British actress Alison Steadman has established a career that spans over film, television, theatre and radio. As the star of Mike Leigh’s plays and films, one of her best known roles was as the lead actress in Abigail’s Party. Many people would recognise Alison in the role of Michael Gambon’s mother in The Singing Detective or from the enormously popular BBC adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, in which she played Mrs Bennett alongside Colin Firth, Julia Sawalha, Jennifer Ehle and Emilia Fox, to name but a few. Starring in the much-loved series Gavin and Stacey as eccentric Essex mum, Pam, brought Alison to the attention of an even wider audience and made her into a national treasure. Alison has been awarded an OBE for services to British drama.
Over the years Alison came to be known for her quirky roles and dazzling stage work in The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, for which she won an Olivier Award, The Memory of Water, Joe Orton’s Entertaining Mr. Sloane and The Woman Who Cooked Her Husband. Her film appearances include The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, A Private Function, Coming Through, Clockwise, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, and Shirley Valentine, not to mention her former-husband, Mike Leigh’s critically acclaimed pictures Life Is Sweet, for which she won the National Society of Film Critics Award,Secrets & Lies, and Topsy-Turvy.
Alison’s full and varied career makes her an excellent after dinner speaker and with her versatility and experience on stage and screen she would be a fantastic host to any awards ceremony.
Angela Griffin
Posted on 25 June 2019
Actor, presenter and columnist Angela Griffin can currently be seen playing Lizzie in hit series Lewis, and is best known for her roles in Cutting It, Holby City and Waterloo Road.
At just 16, Angela landed a role in the Nation’s biggest soap, Coronation Street, for which she won the Best Newcomer Award at the National Television Awards.
After five and a half years on the Street, Angela went on to appear in Holby City, Waking the Dead and Cutting It. She made her feature film debut in 2008’s Last Chance Harvey alongside Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman, and starred in the award-winning Waterloo Road.
As well as appearing in the West End, Angela is an experienced host, presenting her own daily show for Sky One, Angela and Friends. She has hosted Sky One’s coverage of both the Oscars and the Golden Globes.
Ben Willbond
Posted on 24 June 2019
Ben is a comedian, writer and producer. He has appeared in five series of Horrible Histories for CBBC/BBC1, and also performed in the Horrible Histories BBC Proms Live at The Royal Albert Hall. The show’s long list of awards includes five BAFTAs, a 2011 Broadcast Award and Best Sketch Show in both 2010 and 2011 at the British Comedy Awards. With the team from Horrible Histories, Ben then went on to co-write and star in family adventure fantasy Yonderland for Sky1, which was nominated for a Rose D’Or Award and returns for a third series in 2016.
Ben co-wrote feature film BILL, which was released in 2016, in which he starred alongside the cast from Horrible Histories and Yonderland.
Ben also co-wrote, co-produced and co-starred in the short film Tooty’s Wedding, which in 2011 won the LA Shorts Film Festival Award for Best Short, the Rhode Island Film Festival Grand Jury Prize for Best Comedy and the Best Foreign Film and Best Director awards at the LA Comedy Festival. In 2012 it screened at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah and the inaugural Sundance London, and was nominated for the Sundance Shorts Award before going on to win the LOCO Short Film Awards at the LOCO Festival in 2014. Other film roles include Your Highness, Cemetery Junction, Starter for Ten, I Want Candy, Click and St Trinian’s.
Ben has appeared as ‘Adam Kenyon’, a main role in series 4 of The Thick Of It (BBC2). Ben’s impressive array of TV credits also include Laura, Ben and Him (ITV2), Inside No 9 (BBC2), Count Arthur Strong (BBC2), Rev (BBC2), Extras (BBC1), Lead Balloon (BBC2), The Catherine Tate Show (BBC2) and Black Books (Channel 4). Ben has also appeared on Pointless Celebrities(BBC2).
Ben’s radio work includes The Genuine Particle, Double Science, From Fact to Fiction, Recorded for Training Purposes, Hut 33, The Maltby Collection,Another Case of Milton Jones, Gules Wemmbley Hogg Goes Off, Deep Trouble and Fry’s English Delight, all for BBC Radio 4.
“The man is faultless: he is a brilliant writer with a positively forensic ear for dialogue…a charismatic performer who combines serious acting talent with killer comedy delivery.” The Scotsman
Inspired by the taboos, stigmas, anomalies and social injustices she sees around her, performance artist Bryony Kimmings creates mind-blowing, multi-platform art works to provoke change. The work generally has a theatrical outcome but often incorporates many other mediums, including high profile PR and social campaigning.
Generally the work has centred around outlandish “social experiments” that Kimmings conducts with genuine genius intrigue and wholehearted fearless gusto. The artist sets her sights on the impossible and un-conquerable and tries to change public secrets into the year’s hottest topics.
Previous works have seen the artist retracing an STI to its source, spending 7 days in a controlled environment in a constant state of intoxication and becoming a pop star invented and managed by a 9 year old.
Bryony’s award winning work has toured across the world. Most recently Antifest (Finland), Culturgest (Portugal), Fusebox Festival (Texas), The Southbank Centre (London), Melbourne International Comedy Festival (Aus) and Lisinski Opera House (Croatia).
Kimmings also mentors artists, teaches workshops, writes a popular arts blog, speaks on panels and is sometimes on the telly. She is an associate artist at Soho Theatre and is currently working on projects with the Royal Court Theatre, Southbank Centre and Complicite.
Her most recent show ‘I’m a Phoenix, Bitch’ returned to Bettersea Arts Centre in 2019 after a groundbreaking debut run, and will appear at the Edinburgh Fringe in August.
“Hilarious, heartbreaking, troubling and inspirational. Kick-ass in all the right ways.”***** Time Out about Credible Likeable Superstar Role Model
Chris Addison
Posted on 19 June 2019
Chris Addison is a critically acclaimed, Perrier Award-nominated stand-up, celebrated for his versatility, his pacey, energetic routines and faultless delivery. He is also a renowned actor, most notably for his role as Oliver Reeder in The Thick of It and as Toby Wright in the subsequent feature, In The Loop. In recent years, he has proved himself as a director, with nine episodes of the Emmy-award winning Veep (HBO) under his belt, following his successful direction of an episode of The Thick of It. In 2015, Chris won an Emmy for his role as Co-Exec Producer on the fourth series. Furthermore, in 2016, he won the Director’s Guild Award for director of a comedy series for the finale episode of Series 4 of Veep. He also has an impressive array of writing credits to his name.
Chris has worked on Veep since the second series, as both producer and director. Autumn 2015 saw Chris embark on the fifth series of the multi-award winning show as Supervising Producer as well as director. At the end of 2014, Chris appeared in three episodes, including the finale, of Doctor Who (BBC 1), alongside Peter Capaldi in his debut series as the Twelfth Doctor. In the spring of the same year, Chris starred in new comedy Trying Again (Sky Living), which he co-created with Simon Blackwell. Chris played the lead role opposite Jo Joyner in this charming sitcom about a couple trying to mend their relationship after an affair.
The previous year saw Chris starring in Michael Winterbottom’s film The Look of Love, alongside Steve Coogan and Anna Friel, which is an impressive biopic about the life of porn and property baron Paul Raymond, released in April 2013. During the summer of the same year, he also reprised his role for a third series as a regular panellist on Mock The Week (BBC 2).
Chris returned to our screens as Olly for a fourth series of The Thick of It (BBC 2) in 2012, for which he received a British Comedy Award nomination for Best Newcomer. This was followed by his big screen debut in Academy Award nominated In The Loop, an exciting, fast paced political comedy that looks at what happens when the people in power realise their careers are on the line. Chris also featured in the fifth and sixth series of Skins (E4) as headmaster David Blood.
In 2011 Chris hosted an episode of Dave’s One Night Stand and authored an episode of My Funniest Year for Channel 4. Chris released his first DVD Chris Addison LIVE in Autumn 2011 before going on tour with his new live show The Time is Now, Again, the second leg of which extended into 2012. His previous live shows in Edinburgh were sell-out successes, with Perrier Award nominations for his 2004 and 2005 shows.
Chris has made various other TV appearances, including Live at the Apollo (BBC 1), Friday Night with Jonathan Ross (BBC1), QI (BBC 2), Would I Lie To You (BBC 1) and 8 Out of 10 Cats (Channel 4). He has also appeared frequently as a panellist, and as a host, on Have I Got News For You (BBC 1). He also hosted the comedy chat show Show and Tell (E4) in 2011.
Chris’ radio experience is also extensive, hosting 7 Day Sunday until 2011 on Radio 5 Live. He also hosted The Sunday Night Show on Absolute while covering for usual presenter Iain Lee. He also appears regularly on shows such as Quote Unquote, The Unbelievable Truth, Just a Minute and Armando Ianucci’s Charm Offensive.
Chris’ talent as a writer was fully established by his sitcom Lab Rats for BBC 2, which he wrote and starred in. He has also written two books: Cautionary Tales for Grown Ups and It Wasn’t Me. His further television writing credits include: Harry Hill’s TV Burp (ITV1) and TFI Friday (Channel 4). He won a Sony Radio Academy Award in 2006 for his radio show The Ape That Got Lucky (Radio 4) and enjoyed critical acclaim as one third of comedy show The Department (Radio 4).
“The best stand-up I’ve seen” The Observer
“Chris Addison is a gifted comic, a terrific technician whom you would trust to win over pretty much any room.” The Times
Freddie Highmore is a film and television actor who has acquired an impressive list of credits from an early age. Since playing Peter Llewelyn Davies in the family favourite Finding Neverland, Freddie has taken on lead roles in multi-award winning films such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Golden Compass and August Rush. He has gained a strong reputation within the fantasy/adventure genre, having starred in The Spiderwick Chronicles, Arthur and the Minimoys and Five Children and It.
Freddie has appeared in TV movies Happy Birthday Shakespeare and Toast, as well as mini-series Mists of Avalon and Close to the Enemy. His most recent TV credit is as Norman Bates in A&E production Bates Motel, which aired its fifth series in 2017. He is also proving himself as a talented writer, holding a lead writing credit for episode 8, series 4 of Bates Motel. In 2017, he began portraying the lead role of Dr. Shaun Murphy in the ABC drama series The Good Doctor, on which he also serves as a producer. In 2017, he received a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Drama Series for his performance.
Freddie’s gift for acting has earned him as many as 12 awards and 24 nominations, numbers which are sure to grow considerably in the future. His winning titles include ‘Best Young Actor’ in the 2005 and 2006 Critics’ Choice Awards and ‘Best Newcomer’ in the 2005 Empire Awards.
Between acting, Freddie attended Emmanuel College, Cambridge where he gained a Double First in Spanish and Arabic.
Greg Davies
Posted on 1 June 2019
Greg Davies is one of the UKs favorite actors and stand-up comedians. His performances bring genuine star quality to any corporate event and he is highly experienced in both hosting corporate awards ceremonies and performing after-dinner cabaret slots.
Greg is the writer and star of the hit Channel 4 sitcom Man Down: “scales new heights of brilliance” (The Times), which returned for a fourth series in 2017. After playing infamously psychotic Head of Sixth Form ‘Mr Gilbert’ in The Inbetweeners (Channel 4) and its two spin-off feature films, Greg starred in three series of BBC Three’s Cuckoo alongside Andy Samberg and Taylor Lautner, which earned him a BAFTA nomination for Best Male Performance in a Comedy Programme- series four will air later this year. Greg is the host of Dave’s hit comedy show Taskmaster, which was first broadcast in 2015 and returns for its sixth series in 2018. Taskmaster was nominated for Best Comedy Entertainment at the 2017 and 2018 BAFTAs, for the International Emmy Awards Non-Scripted Entertainment 2017, Royal Television Society Awards Best Entertainment Programme in 2017 and for the Broadcast Awards Best Entertainment Show in 2016, which it went on to win in 2018.
As a stand-up, Greg’s debut solo show Firing Cheeseballs At A Dog was nominated for the prestigious Foster’s Edinburgh Comedy Award in 2010, and went on to have a three-time extended sell-out national tour. In 2013 Greg returned with another sell-out tour with The Back of My Mum’s Head. The DVDs for both shows became Top 10 bestsellers. Greg’s 2017 tour, You Magnificent Beastsold out the Hammersmith Apollo and Cardiff Motorpoint Arena and was later released as a Netflix Special.
Greg’s numerous TV appearances include hosting Never Mind The Buzzcocks (BBC Two) and Live At The Apollo (BBC One). He has also made guest appearances on Big Fat Quiz of the Year (Channel 4), Travel Man(Channel 4), The Royal Variety Show, Room 101 (BBC One), Mock The Week(BBC Two), and8 Out Of 10 Cats(Channel 4). He guest appeared and was team captain on BBC One’s Would I Lie To You. Greg was also team captain on two series of Ask Rhod Gilbert (BBC One) with whom he also appeared on BBC Two’s Dangerous Roads. Greg appeared as King Hydroflax in the Dr. Who Christmas special in 2015. In 2018, he hosted the prestigious Royal Variety Performance.
Greg was previously one third of the sketch trio We Are Klang, which performed four sell-out Edinburgh Festival shows and was nominated in 2006 for the Edinburgh Comedy Award. With We Are Klang, Greg wrote and starred in the group’s own sitcom series and a one-off comedy entertainment special for BBC Three.
Greg McHugh
Posted on 31 May 2019
James Nesbitt
Posted on 25 May 2019
Star of the hit TV show Lucky Man, and most recently back on our screens in the hugely popular Cold Feet, James Nesbitt is one of the most recognisable, talented and accomplished actors today. An extremely experience awards host, James has hosted the British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) for the past six years, hosted the Travel Trade Gazette Awards, The Empire Awards, GQ Awards and the Campaign Media Awards and the Music Week Awards. He is also an accomplished and entertaining after dinner speaker.
Starting his career on stage, James has appeared in numerous plays including Paddywack, Translations, As You Like It, Philadelphia Here I Come, and Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay and most recently Shoot The Crow in the West End.
His first major TV roles included Ballykissangel and Playing The Field but it was the BAFTA award winning Cold Feet that brought him to the attention of a wider audience.
Since then, TV roles have included Monroe andMurphy’s Law, Jekyll, The Passion, The Deep andBabylon.
He has starred in multiple critically acclaimed film roles, including Bloody Sunday, Danny Boyle’s movie Millions, BAFTA award-winning Occupation for BBC One. He has also starred in Coriolanus, alongside Ralph Fiennes and Gerard Butler. He can currently be seen as Bofur in The Hobbit trilogy.
“I think our CEO is a bit in love with him.” The Personal Finance Society
“He had such live stage presence, from the moment he was introduced the entire audience were in his hands. His introduction speech was pitched exactly at the right level for the guests and their applause to his comments was music to our ears. He might not be a comedian but his sheer confidence and natural niceness shone through” Capitol House Productions
“James was perfect yesterday. Great speech, managing to mention the key sponsor several times as well as drawing lots of laughs and taking many questions from the audience. Please pass on my sincere thanks.” British Soft Drinks Association
“Rarely do we work with celebrities who put so much effort, thought and care into hosting our awards- his opening 5 minutes were witty, industry relevant and at times self deprecating and the whole show ran seamlessly and at a great pace.” Travel Tourism Gazette
“James was a fabulous surprise. He held his audience and tailored his speech to include aspects of our company business. The standing ovation he received at the end of his speech said it all.” Allan Chapman & James Ltd
John Hannah
Posted on 19 May 2019
BAFTA nominee John Hannah came to prominence in Richard Curtis’ Four Weddings and a Funeral. He since starred with Gwyneth Paltrow in Sliding Doors and in all three of The Mummy films. Television roles include: Dr Iain McCallum in McAllum; DI John Rebus in Rebus; Jack Osbourne in Cold Blood and Quintus Lentulus Batiatus in the popular Spartacus: Blood and Sand and Spartacus: Gods of the Arena. He also starred in the US series MDs, as well as making guest appearances in Alias, Carnivaleand Frasier and guest starring in the final season of the hit American legal thrillerDamages. Most recently John starred as DI Jack Cloth in Charlie Brooker’s crime comedy spoof A Touch of Cloth and in Carnaby International’s BAFTA winning film The Wee Man.
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