The Beekeeper of Aleppo

Adam trained at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. He is a multifaceted actor of British-Iranian descent, with a career that spans over three decades across premier UK and international productions in film, television and theatre.

His television repertoire includes notable performances, including General Maloof in FX’s Tyrant and the malevolent ward manager Marcus Fidel in the BBC series Casualty. His latest television endeavour, The Witcher season five, is released on Netflix in 2026. 

In theatre, Adam has performed with the National Theatre and embarked on UK tours, featuring prominently in several award-winning West End productions. Notably in Sam Mendes’s The Motive and the Cue, alongside Johnny Flynn and Olivier Award winner Mark Gatiss. Last year, he could be seen in Armando Iannucci’s adaptation of Stanley Kubrick’s film Dr Strangelove at the Noël Coward Theatre, alongside a top cast including Giles Terera and headed by Steve Coogan.

Additionally, Adam has contributed his voice to several blockbuster video game franchises, including Final Fantasy XVI and Dragon Quest. He also lent his vocal talents to the character of Sultan in Amazon Audible’s acclaimed modern retelling of Arabian Nights. His most recent project, Central Intelligence, a 16-part audio drama exploring the history of the CIA, has recently aired on BBC Radio Four, further solidifying his diverse artistic contributions.

Farah is delighted to be appearing in her first leading role in the national touring production of The Beekeeper of Aleppo.

Previous work includes: Play On (Traverse Theatre); Sex Education (Netflix); My Happy Ending (Archface Films); Wings, Twelfth Night Afternoon (short films).

Training: Guildhall School of Music & Drama.

Theatre credits include: Iannis in Captain Corelli’s Mandolin (UK tour and West End); Cardinal Lorschieder in The Last Confession (Chichester Theatre and tour, Theatre Royal Haymarket); Silvio Berlusconi in When Blair Had Bush and Bunga (Pleasance One, Edinburgh); Sammy Samuels in Comedians (Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh); Schlomo Hertzl in Mein Kampf Farse (London Riverside Studios, Newcastle Playhouse); Pasquale in The Aspern Papers (Theatre Royal Haymarket).

Recent television credits include: Gino in Silent Witness; Mayor of London in Pennyworth; The Pope/Rocco Colosanto in two episodes of Doctor Who; Aziz in Tyrant; Pierre Cassatt in The Collection; Joseph of Arimathea in Killing Jesus; Spiros in Agatha Raisin; Amir in Strikeback; Luigi in three series of Ashes to Ashes.

Other television includes: Peaky Blinders; Little Britain; Cuckoo; Zen; Spooks; Poirot; Gavin & Stacey; Hustle.

Most recent film credits include: Baker in Waiting for the Barbarians; Luis in We Die Young; Imam in Murder on the Orient Express; General Rostami in American Assassin; General Omer in Dracula Untold. 

Other films include: Hummingbird; Mrs Henderson Presents; The Life and Death of Peter Sellers; Susie Gold; Legionnaire; In Love and War; Queen of Hearts.

Aram trained at the Bath School of Music and Performing Arts. He is fluent in Greek and Armenian.

Theatre credits include: The Kite Runner (Aylesbury Waterside Theatre and UK tour); The Beekeeper of Aleppo (2023 Nottingham Playhouse and UK tour); The Night of the Iguana (Ustinov Studio); The Borrowers (The Egg Theatre); Money Heist: The Experience (Netflix/Fever); King Lear (Newton Park).

Film credits include: Croydon Cowgirl (short); Harvest (short).

Voice-over credits: Resurgence (Pixel Studios).

He dedicates this performance to his uncles, Zareh and Harout, who fled the war in Aleppo.

Alia is a Moroccan-Canadian actor based in London. She recently graduated from The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama with an MA in Classical Acting. She has a passion for the stage and is thrilled to be joining the cast of The Beekeeper of Aleppo at the Nottingham Playhouse. When she is not acting, Alia tries to spend as much time as possible walking or snuggling her little chihuahua, Oliver/Zitouni.

Princess Khumalo is a Zimbabwean-British actor who grew up in the north of Yorkshire

Theatre credits include: Stocking Fillers (Liverpool’s Royal Court); The Tempest (Shakespeare North Playhouse, Handle Bards); The Walrus Has a Right to Adventure (Liverpool Everyman, National Theatre Generate); Never Let Me Go (Rose Theatre Kingston, Bristol Old Vic); The Independent Socialist Republic of the Upper End of the Lower Breck Road (Liverpool’s Royal Court); We Need New Names (Brixton House, Fifth Word and New Perspectives); The Ultimate Pickle (Paines Plough); Half Empty Glasses (Paines Plough); A Sudden Violent Burst of Rain (Paines Plough, The Gate Theatre); Sleepover (All Things Considered Theatre Company); That’s What She Said (Out the Attic); The Streets Where We Live (Falling Doors, Liverpool Everyman)

Screen credits include: Say! Less! (Daddy’s SuperYacht, ITV); Holier Than Thou (DAVE); Doctors (BBC); So Awkward (CBBC).

Training: Mountview and Lebanese American University.

Theatre credits include: Anne Boleyn the Musical (Hever Castle); Asmahan: A New Musical Play (Peacock Theatre, Sadler’s Wells); Umm Kulthum and the Golden Era (Dubai Opera House); Amrika (NYU Tisch School of the Arts); Broken Wings (Gulbenkian Theatre).

Concert credits include: Music of Zimmer vs Williams (Royal Albert Hall and Royal Festival Hall); Carols by Candlelight (Expo City Dubai); Abu Dhabi Festival with The Peace and Prosperity Trust (Kensington Palace).

Film credits include: Loulwa in Ebb & Flow (Tribeca Film Festival and El Gouna Film Festival Awards).

Dona is honoured to tell this powerful story and dedicates this performance to her mom and her Syrian family.

Born in Tehran and now based in the UK, Mohsen Ghaffari is an Iranian-British actor fluent in English, Farsi/Persian and Dari, with additional skills in Arabic, Sorani Kurdish and Kurmanji.

On stage, Mohsen has appeared in the critically acclaimed Phaedra at the National Theatre, directed by Simon Stone, and recently took on the roles of Abdullin and Mishka in The Government Inspector at Chichester Festival Theatre, directed by Sir Gregory Doran.

His other theatre credits include: co-lead Destan in Ostan (Park Theatre); lead Ashraf in The Words (A Play, a Pie and a Pint, Glasgow); Bottom and Egeus in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Australian Shakespeare Company, Kew Gardens); Hermes in 100 Unearth (WildWorks); performances in The Treatment and Lovely Ugly City (Almeida Theatre).

On screen, Mohsen features in the international television series The Agency, directed by Grant Heslov and produced by George Clooney, holds a regular role in the upcoming Swiss/French series The Deal, plays a lawyer in the BBC mini-series Prisoner 951 (2025) and appeared in Emmerdale (ITV).

He trained at The Poor School in London, continued his performance studies at Identity School of Acting, earned a degree in Drama and Theatre Studies from Royal Holloway, University of London, and completed an International Master’s in Audiovisual an Cinema Studies (MLitt) at the University of St Andrews.

After gaining a First in Sociology, Helena graduated from Mountview in 2023 with a Masters in Acting. She soon hit the touring trail as Lady Macbeth in ‘that Scottish play’, gaining her first professional stage credit (Quantum Theatre). Not only an accomplished actor and singer, Helena is also a gold bar standard Latin and Ballroom dancer alongside being a superb horsewoman and dressage champion. Joining the cast of The Beekeeper of Aleppo provides a wonderful opportunity for Helena to embrace her love of the Arabic language; passed down to her through her father. Helena is represented by Sam Simmons at PrideInPerformance.co.uk.

Brought up in London, Christy Lefteri is the child of Cypriot refugees. Her novel The Beekeeper of Aleppo is an international bestseller, selling well over a million copies worldwide and published in over 40 countries. The Beekeeper of Aleppo won The Aspen Literary Prize (for an influential work of fiction that illuminates a vital contemporary issue and demonstrates the transformative power of literature on thought and culture). It was the runner up for The Dayton Literary Prize and won the Prix de l’Union Interalliée for Best Foreign Novel in France. Christy’s other novels include Songbirds and The Book of Fire.

Matthew Spangler’s plays have been produced on Broadway, in the West End, Off-Broadway, at the Dubai Opera House, Dublin Theatre Festival, Carthage Theatre Festival in Tunisia and at many theatres around the world. 

Plays include: The Kite Runner from the novel by Khaled Hosseini; Cowboys and East Indians co-written with Nina McConigley, adapted from her short story collection; Albatross co-written with Benjamin Evett, based on Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’; Operation Ajax co-written with Farshad Farahat about the CIA/MI6 coup in Iran; The Story of Zahra co-written with Raeda Ghazaleh from the novel by Hanan al-Shaykh; The Kingdom of Cards co-written with Sukanya Chakrabarti from the play by Rabindranath Tagore; Striking Back co-written with Kellie Hughes, based on the book by Mary Manning and Sinead O’Brien; Tortilla Curtain from the novel by TC Boyle; The Forgotten Empress co-written with Farah Yasmeen Shaikh about Mughal Empress Noor Jahan; Shady Hills from the stories of John Cheever.

Matthew is Professor of Performance Studies at San José State University in California and Writer in Residence at the Hinterland Festival in Kells, Ireland.

Theatre credits include: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Curve Theatre, Leicester and ETT, UK tour).

Opera credits include: Heroine: Sancta Susanna; Bluebeard’s Castle; Dance of the Dead (Opéra national de Lorraine); The Turn of the Screw (Royal Danish Opera); The Decision (Birmingham Opera Company); Mavra/Pierrot Lunaire (Royal Opera House).

Awards include: Best Shows of the Year, La Monde; European Opera Director Prize; RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award.

Credits as a Co-Director include: Death of a Salesman (Young Vic Theatre/West End transfer – Olivier Award for Best Director, Black British Theatre Award for Best Production).

Credits as a Director include: Coven (Kiln Theatre); The Little Mermaid (Bristol Old Vic); The Beekeeper of Aleppo (Nottingham Playhouse); Death of a Salesman (Hudson Theatre, Broadway); Rockets and Blue Lights (National Theatre/Manchester Royal Exchange/BBC Radio 3 – OnComm Best Audio Drama Award); and breathe… (Almeida Theatre – Black British Theatre Award for Best Director); Half Breed (BBC iPlayer/Talawa Theatre/Soho Theatre/Edinburgh Festival Fringe/India tour); Magic Elves, Hey Diddle Diddle, Sense (Bristol Old Vic); Pigeon English (Edinburgh Festival Fringe/Bristol Old Vic); The Rest of Your Life (Bush Theatre); Death and Treason (Bristol Old Vic/UK tour).

As Associate Director, credits include: Company (Gielgud Theatre – Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival, Critics Circle Award for Best Musical); Angels in America (National Theatre/Neil Simon Theatre, Broadway – Olivier and Tony Award for Best Revival); A Monster Calls (Old Vic/Bristol Old Vic – Olivier Award for Best Entertainment and Family); Coram Boy (Colston Hall).

Ruby Pugh is a designer, maker and activist working across theatre, film, festivals and public space. A visual dramaturg, she uses storytelling to build empathy and amplify systematically excluded voices. Since graduating with a First in Theatre Design from the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, Ruby has built a wide-ranging career across stage, screen and site-specific work.

Her design credits include: The Little Mermaid (Bristol Old Vic); The Odyssey – The Four Winds (National Theatre Public Acts); Princess Smartypants, The Pelican Daughters (The Wardrobe Ensemble); A Very Ordinary Miracle (National Theatre Wales); Halfbreed (BBC iPlayer/Soho Theatre On Demand); serving as Head of Design for the Coventry City of Culture Opening Ceremony. She has also created large-scale puppets for the Olivier Award-winning global tour of Dinosaur World Live.

Ruby is Artistic Director of Twisted Theatre, creating immersive, politically charged experiences for unsuspecting audiences at major UK festivals, working with organisations including Glastonbury, Boomtown and Team Love.

Her practice is rooted in social justice and community engagement. Ruby has volunteered in refugee camps across Europe, working with women and children to use art as a tool for expression and trauma processing, including with Syrian refugees in Athens at the time in which The Beekeeper of Aleppo is set.

A specialist in creative climate action, she is an alumna of Julie’s Bicycle’s Creative Climate Leadership Programme and UCL’s Climate Policy Creative Fellowship. With training in sustainable design and carbon literacy, she embeds environmentally responsible practice across her work, helping productions transition towards greener ways of making.

Theatre work includes: Hedda (The Orange Tree); The Duchess of Malfi (Trafalgar Studios); Farm Hall (Jermyn Street and Theatre Royal Haymarket); Emma, The Dresser (Bath and UK tour); Laughing Boy (Jermyn Street and Theatre Royal Bath); To Have and to Hold (Hull Truck); The Scent of Roses, A Number (Edinburgh Lyceum); Dream of a Ridiculous Man (Marylebone Theatre); Wuthering Heights (Inspector Sands); Joyce’s Women (Abbey Theatre); Long Day’s Journey Into Night, This Restless House, Hamlet, King Lear (Citizens Theatre, Glasgow); Spanish Golden Age Season (Ustinov Bath/Arcola); The Sunset Limited (Boulevard Theatre); Assassins (Newbury and Nottingham Playhouse); Uncle Vanya, Prism (Hampstead Theatre); All’s Well That Ends Well (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Regent’s Park); Zorro (West End, US, Netherlands and Japan); Mrs Henderson Presents (Bath, West End and Canada).

Opera credits include: Manon Lescaut, The Rake’s Progress (English Touring Opera); Tristan und Isolde, Die Tote Stadt, The Ring Cycle (Longborough Festival); The Elixir of Love, Carmen (Into Opera); La traviata (Danish National Opera); Jeanna d’Arc au Bûcher (Academia Santa Cecilia, Rome); Falstaff, Il trovatore (Scottish Opera); La traviata (English National Opera).

Dance credits include: @Home (Humanoove, UK tour); The Shadow (Company Chameleon); The Nutcracker, Les Noces (Ballet Geneva); Is to Be (Le Prix De Lausanne); See Blue Through/Toot! (Oper Leipzig); Frame of View (Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, New York); Tenderhooks (Skanes Dansteater/Ballet Gulbenkian); Essence (Walker Dance Park Music); Cinderella (Gothenborg).

Ben is also lighting consultant to the Calico Museum of Textiles, Ahmedabad, directed his own adaptation of Kieslovski’s Dekalog for E15 and the first professional revival of Athol Fugard’s Dimetos for the Gate Theatre.

Ting trained at LAMDA and is a sound designer, composer and theatre maker. She
grew up in Beijing and studied in the Netherlands before moving to the UK.
As Sound Designer/Composer, theatre includes: Macbeth, Titus Andronicus,
Edward II (Royal Shakespeare Company); 1536 (Almeida Theatre); London Tide,
Dear Octopus (National Theatre); Black Superhero (Royal Court); Road (Royal
Exchange); Entertaining Mr Sloane, The Little Foxes, Klippies (Young Vic); Make It
Happen (National Theatre of Scotland/Edinburgh International Festival); The Crucible
(National Theatre/Gielgud Theatre – The Stage Debut Award for Best Creative West
End Debut); Watch on the Rhine (Donmar Warehouse); Rock ’n’ Roll, Folk
(Hampstead Theatre); The Secret Garden, The Tempest (Regent’s Park Open Air
Theatre); Lyonesse (Harold Pinter Theatre); Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder!
(Ambassadors Theatre/Bristol Old Vic/Edinburgh Festival); In the Ruins of the Big
House (Factory International); Quiet Songs (Barbican/Théâtres de la Ville); My Son’s
a Queer (But What Can You Do?) (New York City Center/West End/UK
tour/Edinburgh Festival/ Turbine Theatre); Macbeth (ETT/Lyric Hammersmith/
international tour); A Doll’s House, Scissors (Sheffield Theatres); Twine (Yard
Theatre); The Beekeeper of Aleppo (Nottingham Playhouse/UK tour); War & Culture
(New Diorama); After the End, The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars (Theatre Royal
Stratford East); A Christmas Carol (Composer, Nottingham Playhouse/Birmingham
Rep/ Alexandra Palace/BBC); Antigone (Storyhouse); Ruckus
(Summerhall/Southwark Playhouse); Two Billion Beats (Orange Tree Theatre).
Radio composition includes: Humane, BURP.
Short film composition includes: Medea/Worn, My Last Duchess.
Her work as a creative collaborator and making sound and music includes Walking
Cats (Vault Festival – Origins Award for Outstanding New Work).

Creative director and senior animator with over ten years of experience in creating content for live events, theatre, exhibitions and screen.

Training: National Film and Television School, Royal School of Art and Sopron University.

Clients include: Artichoke (Lumiere Festival), Festival.org, House of Music (Liget Budapest), Natural History Museum, National Geographic, World Economic Forum, Victoria and Albert Museum, Jane Austen House Museum, Northcott Theatre, Cardiff Millenium Centre, Sarner, Elbow Productions, 59 Productions (with Historic Royal Palaces, National Theatre and others), SDNA, Royal Court Theatre, Sheffield Crucible, Peacock Theatre, Absolutely Cultured, Quintessentially Events.

Live events, AV installations and films include: Birds: Brilliant and Bizarre Exhibition (Natural History Museum); World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2025; Love, Death & Hull (Hull Central Library); Teenage Writing Hub (Jane Austen House Museum); Glastonbury: Land and Legend (V&A); The Baroque Story (Hampton Court, Historic Royal Palaces for 59 Productions); Shakespeare: Greatest Living Playwright, David Bowie (V&A for 59 Productions); Curtain Call (Roundhouse London); Cooked (selected for Cannes Film Festival); In Our Hearts Blind Hope (Lumiere Durham/Durham Cathedral); Closing Ceremony for The Great Exhibition of the North; The Ninth Wave (Absolutely Cultured, Hull/Fényfesztivál); Lovasi 50 (Budapest); Opening Ceremony of We Are Hull (Hull City of Culture); The Vulgar Ball (Barbican); Pavlova (Giberg Jewellery Launch).

Theatre credits include: Anthem (Cardiff Millennium Centre); Last King of Scotland (Sheffield Crucible Theatre); Sigma (Gandini Juggling, Edinburgh Festival); Unreachable (Royal Court Theatre, London); Moon and Me (Lincoln Performing Arts Centre); wonder.land (Manchester International Festival/National Theatre for 59 Productions); Great Britain, Emil and the Detectives (National Theatre for 59 Productions).

Elaha Soroor is a Hazara Award-winning singer, songwriter and composer from Afghanistan and based in the UK.

She rose to national prominence in 2008 through Afghan Star. Her fearless performances and outspoken advocacy for women’s rights in a deeply patriarchal society brought both widespread recognition and serious threats, ultimately forcing her into exile.

Since seeking asylum in the UK in 2012, Elaha has developed a distinctive musical voice that weaves Afghanistan’s folk traditions with contemporary influences. Her album Songs of Our Mothers (2019) reimagines traditional Afghan women’s songs, composed and performed for critically acclaimed productions, including The Boy With Two Hearts (2021–2022), The Beekeeper of Aleppo (2023) and A Thousand Splendid Suns (2025). Across these works, she explores themes of displacement, memory, resilience and the enduring power of women’s voices.

Through her music and activism, she continues to challenge oppression, honour Afghanistan’s cultural legacy and amplify the voices of women in resistance. Her recent releases, including Attan Hazaragi and Bread, Work, Freedom!, stand as powerful anthems of defiance and solidarity.

Kane is the Artistic Director and founder of award-winning performance company The PappyShow. He is also the course leader of the BA (Hons) Performance: Design and Practice at Central Saint Martins University of the Arts London. He trained at Rose Bruford College and became a Fellow in 2023 for his outstanding contribution to theatre, inclusion and social change. He is on the board for Wise Children and London International Mime Festival. The PappyShow are the associate company for New Diorama Theatre, National Youth Theatre, Squint Theatre and The North Wall.

The PappyShow is a diverse and inclusive company committed to expanding the identity conversation, creating transformative joyful experiences with a practice that uses the body and voice to tell our own autobiography.

As Director, credits include: The PappyShow’s ten year anniversary shows (Barbican); Shut Up, I’m Dreaming (National Theatre tour); Boys (Vault Festival/New Diorama Theatre/The Old Market Brighton/The North Wall/Latitude/ Southbank Centre); Girls (Vault Festival/The Old Market Brighton/The North Wall/Latitude/Lyric Hammersmith/ New Diorama); Care (Vault/Latitude); What Do You See? (International Mime Festival/Shoreditch Town Hall/The Old Courts, Wigan); The Pappy Cabaret Show (BAC); Pit Party for Joy (Barbican); Shine Black (Bush Theatre/New Diorama); Short Big Show for Hope (Somerset House). His work has toured the UK, China, the Middle East and Europe.

As Movement Director and Choreographer, credits include: Clydes (Donmar Warehouse); House of Ife (Bush Theatre); Blues for an Alabama Sky (National Theatre); The Last King of Scotland (Sheffield Crucible); Rocket Post (National Theatre Scotland); London 2012 Olympics Team Welcoming Ceremonies; London 2012 Paralympic Team Welcoming Ceremonies; Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games Team Welcoming Ceremonies.

Film work: Boy, Fly (The PappyShow); Monuments (Donmar Warehouse); Boys (short film, The PappyShow); Mango (Apatan Productions).

Nadia is an Arabic voice, dialect, language and cultural coach whose expertise has been sought after in film, television and theatre. Her contributions to the film industry are particularly notable, as she has worked closely with production teams to provide authentic cultural advice and insights, ensuring that portrayals of Arabic language and culture are both accurate and respectful.

Nadia’s role often extends beyond coaching; she has served as a dialect coach, script translator and Arabic consultant for a wide range of dialects, including Iraqi, Gulfi (UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait), Yemeni, Levantine (Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine), Egyptian, Sudanese, Somali, Eritrean and Modern Standard Arabic. Her deep understanding of these dialects allows her to help productions achieve genuine authenticity in their storytelling.

As a native Iraqi Arabic speaker with a lifelong passion for Arabic languages, dialects, accents and cultures, Nadia brings both personal and academic rigor to her work. She holds a master’s degree in Linguistics and Translation (Arabic to English/English to Arabic) from the University of Baghdad and a bachelor’s degree in English. Her extensive experience as a translator and interpreter spans diverse fields, including work with royalty, diplomats, politicians and refugees.

Since leaving Iraq in 2004, Nadia has continued to build her reputation as a trusted expert in Arabic translation, language teaching and coaching, equipping her with the tools to support a wide array of film and media projects with unmatched authenticity and cultural sensitivity and accuracy.

Louise’s most recent coaching roles have included: Dune: Part Three (Legendary); House of the Dragon series three (Warner Bros); Moss and Freud (GFC Films); Stags (Paramount+); My Lady Jane (Amazon Studios); Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, The Marvels, Secret Invasion (Marvel Studios). Other career favourite projects include The Crown series four (Netflix) and real-life dramas The Salisbury Poisonings, Anthony and Little Boy Blue.

Theatre credits include: Calamity Jane (UK tour); An Officer and a Gentleman (UK tour); Vanya (Duke of York’s Theatre); Mrs Doubtfire (Shaftesbury Theatre); Pests (Royal Court); Pinter Three (Harold Pinter Theatre); White Christmas (The Curve); The Kite Runner (Playhouse Theatre); Casa Valentina (Southwark Playhouse).

Marianne is Head of Dialect at Stagebox, teaching professional young talent for stage and screen. She is Director of Voice and Presentation for ZEN Coaching. Previously, she has been a voice and dialect tutor at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, Birmingham Conservatoire Acting and Drama Studio London and voice/ text support at the Royal Shakespeare Company. 

Her voice and dialect credits include: Cinderella (Nottingham Playhouse); Dear Evan Hansen (Nottingham Playhouse/UK tour and Asia tour); Liberation Squares, The Children (Nottingham Playhouse); The Count of Monte Cristo (television series, Palomar); The Boys Are Kissing (Theatre503); The Children, The Beekeeper of Aleppo, The Clothes They Stood Up In, Private Peaceful, Moonlight and Magnolias, Boar (Nottingham Playhouse); Newark Newark (Balloon Entertainment for UK Gold); A Christmas Carol (Royal Shakespeare Company); Journeys of Destiny (Derby Theatre); Acting Alone (Derby Theatre/ Nottingham Playhouse); The Vagina Monologues (Newark Palace Theatre); Hundreds and Thousands (Buckle for Dust/English Touring Company); Larkrise to Candleford (Finborough Theatre).

Marianne runs AA Elites, an associates programme for young actors wanting to learn accents and develop their voice for acting: @mariannesamue

Nikki is a state-registered drama and movement therapist and clinical supervisor (MA HCPC, Badth), who has worked as an artist wellbeing practitioner for 11 years. She has implemented and delivered safeguarding, access and wellbeing procedures within arts organisations such as Nottingham Playhouse, the Royal Court and the National Theatre of Scotland, specialising in themes of trauma, mental health and autobiographical material.

November 2025 saw a release of a paper on creating a trauma-informed framework for productions via theatre topics written with Nesrin Alrefaai on the first production of The Beekeeper of Aleppo.

Recent theatre credits include: The Kite Runner (West End and UK tour); The Mesmerist (Watford Palace); Christmas Carol Goes Wrong, The Play That Goes Wrong, The Comedy About Spies, Mind Mangler, Good Luck Studio, Magic Goes Wrong, Groan Ups, The Comedy About a Bank Robbery, Peter Pan Goes Wrong (all for Mischief Theatre); Bleak Expectations (West End); The Red Lion (Trafalgar Studios); War Horse (West End and UK/SA tour); Journey’s End (West End and UK tour); Beauty and the Beast (Northern Stage); Reception (Slung Low, Holbeck); The Hound of the Baskervilles (Theatre by the Lake); Rent (Key Theatre); Recognition (Talawa); We Need New Names (New Perspectives); Dead Air (Riverside); Bridgerton, Stranger Things (Secret Cinema); The Snow Queen (Rose Theatre); Clear White Light (Live Theatre); Clybourne Park (Rapture Theatre); Close Quarters (Out of Joint/Sheffield); The Last Ship (Northern Stage and tour); Jekyll & Hyde (Rose Theatre and tour); Cathy (Cardboard Citizens); Home Truths, La Ronde (Bunker Theatre); My Romantic History (Live Theatre); A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, Mighty Atoms (Hull Truck); The Quiet House (Park Theatre); The Divided Laing (Arcola); Wet House (Soho Theatre);

Serpent’s Tooth (Almeida)

Recent theatre credits include: The Kite Runner (West End and UK tour); The Mesmerist (Watford Palace); Christmas Carol Goes Wrong, The Play That Goes Wrong, The Comedy About Spies, Mind Mangler, Good Luck Studio, Magic Goes Wrong, Groan Ups, The Comedy About a Bank Robbery, Peter Pan Goes Wrong (all for Mischief Theatre); Bleak Expectations (West End); The Red Lion (Trafalgar Studios); War Horse (West End and UK/SA tour); Journey’s End (West End and UK tour); Beauty and the Beast (Northern Stage); Reception (Slung Low, Holbeck); The Hound of the Baskervilles (Theatre by the Lake); Rent (Key Theatre); Recognition (Talawa); We Need New Names (New Perspectives); Dead Air (Riverside); Bridgerton, Stranger Things (Secret Cinema); The Snow Queen (Rose Theatre); Clear White Light (Live Theatre); Clybourne Park (Rapture Theatre); Close Quarters (Out of Joint/Sheffield); The Last Ship (Northern Stage and tour); Jekyll & Hyde (Rose Theatre and tour); Cathy (Cardboard Citizens); Home Truths, La Ronde (Bunker Theatre); My Romantic History (Live Theatre); A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, Mighty Atoms (Hull Truck); The Quiet House (Park Theatre); The Divided Laing (Arcola); Wet House (Soho Theatre);

Serpent’s Tooth (Almeida)

Nesrin Alrefaai is a playwright and cultural consultant. Nesrin is also a Research Fellow at the School of Art, Queen Mary University of London, and teaches at the Middle East Centre at the London School of Economics (LSE). She holds a Doctorate degree in Theatre Studies from the University of Warwick. She has translated multiple plays to and from Arabic. Nesrin has previously worked as a Community Support Officer for Refugees, an experience that continues to inform her writing and engagement with communities.

Kiel is a fight choreographer, action coordinator and senior combat instructor with the British Academy of Dramatic Combat.

Fight/action coordination credits include: Top Gs Like Me (Royal & Derngate); Match! (feature film); Tavuta (short film); Boudica (Royal & Derngate); The Children (Nottingham Playhouse); The Real & Imagined History of the Elephant Man (Nottingham Playhouse); Bang! (music video); Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Curve and tour).

Recent work as Sound Designer includes: The Reckoning (Arcola); Summer 1954 (Theatre Royal Bath/UK tour); Here in America (The Orange Tree); The City for Incurable Women (Camden Peoples Theatre/Edinburgh Fringe); Fanny (King’s Head Theatre); Worn with Complicité (NSCD); (the) Woman (Royal & Derngate Northampton); The Good John Proctor (Offie nomination), Boy in Da Korma, Gustave and George and Beowulf (Jermyn Street); The Great Murder Mystery (The Lost Estate); Invisible, Elephant and Clutch (Bush Studio); The Animal Kingdom (Hampstead).

As Associate or Assistant Sound Designer: Mnemonic (The Olivier Theatre); Let the Right One In (National Theatre of Korea); Titus Andronicus (RSC, Hampstead); The Lonely Londoners (Kiln); Newsies (Troubadour Theatre); Liberation Squares (Nottingham Playhouse); Silence (Donmar); Edith (Lowry); Blue/Orange (Theatre Royal Bath/UK tour); Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner (Riksteatern); A Place for We (Park Theatre); Son of a B*tch (Southwark Playhouse); Sizwe Banzi Is Dead (MAST Mayflower Studios/UK tour).

Massi trained at the National Youth Theatre. 

Assistant Director credits include: A Thousand Splendid Suns (Birmingham Repertory Theatre); Next Steps (Compass Collective); I’ll See You Again (Midlands Arts Centre). Massi was also a Production Assistant on Fly With Me by Good Chance Theatre, an immersive, international kite flying festival presented by Afghan artists.

Acting credits include: Silent Statues (National Youth Theatre and Royal & Derngate, Northampton); Love in Isolation (Shakespeare’s Globe); Voices in the Dark (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse and Shakespeare’s Globe).

Vian is a former refugee, an interdisciplinary artist and an interior designer whose work explores feminism, war, displacement and memory. Drawing from lived experience, her practice uses minimal and symbolic imagery to examine trauma, resilience and the impact of conflict on identity and the urban environment. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester and Kunstlinie Gallery in Amsterdam, and she has received awards for her work in Germany. Vian’s practice sits at the intersection of art, activism and storytelling.

Aleppo Media Center (AMC) is an independent Syrian media organisation founded in 2012 in the city of Aleppo, at a time when access to reliable information from inside Syria was extremely limited. Established by local journalists and media activists, AMC was created to report from the ground and ensure that the voices of civilians were heard internationally.

AMC has provided daily news coverage and in-depth reporting on the Syrian conflict, working closely with international journalists and global media outlets to facilitate accurate and ethical reporting. AMC has also played a key role in documenting human rights violations and war crimes, contributing to efforts around accountability and justice.

Beyond news reporting, Aleppo Media Center has been involved in the production of major humanitarian and documentary films that have reached global audiences. The organisation is committed to independent journalism, human-centred storytelling and preserving collective memory in times of conflict.