RETROGRADE

Ivanno Jeremiah

Sidney Poitier

Ivanno Jeremiah is an Ugandan, Rwandese & proud South London TV, Film, Voice and Theatre actor. He studied at the BRIT School of Performing Arts before winning a scholarship to RADA.

Theatre credits include: The Suit (Peter Brook International Tour); The Convert & Measure for Measure (Young Vic); A Soldier’s Tale (City of London Sinfonia); The Nether (Headlong/Royal Court); Truth and Reconciliation (Royal Court); Julius Caesar (RSC); Constellations (Donmar); Retrograde (Kiln).

Film credits include: Woken, The Flood, Bees Make Honey, Julius Caesar, The Veteran, A Few Miles South, No More Wings (TriBeCa winner), Last Words, Limbo, The Agreement (Producer), Ozi: Voice of The Forest.

Television credits include: Halo 2, Humans, Unaired Game of Thrones Prequel, Lockwood & Co, A Discovery of Witches, Cold Feet, Counterpart, Black Mirror, Injustice, The Jury, Julius Caesar, The Hollow Crown, The Jury.

Upcoming Work: We Go Again (BBC)

Stanley Townsend

Mr Parks

Theatre credits include: Solar Bones (Abbey Theatre Dublin), All About Eve (Noel Coward Theatre), Incantata (Galway International Arts Festival), Glengarry Glen Ross (The Playhouse, London), Girl From the North Country (Old Vic), King Lear, Phedre, Gethsemane, Happy Now, Remember This, Guys and Dolls at the National Theatre, London; The Alice Trilogy, Shining City (for which he won the Irish Times Best Actor Award), The Nether, Under the Blue Sky, The Weir and Tribes at the Royal Court, London; The Dead, The Wake, Trinity for Two and Sacred Mysteries at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin; The Gingerbread Mix-up at St Andrews Lane, Dublin; A View from the Bridge (Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh), Prayers of Sherkin at the Old Vic, London; Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me at West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds; The Plough and the Stars at the Young Vic, London; Democracy at the Bush Theatre, London; Speed-the-Plow for Project Arts Centre, Dublin; Saint Oscar for Field Day Theatre Company, Derry; Who Shall Be Happy…? for Mad Cow Productions, Belfast, London and tour; and Art in the West End at the Wyndham Theatre.
Television credits include: The Regime, Black Shore, Kaos, Zen, Whistleblower, He Kills Coppers, Prosperity, Saddam’s Tribe, Rough Diamond, Waking The Dead, Spooks, The Virgin Queen, Hustle, Omagh (film), The Brief, Murder Squad, Fallen, Wire in the Blood, The Commander, Menace, Seventh Stream, Heartbeat, Station Jim, Table 12, Casualty, Best of Both Worlds, Active Defence, DDU (Making the Cut), Ballykissangel, Peak Practice, Jonathan Creek, A Touch of Frost, The Governor, The Bill, Parnell, Nighthawks, Fortycoats & Co., Lost Belongings, Lapsed Catholic, Glenroe, Ashes to Ashes, Mad Dogs, Sherlock, Call the Midwife, Quirke, Ripper Street, 24: Live Another Day, Galavant, The Collection, Redwater, Informer, The Spy and Dangerous Liaisons.

Film credits include: Jay Kelly, The Teacher, Song of Names, The Girl from Mogadishu, The Current War, Florence Foster Jenkins, The Voices, One Chance, Standby, The Physician, Lovely Louise, Killing Bono, Happy Go Lucky, Nativity, Flawless, The Tiger’s Tale, Isolation, The Libertine, Inside I’m Dancing, Tulse Luper II, Suzie Gold, Wondrous Oblivion, American Girl, Monsieur N, Mystics, The Van, My Friend Joe, Moll Flanders, Jake’s Progress, Beyond Reason, Good Girls, In the Name of the Father, Blue Ice, The Miracle and Taffin.

Oliver Johnstone

Bobby

Theatre credits include: The Real Thing, All My Sons (The Old Vic); Imperium, Oppenheimer (RSC/West End); Duchess of Malfi, Henry V (Headlong/Shakespeare’s Globe); Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (ETT/UK tour); The Haystack (Hampstead); Tribes (Sheffield Crucible); Cymbeline (RSC/Barbican); King Lear (RSC/Barbican/BAM); Teddy Ferrara (Donmar); Spring Awakening (Headlong/UK tour); Another

Country (Chichester).

Television credits include: Endeavour, Loaded, The Syndicate, Inspector George Gently, Whitechapel, Lewis.

Film credits include: The Courier, Open, On Chesil Beach, The Inbetweeners Movie 2, Skyfall.

Ryan Calais Cameron

Playwright

Theatre Credits include: For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy was originally produced by Ryan’s theatre company, Nouveau Riche and New Diorama Theatre, directed by Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu.  Following a sold out run at New Diorama, a revised version of the production directed by Ryan, transferred to the Royal Court in March 2022 (produced by Nouveau Riche, New Diorama) and then to the Apollo Theatre, West End in March 2023. For Black Boys… was winner of Black British Theatre Awards 2022, Best Production Play Award and Ryan was the winner of Best Director Award alongside Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu; the ensemble was joint-winner of ‘Best Performer in a Play’ at 2022 Stage Debut Awards.  The play was also nominated for ‘Best New Play’ and ‘Best Actor in a Supporting Role’ at the 2023 Olivier Awards.  A revival of the production opened at the Garrick Theatre on 29th February 2024; the run sold out and was extended.

Retrograde (Kiln Theatre, April/May 2023), nominated for Evening Standard Award, ‘Best Play’ 2023.

Human Nurture (Theatre Centre/Sheffield Theatres and national tour 2022); Typical (Nouveau Riche), which starred Richard Blackwood (Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Soho Theatre Upstairs 2020); Queens of Sheba, (Nouveau Riche), co-written with Jessica Hagan, winner of the 2018 Edinburgh Untapped Award, (Edinburgh Fringe, New Diorama Theatre, London and national tour 2019).  Ryan was the winner of the 2018 Off West End ‘Adopt A Playwright Award’ for his play Rhapsody, which was produced at the Arcola in March of that year.

Ryan is an Associate Artist at the Royal Court.

TV & Film:  Guest writer on The Flatshare S1 (42/Paramount+), Boarders (Studio Lambert/BBC3), Queenie (C4); Original projects in development include: My Brothers’ Keeper (Warp Films/C4), Blerd (Wychwood/Sister Pics), an adaptation of the novel Blood Rights by Mike Phillips (Red Planet), Angell Town (5Acts/Netflix). Ryan has recently completed short film Dark Side of the Moon which he wrote and directed for Film4.

Amit Sharma

Director

Amit Sharma is Artistic Director and CEO of Kiln Theatre, opening his inaugural season with Pins and Needles and The Purists. He is an international award-winning director of theatre and television. Before becoming Artistic Director, he was Associate Director of Kiln Theatre, as well as Deputy Artistic Director of Birmingham Rep, Associate Artistic Director at the Royal Exchange, Manchester, and Associate Director at Graeae Theatre Company where his journey into theatre began. Sharma directed the critically acclaimed and sell-out run of Retrograde at the Kiln. He has also directed two productions at the National Theatre – The Solid Life of Sugar Water (Graeae Theatre Company/Theatre Royal Plymouth co-production) and The Boy With Two Hearts (also Wales Millennium Centre). He also co-directed Prometheus Awakes, one of the largest outdoor productions featuring Deaf and disabled artists as part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad (Graeae Theatre Company/ Greenwich+Docklands International Festival/ Stockton International Riverside Festival/La Fura Dels Baus); and Aruna and The Raging Sun in Chennai, India as part of UK/INDIA Year of Culture 2017. Amit is a BAFTA nominated directed for his two films which were part of the Criptales season on BBC and BBC AMERICA. He also co-directed the award-winning BBC and NETFLIX television drama Then Barbara Met Alan (Best Single Drama, 2023 Broadcast Awards). He began his training at Graeae Theatre Company with Missing Piece 1. His other theatre credits include One Under (Graeae Theatre Company/Theatre Royal Plymouth), Cosmic Scallies (Graeae Theatre Company/Royal Exchange Theatre), and Iron Man (Graeae Theatre Company/international tour). His other television work includes Hamish, and Thunderbox.