Anna Ziegler is a multiple award-winning American playwright. Her plays have been produced across the world, from New York to Berlin to London, and include Boy, Another Way Home, Dov and Ali and Photograph 51. Photograph 51 was a critically acclaimed success in the States and transfers to the West End of London in 2015. The play focuses on the work of Rosalind Franklin,...
Tom Morton-Smith is an English playwright. A former writer in residence for Paine’s Plough, Tom has written a number of acclaimed plays, most recently the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of ‘Oppenheimer’. The play, about physicist Robert J Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project, was a huge commercial and critical success, playing at the RSC in Stratford-upon-Avon before transferring for a sell-out run in The West...
Ben Miller is an actor, writer and director probably best known for being one half of the comedy duo Armstrong and Miller. He has starred in the TV series of the same name as well as a huge variety of television shows, films and plays, including most recently the film What We Did on Our Holiday and the West End hit The Duck House. ...
Alexei Sayle is a comedian, author and writer who was a central part of the British alternative comedy scene in the 1980s. His comedy is often surreal whilst dealing with, particularly of late, political issues. Alexei has recently returned to stand up but is still probably most remembered as one of the creators, writers and performers of the BBC series ‘The Young Ones’. I...
Steve Backshall is one of the best-known wildlife TV presenters in Britain, working primarily with the BBC’s Natural History Unit. He studied arts, and later biology, at university before moving into presenting. His TV work has seen him win two BAFTAs and front a variety of shows including Lost Land of the Jaguar, The Really Wild Show and the hugely popular Deadly 60. When...
Steve Aylett is a British satirical science fiction writer. Amongst novels and other comic books, Steve created Jeff Lint, a fictional author, who has been referenced across much of his work including a film about the character that featured the likes of Alan Moore, Josie Long and Robin Ince. He is also a synesthete, a writer who does not think in words. I really...
Richard Vranch might be best known to British audiences as ‘Richard at the piano’ from the original series of Whose Line Is It Anyway? or as a member of the Comedy Store Players where he has performed improvised comedy twice a week for as long as he can remember. A regular on British radio and television, before turning to comedy he worked as a...
Alex Horne is a comedian and the host of The Horne Section, a live music variety show on BBC Radio 4. He is also regularly performing live across the UK and his 2014 show Monsieur Butterfly was nominated for the top comedy award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He makes frequent appearances on a variety of television shows and also found time to author...
Adam Spencer was studying for his PhD in Pure Mathematics at the University of Sydney when he won a national stand-up comedy competition run by the youth and alternative radio network Triple J. Since then, Adam has had a successful comedy career as a TV and radio personality before calling it quits in 2013 to once again focus on maths. He is currently the...
Lawrence Leung is a writer, comedian, director and actor from Melbourne, Australia. Having studied psychology at university his work often takes a skeptical, or nerdy, direction. He is known for his TV series ‘Lawrence Leung’s Choose Your Own Adventure’ and ‘Lawrence Leung’s Unbelieavable’ as well as his award winning live shows that have toured both Australia and the UK such as ’Skeptic’ and ‘Lawrence...
Stephen Fry is a comedian, actor, writer and presenter. His incredible career began at Cambridge University with the Footlights, where he would meet long-time comedic collaborator Hugh Laurie with whom he would create A Bit of Fry and Laurie and star in Jeeves and Wooster. He has gone on to become an award-winning author of multiple books and an actor in film, television...
Dean Burnett is a doctor of neuroscience at Cardiff University working in the Institute of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neurosciences. He is also a comedy writer and part time stand-up comedian. His comedy work revolves around science and he is the author the popular Guardian blog Brain Flapping. I’ve had a couple of people who don’t think it’s acceptable to portray science in an...
Baba Brinkman is a Canadian rapper and poet who is best known for combing science and literature with hip-hop music. In 2009 he wrote and performed ‘The Rap Guide to Evolution’ which was deemed the first peer-reviewed rap show. His show ‘Ingenious Nature’ played to critical acclaim off-Broadway in 2012. Dr Heather Berlin is an American neuroscientist who obtained her doctorate in experimental neuropsychology. ...
Billy Bragg is a folk singer-songwriter and prominent left-wing activist. He is regarded as one of the greatest protest singers of his generation and his lyrics primarily deal in themes of politics and romance. He has performed all across the world and has regularly appeared on science and rational themed shows including ‘The Infinite Monkey Cage’and Robin Ince and Brian Cox’s Hammersmith Apollo...
Mitch Benn is a comedian, musician and science fiction author. Much of his work has a scientific or rational approach. A regular touring comedian, Mitch is also a frequent contributor to The Now Show on BBC Radio 4 and many other programmes. All kinds of things from science fiction have become science fact On becoming interested in science I don’t have a scientific...
Mark Watson is a comedian, author and son of a chemistry teacher. As well as writing a number of novels and regular TV and radio appearances, Mark is perhaps best known for pioneering marathon stand up shows which usually involve him being on stage for an epic 24 hours straight. These shows often feature a wide range of guests from Tim Minchin to...
Simon Munnery is a comedy writer and stand up comedian. Simon read natural sciences at Cambridge and then had a short lived career as a video game programmer before becoming a full time comedian. His stand up is often political, almost always surreal and sometimes involves guitars, props and harmonicas. He is also known by the stage names of Alan Parker: Urban Warrior...
Robin Ince is a comedian, writer and presenter who’s work focuses primarily on the world of science. He is the creator of the hugely successful variety shows, ‘Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People,’ ‘Book Club,’ and ‘Uncaged Monkeys’ amongst others. Amongst endlessly touring he finds time to co-host the Sony Award winning radio show ‘The Infinite Monkey Cage’ with Professor Brian Cox...
Josie Long is a stand up comedian and writer. Her material usually focuses on politics, science and social justice. In 2006, she won Best Newcomer at the Edinburgh Fringe and regularly tours the world performing stand up. Josie is a co-founder of the Arts Emergency Service charity. When you’re talking about the Universe it brings up a lot of poetic and...
Stewart Lee is a stand up comedian and writer. He first came to prominence in the 1990s as part of a radio, then later TV, duo with Richard Herring. He went on to co-write and co-direct the Oliver Award winning musical ‘Jerry Springer: The Opera’, before returning to stand up. His subsequent live shows, including the currently touring ‘Much A-Stew About Nothing’,...
Grace Petrie is an indie folk singer. Her songs often take a political slant and as such saw her play Glastonbury with Billy Bragg in 2010. She has since toured as musical support with the likes of Josie Long and Robin Ince and is a fixture of their live Shambles shows as well as the Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless people gigs...