for out of work actors and been Youth & Community Director at Oxford United Football Club. Simon is a Director of leading educational software company Competence Development.
Simon also produces the podcast ‘Who Am I This Time?’ presented by David Morrissey. Hand in Glove and Seaboot, his first attempts at writing drama for TV are currently ‘in development’. 

 

Georgina Sowerby - Acting Tutor and Production Director

GEORGINA SOWERBY

Read Georgina's Biography

Subject taught at LSDA: Acting Techniques, Text Analysis, Production Director

Georgina graduated from the Drama Centre London in 1994. As an actress, she has worked for The National, NT Studio, The Royal Court, The Almeida, Tron/Glasgow, The Wrestling School, The Unicorn Theatre for children. She’s was a member of Di Trevis’s Workshop and has recently acted at Soho Theatre. Georgina is founder and co-director of the company Dirty Market with Jon Lee. Georgina co-founded Moving Arts Initiatives, devising mixed media events for children and their families in Peckham. She assisted Gay Sweatshop Artistic Co-Director James Neale-Kennerley in his work at Drama Centre London from 1996-99. As well as her work at LSDA she teaches acting and directs at a number of London acting schools.