Cast
Jonathan Ainscough
Jonathan’s improv family is Showstopper! the Improvised Musical, but he has also dabbled with Austentatious, Improv Royale and – in his non-improv life – performs in/directs/writes shows at places like the Royal Opera House, the Sheffield Crucible, Opera North, Manchester Vocal Ensemble, the Lowry and, really, anywhere that will have him.
Seamus Allen
Seamus is an Actor, Director, and Acting Coach. After training in Dublin at the Conservatory of Music and Drama. He toured extensively throughout England and Ireland, working in Irish Classics, devised clown theatre and open-air Shakespeare. Seamus is currently head of year at Drama Centre London, as well as running “What’s the Game?! Improv” Readings only Improvisation comedy club.
Ruth Bratt
Ruth Bratt (cast) credits include BAFTA-winning show People Just Do Nothing (BBC), Man Down (C4), Derek (C4), Mongrels (BBC3), Trodd En Bratt Say Well Done You and Sarah Millican’s Support Group (R4). Ruth is 1/4 of The Glenda J Collective with Josie Lawrence, Pippa Evans and Cariad Lloyd and regularly guests with The Comedy Store Players. @ruthbratt
Justin Brett
Justin trained at the Central School of Speech & Drama. He is a long-standing member of the Olivier Award-winning improv musical theatre group ‘Showstopper! The Improvised Musical’. He is also the co-creator of ‘These Folk’ with Susan Harrison. This will be his 7th 50-Hour Improvathon. He’s done a lot of legit theatre, TV, film. Nobody reading this will care. Google him, and/or look at www.thesefolkshow.com.
Joseph Chance
Joseph’s theatre credits include: The Woman in Black (West End); Jeeves & Wooster in Perfect Nonsense (National & International tour); Twelfth Night, The Comedy of Errors, The Taming of The Shrew & A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Propeller, National & International tours); Cyrano de Bergerac (Chichester Festival Theatre), H.P. Lovecraft’s Reanimator (Southwark Playhouse/Terror Season) and The Spanish Golden Age Season with the RSC.
Julie Clare
Julie has worked as an actress (national tours, rep, West End) and writer (Initial, Channel 4). She has been with Showstopper since 2008. In 2014 she began producing including Olivier Award winning productions such as Showstopper, In The Heights (West End) and Baby Reindeer (Bush). Other shows include Julie Madly Deeply (Off Broadway), Jack and the Beanstalk (Broadway Theatre) among others. She is a recipient of the Stage One Bursary and two Edinburgh Fringe Firsts.
Charlotte Clitherow
Charlotte trained at the Royal Academy of Music. As an actress, her recent theatre credits include Guys and Dolls, Sense and Sensibility, and Noises Off.
As an improviser, her credits include The Southend 48-Hour Improvathon. Charlotte is delighted to be appearing in The London 50-Hour Improvathon for the first time.
Belinda Cornish
Belinda is an actor, writer and director, and has won some awards for doing these things. She voices characters in various video games, including Mass Effect and Dragon Age, is a cast member of Edmonton’s DieNasty, and had the great joy of appearing in the Canadian premiere of Peter Pan Goes Wrong.
Alan Cox
Alan Cox has improvised across Great Britain, Italy, Germany, Poland, Ireland, and Canada. As a member of The School of Night he has played at the Edinburgh festival, the Milano Impro-Festival, Impro-Amsterdam, Edmonton Improvaganza, Latitude Festival, Bristol Jam, and at Elsinore Castle in Denmark. Recent acting credits include Farm Hall (Jermyn Street theatre), The King’s Speech and My Fair Lady (Frinton Summer Theatre).
Josh Darcy
Josh is an actor, improviser, teacher and NHS mental health chaplain. He was in the very first improvathon, organised by Ken Campbell and most of the ones since.
He worked with Ken for 12 years on 16 shows and now tries to pass on Ken’s wisdom to anyone who will listen. Josh is an alumnus of The School of Night.
Dylan Emery
Dylan Emery has been performing and directing improvised theatre and comedy for more than 20 years. He regularly appears in London’s West End and on tour around the world.
He is co-creator of Showstopper! The Improvised Musical, and a founder member of Grand Theft Impro and The School of Night.
William Ewart
An improveteran, Will is thrilled to be returning to The London 50-hour Improvathon again to flex his impro muscles.
Once described as ‘a physical comic par excellence’, he can now be described as ‘sleepy’.
Helen Foster
Helen is an actor, improviser, theatre maker and film producer who has delighted in performing in improvathons across the UK and in Canada since 2009.
A graduate of Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, her improv credits include Bumper Blyton, Yes Queens!, Sherlock and Watson, Best Friends Forever, The Science of Living Things, and Impropriety.
Theatre credits include Sherlock Holmes and the Whitechapel Fiend (Barn Theatre), (Silly) Little Women (Camden People’s Theatre), Bed Peace: The Battle of Yohn and Joko (The Cockpit), The God of Hell (N16 Theatre), Dante’s Inferno(Craft Theatre), and Misfits of London (UK Tour and Edinburgh Festival Fringe).
Andrew Gentilli
Andrew has been performing improv for 15 years, he now teaches around the world. He regularly plays in short-form group The Inflatables (which he founded in 2010), improvised musical group Music Box, and two-prov team BEINGS with Susan Harrison.
When he is not improvising he is an artist and filmmaker.
Fred Gray
Actor/Director. Fred has been in some things and done some things.
Susan Harrison
Susan is a member of Showstopper! The Improvised Musical, These Folk, Beings, and has also performed with Mischief Movie Night, Austentatious & The Comedy Store Players.
With Lucy Trodd she’s written for Radio 4 and the pair have a new project coming soon. Keep an eye on their socials!
Sally Hodgkiss
Sally improvises with Paul Merton and Suki Webster’s Improv Show at the Comedy Store and on tour, guests with the Comedy Store Players and various other groups.
Her acting credits include Casualty, Doctors, Eastenders, BBC Radio and numerous theatre productions around the country. She also writes for stage and screen.
Joshua Jackson
Joshua C. Jackson originally hails from Oakland, California. He has a BA in Music and Theatre at Colgate University, New York and a Masters of Arts from the Arts Educational School, London. His professional credits include: A Long Days Journey Into Night & The Tempest, both directed by Kelly Hunter; Planet 3 with Bigger Bang studios; and voice work for Black Mirror & Keep It Real.
Ali James
Ali is a member of Olivier-Award-Winning @showstopperthemusical and a guest with @comedystoreplayers. Director: Pretend Company (@thepretendcompany), London 50 (@theimprovathon), Southend 48 (@southend48thon), Angry Salmon, (@julieclareproductions), A Jaffa Cake Musical (@thegigglemug), The Bob Ross Effect (@slytheatremaker)
Kimane Juneau
Kimane Juneau is an American Actor based in London. Recent stage performance includes Muhammad Ali in “Rumble in the Jungle” (2023) and Sam Bell in “Elvis Evolution” (2025).
He’s also a member of the improv group DTRS and Improbotics.
Harry Kershaw
Harry is a founding member of Mischief Theatre. Recent theatre credits include The Unbelievers at the Royal Court.
Recent TV credits include Silent Witness for the BBC.
Safia Lamrani
Safia Lamrani is a British-Moroccan actor based in London. Her credits include: West End UK Tour of ‘Noises Off’, Talking People Improvisation at the Bush Theatre, ‘Hakawatis’ Soho Theatre, ‘Deen and Dunya’ The Globe Theatre.
Safia has most recently has voiced a main character in Battlefield 6, and shot a commercial for Netflix.
Tristan Langlois
Tristan was born and raised in place-based, immersive, improvisatory theatre long before anyone called it that, and has been thrown out of more castles, stately homes and museums than he can remember.
He’s a veteran of the London Improvathon, and currently manages the Royal Armouries theatre company in Leeds.
Ria Lina
Ria Lina is a touring comedian, actress and writer and has been named as one of The Evening Standard’s ‘Hottest Comedians You Should Be Watching Now’.
Her extensive list of credits includes guesting and hosting Live At The Apollo (BBC), Have I Got News For You (BBC), QI (BBC), Mock The Week (BBC), The News Quiz (Radio 4), The Now Show (Radio 4), Late Night Mash (Dave), and star of Lovestruck High (Amazon Prime).
Jinni Lyons
Jinni is an actor, writer, and improviser. Her improv work includes several London and Liverpool Improvathons, guest appearances with the Comedy Store Players, the Yes Queens, and her own solo improv show that she toured nationally and internationally for eight years.
Scripted work includes NewsRevue, Shakespeare, and an immersive show about nice spies in a caravan.
Alexander McWilliam
Alex is thrilled to return to the London Improvathon! Training: Guildford School of Acting. Theatre: Twelfth Night, Off the Block (Rabble), As You like it, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Oxford Shakespeare Company).
Commercials: Lenor, Costa Coffee, Dutch Lotto, EE, Regina Blitz, HSBC. Motion Capture: Hercules, Until Dawn, Fable III
Chris Mead
Chris Mead is an improv director, performer and teacher from the UK.
He is a senior teacher at Hoopla, London’s largest improv school, and co-founder of The Pretend Company which teaches theatrical improv and stagecraft to both improvisers and actors.
Mark Meer
Mark Meer best known for his work as Commander Shepard (and more) in BioWare’s Mass Effect Trilogy. Other voice work includes Hinterland Studio’s The Long Dark, the Dragon Age and Baldur’s Gate series, WB Games’ Gotham Knights, and Beamdog’s MythForce. Mark is a co-creator, writer, and star of the award-winning Canadian comedy series Tiny Plastic Men, available on Amazon Prime.
Adam Meggido
Adam Meggido is the director of Peter Pan Goes Wrong (nominated Best New Comedy Olivier Awards 2016). He was consultant director on A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong (BBC1, 2017) and Mischief Movie Night (nominated Best New Comedy Olivier Awards 2018). He created The School Of Night with Ken Campbell and his musical Burlesque won 4 OFFIES in 2012 including Best New Musical.
Nell Mooney
Nell studied Meisner at Rutgers. Improv: Showstopper! The Improvised Musical, Free Association, Grand Theft Impro and others. US/UK regional theatre in lots of different places. Film and TV: Disney’s Enchanted, Hyde Park on Hudson, The Eichmann Show (BBC2), Hoff the Record (Dave), Law and Order (NBC), As the World Turns (CBS)
Alicia Mugford
Alicia (she/her) is an improviser and performer, who performs regularly with London based groups Track 96, Hell Yeah and Do The Right Scene.
Catch her performing and teaching improvised rap & hip hop around the country. When not on the stage she can usually be found with a book somewhere.
Nadia Nadif
Trained: NYT and Drama at Hull University. Screen: NOTIFICATION (as writer and lead – Screen South award, nom best international short Toronto Global FF 2025), NEO NAHDA (BFI Flare, Second prize London Short FF 2024), EASTENDERS. Stage: BILLY BUDD (Wilton’s Music Hall / The Faction), PHAEDRA (National Theatre), COMMON (Teatro Vigo), THE SCAR TEST (Soho Theatre), CYMBELINE (Willow Globe / The Factory). Part of @showupimprov & @thebazaarshow
Jon Nguyen
Jon is an improviser who values fun, inclusivity and connection in all aspects of improv.
He loves the goofiness it can showcase, the story it invokes and the hope it can inspire. And he hopes you will love improv as mcuh as he does.
John Oakes
John teaches and performs with The Laughter Academy and Scared Scriptless in his home town of Southend, he is also a regular player in the annual sell-out runs of Oh Yes It Is! – The Improvised Pantomime and the Southend 48hr Improvathon. John has previously featured in Edinburgh Fringe smash Shakespeare For Breakfast and writes sketch comedy for News Revue. John is also one half of popular Weekend Breakfast show Ross & John on Radio Essex.
Ethan Pascal Peters
Ethan Pascal Peters (he/him) is a British-Caribbean performer, director and writer from West London. Credits include: Steve Wozniak in Nerds (Paul Taylor Mills); Ensemble in Perfect Show for Rachel (ZooCo Theatre); Moishe/Sol in Cable Street (Southwark Playhouse); Showstopper! The Improvised Musical (SRP); Brice Nobes in Muriel’s Wedding (Leicester Curve).
Talia Pick
Talia is an Actor and Improviser. Credits include: Running Free (JW3), How We Begin (Vaults 2023, Kings Head Theatre), How To Kill Your Mother (The Bunker).
Andrew Pugsley
Andrew Pugsley is Associate Artistic Director and a cast member of Showstopper! The Improvised Musical. Andrew trained in musical theatre at Circle in the Square Theatre School, New York. He’s recently been performing internationally with improvised horror show The Society of Strange and improv comedy troupe Panthercannon. Other theatre: Game Theory (Tristan Bates); The Mikado (The Tabard); MC for Singalong Oliver! (Royal Festival Hall); Wind in the Willows (Brewhouse Theatre). Voiceover: The Prisoner of Zenda (Naxos Audiobooks).
Eleanor Rattenbury
Eleanor is an actor, writer and movement artist. She regularly works as a collaborative artist with companies across the country. Eleanor’s credits include: Showstopper! The Christmas Kids Show (Soho Theatre Walthamstow), Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles De Menezes (Disney+), A Marvellous Party (Wise Children/Prince of Wales Theatre), PITCH (November Theatre/Pleasance), Fashion Spies (Quick Duck Theatre/Assembly Festival/UK Tour).
Briony Redman
Briony Redman (she/they) is a writer and comedian who works across film, television and theatre. Briony improvises in anxiety-inspired supergroup, Anxiety Club and Dungeons & Dragons comedy show, Questing Time. They perform, teach and are on the Artistic Committee for London comedy theatre and improv school The Free Association.
Charlie Russell
Creative Associate and one of the co-founders at Mischief. Recent work; Birdsong (UK tour), Fanny (RJG), Zygon Century (Big Finish), Mischief work includes: The Comedy About Spies; The Play That Goes Wrong; The Comedy About A Bank Robbery & The Goes Wrong Show.
Improviser; Mischief Movie Night, Austentatious, Yes Queens.
Katy Schutte
Katy has been improvising for 20+ years and has taught and performed in 30 countries. She authored The Improviser’s Way: A Long Form Workbook (Nick Hern Books), is an award-winning improviser (We Built This City on Rock and Coal), screenwriter (Sideliners, Coming of Middle Age) and playwright (The Ice at the End of the World).
Oliver Senton
Oliver did his first ‘Thon in Edmonton, Alberta in 2006. Many have followed. He is a founder member of Showstopper! and The School of Night, and has worked in the West End, the National Theatre and the RSC, most recently playing King Lear for them last autumn.
Lee Simpson
Lee is a Comedy Store Player, a founder member of Improbable, and one of Paul Merton’s Impro Chums. He’s also been a croupier, cinema projectionist and breakfast show DJ. He’s written plays, appeared in sit-coms and in some films, been on some Radio 4 panel shows and once did a very poor poodle act at the London Palladium. He feels this lack of direction is the essence of his work. His real name is Len.
Mandeep Singh
Mandeep Singh has trained in Improv at The Groundlings and The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre.
He is a teacher at Hoopla Impro and cast member of the award winning Improv group Crime Scene Impro.
Dan Starkey
Dan Starkey is an actor, writer, and voice artist, and has dipped in and out of impro for over twenty years.
Recent credits include Habeas Corpus at the Chocolate Factory, Doctor Who, and more radio plays and audiobooks than he can comfortably recall. He is a regular player with Bumper Blyton, the Improvised Adventure.
Lucy Trodd
Lucy Trodd is a founder of Olivier Award winning Showstopper! The Improvised Musical and the founder of FIT- Folkestone Improv Theatre. She’s a regular guest with The Comedy Store Players.
Lucy has performed and taught at many international festivals including: The Edinburgh Fringe, Impro Amsterdam, Momenta Leipzig, Welcome Rome and Karlsruhe Improv Festivals.
Phil Whelans
Phil has written and performed plays, radio and TV shows, animation, stand-up and impro the world over and has worked with, among others, Robin Williams, Chris Morris, Al Gore, Joan Rivers, Chris Tarrant, Bill Bailey and Basil Brush. He’s in Grand Theft Impro with Dylan Emery, Charlotte Gittins and countless top-drawer guests, many of whom are in the Improvathon.
Sarah-Louise Young
West End credits include Julie Madly Deeply, La Soirée, Fascinating Aida and Showstopper! The Improvised Musical (with whom she performed for 10 years). She’s guested with Improbable, Die-Nasty and survived several 50 hour improvathons.
She’s currently rehearsing The Bob Ross Effect, and touring An Evening Without Kate Bush. www.sarah-louise-young.com
Musicians
Chris Ash
Chris Ash is a composer, sound designer and workshop leader. He studied at Goldsmiths, the Guildhall School and Oxford, has worked with Soho Theatre, Birmingham Rep, Spitalfields Festival, Midlands Arts Centre, Full House Theatre and Barbican Creative Learning to name a few. Chris wrote the music to Three Witch3s, which opened at the Belgrade Theatre.
Duncan Walsh Atkins
Duncan Walsh Atkins has been musical director of Showstopper! The Improvised Musical since 2009. Other theatre credits include the musicals ‘Nezha’, ‘Burlesque’, ‘The Tailor-Made Man’, ‘Half a Sixpence’, ‘The Blues Brothers Party’, ‘Round The Horne’, ‘Flanders & Swann’, plus many radio & TV shows, including BBC2’s ‘Fast & Loose’ and the ‘Now Show’.
Jordan Paul Clarke
Jordan Paul Clarke is an award-winning writer, composer, musical director and improviser. He’s a musical director of Olivier Award Winning Showstopper: The Improvised Musical [“incredible… defies belief” The Telegraph], and has toured with multi-award winning Mischief Theatre (Olivier-Nominated Mischief Movie Night). Other MD Credits include Broken Wings (Assistant MD, Dubai Opera House), AIDS Baby (Barbican), Animal Farm(National Youth Theatre), Ride (Garrick Theatre), Cinderella (Newbury Corn Exchange) and music supervisor of British Youth Music Theatre. As writer and composer, original musicals include: Happy at Waterloo Vaults and The Kings Head [“profound, modern theatre at its best” Boyz], Building Paulus (UK Tour), Friday Night Sinner at Soho Theatre [“would do Mel Brooks proud” Chortle] [“flawless music” Musical Theatre Review], and Angry Salmon at Theatre Royal Plymouth [“is it really all about salmon?” Claude-Michel Schönberg, shortlisted for the Stiles and Drewe Mentorship Award 2025] and currently in development, Raising Gays (finalist for the S&D Mentorship Award 2025). With writing partnership ‘Forristal and Clarke’ – P.S. I’m a Terrible Person (shortlisted for the Charlie Hartill Award, Pleasance Theatre, and also a finalist in the S&D Mentorship Award 2021), and Public Domain (Vaudeville Theatre) ★★★★★ Everything Theatre ★★★★★ GScene – The Times’ Pick of the Week [The Times Hotlist, 2021]; featured on BBC RADIO 2 [“INNOVATIVE” The Daily Telegraph, “ORIGINAL AND EDGY” The Guardian] for which they were nominated for The Stage Debut Awards 2022 for best composer, lyricist and book writer.
Dylan Emery
Dylan Emery has been performing and directing improvised theatre and comedy for more than 20 years. He regularly appears in London’s West End and on tour around the world. He is co-creator of Showstopper! The Improvised Musical, and a founder member of Grand Theft Impro and The School of Night.
Nathan Gregory
Nathan is a percussionist who works regularly with Showstopper! The Improvised Musical.
This is not his first musical marathon but it is his first full fifty for the Improvathon!
Su Yeon Kim
Su Kim (she/they) is a classically trained pianist-composer & musical director based in South Korea and currently London. Rooted in her diverse musical spectrum that spans classical, jazz, folk, indie pop, R&B and musical theatre, she is particularly passionate about improvising music, making original works fused with jazz, and theatrical works that speak up for feminism, queer rights, and Asian voices. In addition to a number of stage experiences as solo performer and collaborative pianist for the last decades, her recent theatre credits include Ne Zha new musical (Shaw Theatre), Islander (East 15), Murder, She Didn’t Write (UK Tour), Beauty & the Beast (Bob Hope Theatre), Camden Fringe 2024, Lambeth Fringe 2024, Weird Place (Union Theatre), multiple projects at King’s College and Goldsmiths, and a variety of Off-West End productions.
Creatives
Claire Bilyard (photographer)
Claire has been photographing music and production images since 2008, including every London 50hr Improvathon since 2012 — somewhere in the region of 40000 images of sleep deprived geniuses.
The rest of life is taken up by unfinished musical theatre essays, a variety of design projects, teaching photography workshops and attempting to earn a living as an animation sound designer. Claire has never taken a single improv class.
IG: @scarab
Website: scarabpictures.co.uk
Dylan Emery (producer)
Dylan Emery has been performing and directing improvised theatre and comedy for more than 20 years. He regularly appears in London’s West End and on tour around the world. He is co-creator of Showstopper! The Improvised Musical, and a founder member of Grand Theft Impro and The School of Night.
Ali James (director/producer)
Ali is a member of Olivier-Award-Winning @showstopperthemusical and a guest with @comedystoreplayers. Director: Pretend Company (@thepretendcompany), London 50 (@theimprovathon), Southend 48 (@southend48thon), Angry Salmon, (@julieclareproductions), A Jaffa Cake Musical (@thegigglemug), The Bob Ross Effect (@slytheatremaker)
Adam Meggido (director)
Adam Meggido is the director of Peter Pan Goes Wrong (nominated Best New Comedy Olivier Awards 2016). He was consultant director on A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong (BBC1, 2017) and Mischief Movie Night (nominated Best New Comedy Olivier Awards 2018). He created The School Of Night with Ken Campbell. His musical Burlesque won 4 OFFIES in 2012 including Best New Musical.