The Stellar Company of Actors
Stellar’s actors are some of the finest working in the UK, with accolades including the Cannes Independent Film Festival, the Olivier Awards, British Comedy and National Television awards, as well as a performance in an Oscar-winning film.
You may recognise many of them - from the Royal Shakespeare Company to the National Theatre, from BBC to ITV, from Netflix to Amazon Prime Video, their credits span the most famous stages and screens, with the greatest directors, in numerous beloved shows.
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Emily Woof
Emily is an actor, writer and director. Her acting credits include The Full Monty, The Woodlanders, Velvet Goldmine, Finding Alice, and Mothering Sunday with Olivia Coleman and Colin Firth, which will be released in September 2021. Her two novels, The Whole Wide Beauty and The Lightning Tree, were published by Faber. She has also written for theatre and radio, including Pianoman, The Bigg Market, Babylove, Home to the Black Sea, as well as prize‐winning performance pieces Revolver, and SEX II and SEX III, commissioned by The Royal Court.
Samantha Spiro
Samantha has been prolific in the worlds of theatre, film, television and radio and copiously awarded for her work. In theatre she is probably best known for portraying Barbara Windsor in Terry Johnson’s Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle and Dick at the National Theatre, a production she credits as her first big break. Samantha has received two Olivier Awards, the first for her performance in the Donmar Warehouse production of Merrily We Roll Along and subsequently for her title role in the celebrated Hello, Dolly! at the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre. Samantha was recognised at the 2011 British Comedy Awards for her performance as Aunt Liz in BBC Two’s Grandma's House, and her other TV work includes Melessa Tarly in HBO’s Games of Thrones and, most recently, Maureen Groff in the 2019 Netflix production of Sex Education, opposite Gillian Andersen. Samantha studied at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art.
Rhik Samadder
Rhik is an actor, writer and broadcaster. He played the lead in The Indian Boy at the RSC and on television has appeared on the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and HBO. Credits include Coronation Street, Emmerdale and Strikeback. He is also a columnist for The Guardian, where he created the cult ‘Inspect a Gadget’ feature. Rhik's bestselling memoir, I Never Said I Loved You, is about how to recover from grief, depression, trauma ‐ and drama school. He has been a regular contributor to BBC Radio Four and has been interviewed on The Today Programme and Loose Ends. He is a frequent podcast guest, on shows including The High Low with Dolly Alderton and Pandora Sykes. Rhik studied acting at Drama Centre, London.
Samantha Pearl
Samantha is a British Zambian actor and presenter. Most recently appearing in BBC One’s Ghosts, her screen credits include roles and presenter spots on The Disney Channel, BBC 3 and Channel 4. On stage, she is known for playing a powerful mix of characters who fall through the cracks in society. Notable work has been with Belarus Free Theatre in Tomorrow I Was Always a Lion, with Clean Break as Charity in Sam Holcroft’s Dancing Bears and Tunde in Rebecca Prichard’s Dream Pill ‐ and she appeared as Joan in the European tour of Julia Pascal’s St Joan. Samantha was in the original cast, in the West End and on a national tour, of Owen Sheers and Bravo 22 Company’s Two Worlds of Charlie F, and off‐Broadway she was directed by and played alongside Adrian Dunbar as Lianne in Brendan at the Chelsea (produced by The Lyric Belfast). For Ireland’s avant‐garde company Pan Pan Theatre she was Nina in The Seagull (& other birds). Samantha’s film credits include a cameo as Shirley Bassey, alongside Tom Hardy, in Legend. Samantha trained at The Oxford School of Drama and read English and Drama at The University of Bristol.
Lloyd Owen
Lloyd’s varied and highly respected international career has encompassed leading roles at the National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal Exchange, Donmar Warehouse, Almeida Theatre, Young Vic, and Hampstead Theatre. He has worked extensively in London’s West End and his film and TV career spans the UK, Hollywood and, more recently, Bollywood. He is particularly well known for his roles as Paul Bowman‐Macdonald in Monarch of the Glen, Professor Jones in The Young Indiana Jones, William Heelis in Miss Potter, the bodyguard, Frank Farmer, in The Bodyguard at the Adelphi Theatre, and John Clive (Clive of India) in the international blockbuster film The Thugs of Hindustan. Lloyd is one of the stars of the forthcoming Lord of the Rings series from Amazon. He trained at RADA and at the National Youth Theatre.
Cathy Owen
Cathy has worked extensively with new writing, most recently touring nationally with Cardboard Citizens as Cathy in Cathy by Ali Taylor, which was also performed in prisons, hostels and The House of Lords. She premiered This Wide Night by Chloe Moss for Clean Break at Soho Theatre, The Last Valentine by Glyn Maxwell at the Almeida Theatre, Silent Engine by Julian Garner for Pentabus, and a new adaptation by Ed Thomas of Mother Courage and her Children for the National Theatre of Wales. Her classical work includes Lady Macbeth at the Ludlow Festival, Kate in Shrew'd: Taming of the Shrew and The Tamer Tamed at the Arcola Theatre. She has recently completed two lockdown shorts, Bounce, written by Jess Moore and directed by Alex Dinelaris, and A Love Story, written and directed by Trevor Docksey. Cathy studied English and Drama at The University of East Anglia, and has directed new plays at the Arcola Theatre, Southwark Playhouse and The Unicorn for the National Youth Theatre, where she is an Associate Artist.
Shala Nyx
Shala’s early career began in London’s prestigious West End. Her work in television and film includes popular hits such as Charlize Theron’s The Old Guard (Netflix), Knock Down Ginger (BFI), Unlike (Channel Four), Henry VI, Casualty and Eastenders (BBC). She has also played leading roles on stage nationally, and has created, written and featured in her own productions for theatre and activism, in Wipe These Tears, The People’s Tribunal: Afghanistan Sessions and Sisterhood, An Act of Resistance (CPT).
She recently starred in Two Billions Beats (Orange Tree), Kabul Goes Pop (Brixton House), A Thousand Splendid Suns (national tour), Cookies (Theatre Royal Haymarket), The Heresy of Love (Bristol Old Vic), and Her (one woman show, national tour).
As a voiceover artist, Shala provides the voices for some of the world’s leading animation series, games and documentaries. She takes the title role in the games Harmony ,The Fall of Reverie (Don’t Nod), and also features in Cyberpunk 2077, Lord of the Rings: Gollum, Assassin’s Creed, and Diabolo IV. She is the motion capture artist in the colossal Warhammer franchise games. Shala also provides voices for the animation series Octonauts (Netflix), Corpse Talk, Milli and Lou (YouTube), and for Channel Four's Despatches.
Shala trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
Claire Nielson
Claire is best known for her work in British comedy. She is globally recognised for her guest star role as Mrs Hamilton in the ‘Waldorf Salad’ episode of Fawlty Towers, for her numerous roles in The Two Ronnies’ sketches, and her regular appearances on The Dick Emery Show. She played opposite Richard Briars in Monarch of the Glen, and her extensive TV credits include Upstairs Downstairs, Z‐Cars, The Brothers, and Taggart. Claire was a member of Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop and has appeared at theatres across the UK, including The Globe, The Garrick, Birmingham Rep and Hampstead Theatre. Film credits include her portrayal of Barbara Grant in Kidnapped, opposite Michael Caine and Trevor Howard. Claire has also directed in London at Riverside Studios, The Gate, and for the RSC Festival at The Other Place and The Swan. She trained at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and has a degree in English Literature from King’s College, Cambridge.
Nigel Lindsay
Since leaving the City for drama school in the early 90s, Nigel has been a stalwart of British theatre, TV and film. He was Olivier nominated for Shrek at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane and won the Whatsonstage Best Supporting Actor for Arthur Miller’s Broken Glass at the Tricycle. He has appeared at the Donmar, the Royal Court, the Almeida Theatre, and both The Old Vic and Young Vic. Nigel twice played Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls in the West End. He was seen opposite Lindsay Lohan in Speed the Plow at the The Playhouse, with Jim Broadbent in Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman at the National, and as Bolingbroke to David Tennant’s Richard II at the RSC. Nigel also starred as Teddy in Faith Healer at The Abbey Theatre, Dublin. On TV, Nigel was Sir Robert Peel in the popular ITV series Victoria and was most recently on screen in Salisbury, White Gold, Unforgotten, The Capture, Safe, The Tunnel, and Magnum PI. In film he was Ewan McGregor’s boss in Rogue Trader and Steve Coogan’s boss in Alpha Papa. But Nigel is perhaps best known for his portrayal of Barry in the BAFTA‐winning Four Lions, for which he received a nomination for Best Performance in Film at the British Comedy Awards.
Emma Kingston
Emma is a musical theatre star, whose leading roles include Eva Peron in Evita, directed by the legendary Hal Prince, Vanessa in the UK premiere of Lin‐Manuel Miranda’s In The Heights, Hodel in Fiddler on the Roof at the Chichester Festival Theatre, Luisa in Zorro at the Hope Mill Theatre, Cathy in The Last Five Years at the Minack Theatre, and most recently Heather Chandler in The Heathers at The Other Palace. She has also appeared in Les Misérables in the West End as part of the 30th‐anniversary cast, and in Kings of Broadway at The Palace Theatre. She regularly appears in concerts across the world, most recently performing at the Tokyu Theatre Orb New Year’s Musical Concert in Tokyo. She has also appeared in Been So Long for Netflix/BFI/Film4 and The Sound of Musicals with Neil Brand on BBC Four. She trained at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts.
Diane Keen
Diane is an actor and producer. She is principally known for her starring roles in some of the most iconic sitcoms on British TV, including her portrayal of Fliss Hawthorne in Granada’s The Cuckoo Waltz. For a decade she played Julia Parsons in the long‐running BBC One soap Doctors, and her TV credits encompass many of the UK’s greatest shows: The Professionals, The Sandbaggers, Brookside, the entire series of Ruth Rendell Mysteries, A Touch of Frost, and The Morecambe and Wise Show. She starred in The Sweeney feature film, and many other films, including the Oscar‐winning Nowhere in Africa. Her extensive theatre experience includes Alan Ayckbourn’s Absent Friends, The Vagina Monologues, and Beautiful at the Adelphi Theatre, in which she played Genie, mother of Carole King. She also performed in a successful season at the Old Vic. Diane's many tours include premiering the dramatization of Susan Hill's ghost story The Small Hand, in which she played the Narrator and four other main parts. Her numerous awards include Best Actress in The National Television Awards, Best Single Episode in The British Soap Awards, and Best Actress on TV in the TV Times Awards.
Travis Leete
Travis studied at Yale Divinity, and law school, and worked as a policy attorney in a Texas non-profit focused on criminal justice reform. Drawn by his love of the ocean and surfing, he then returned to California to follow his true passion and become an actor. His TV work includes the Wild West Chronicles, directed by Michael Owed, and Jesus, directed by Trevor Lee Georgeson. Film includes The Venus Project, directed by Eve Mavrakis, The Survivors Story, directed by Lorien Haynes and Barbara Van Schaik, Everything I Ever Wanted to Tell My Daughter About Men, also directed by Lorien Haynes and Barbara Van Schaik, and Indigo, directed by Saffron Burrows. Travis continues to train at The Studio, LA.
Clare Holman
Clare has had a thirty‐year career in theatre, film and TV. She is best known for her role as Dr Laura Hobson in Inspector Morse and Lewis. More recently she was in The Little Drummer Girl for BBC One, Midsomer Murders for ITV, and the Netflix series Cursed. She was nominated for an Olivier for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, and her performances at the National Theatre include Angels in America and The Crucible, and at the RSC Two Gentleman of Verona and Measure for Measure. Other TV work has been very diverse, notably The Lakes, and Henry VIII with Ray Winston. Clare’s film career includes Let Him Have It with Christopher Eccleston, Suite Française with Kristen Scott Thomas, and Blood Diamond with Leonardo DiCaprio. Her latest film, Censor, with Niamh Algar, is playing at the Sundance Festival. Clare teaches drama at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, directs (Doctors, Holby City), and writes.
Lorien Haynes
Based between London and Los Angeles, Lorien is an actor and playwright. In the last two years she has acted in a twenty‐three short film series and feature of her Everything I Ever Wanted to Tell My Daughter About Men, directed by Saffron Burrows, Tara Fitzgerald, Sienna Guillory and Jodhi May. She has also performed the work as a play at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare’s Globe, with Jason Isaacs, and at The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverley Hills, with Ted Danson. Lorien appeared in her play Good Grief, workshopped at NYSAF (New York Stage and Film) with John Slattery, and at the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York. She has just filmed a lead in Kensal Town, directed by Saffron Burrows, and starred in the podcast America 2.0, alongside Patrick J Adams and Laurence Fishburne. Lorien is cast in her forthcoming indie feature The Lift, which won Best Screenplay at the Paris Independent Film Festival, and is currently shooting the new dating show Virtually Single for Finite Films. She will appear in the Everything play in LA, and is working with Paul Crewes at The Wallis to premiere Good Grief.
Paul Greenwood
Paul shot to fame as the young policeman PC Michael “Rosie” Penrose in the sitcom Rosie and is also well known for his portrayal of Inspector Yelland in the drama series Spender. He has appeared in scores of TV shows, including the title role in Captain Zep, as Mr Lucas in The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾, and as Ian Palmer in The Bill. For eight years he was a leading player at the RSC, starring as Polixenes with Jeremy Irons as Leontes in The Winter’s Tale, as Antipholus of Syracuse with Zoë Wanamaker as Adriana in The Comedy of Errors, and as Captain Goodlack with Simon Russell Beale and Imelda Staunton in The Fair Maid of the West. Film work includes Hammer Film Production Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter and Mike Leigh’s Peterloo. Paul trained at Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Melissa Greenwood
Melissa is an actor and producer whose career spans theatre, TV and film. She played the iconic role of Sophia in the BBC’s Sophia and Constance and was Kitty in Poirot. For ATV she appeared in In Sickness and in Health, and she has also taken numerous roles in Casualty. Theatre includes Vanity Fair for Cheek by Jowl, Swallows and Amazons for Theatre Clwyd, and a range of Number 1 tours, notably in the title role of Sleeping Beauty at the Polka Theatre in Wimbledon. Film work includes an appearance in London Suite, directed by Jay Sandrich. A stint in Southern Africa saw her work with the Botswana National Theatre and The University of Botswana, devising and directing plays that toured the country, raising awareness of AIDS and women’s rights. She is also the founder and director of Melissa Greenwood Coaching, which offers training courses and role play to blue chip companies around the world.
Tom Grace
Tom was born in Australia and raised in the UK. He has performed leading roles in Journey’s End with Immersion Theatre, Macbeth with the Young Shakespeare Company, Summer Day’s Dream at the Finborough Theatre, The Bricks of Burston for the Stuff of Dreams Theatre Company, Henry V for SM Productions, and originated several roles in the cult smash-hit Margaret Thatcher: Queen of Soho for Theatre 503. He is a company member of Idle Discourse, undertaking international tours of Pericles and The Comedy of Errors, and of Strasbourg-based Théâtre Volière, with which he toured Poilu and Tommy, Goethe in Alsace, and Arnika. Tom is a reader with Shakespeare’s Globe’s Read Not Dead company and appeared in Rupert Goold and Robert Icke’s landmark dawn-till-dusk staging of The Iliad. He is currently working with playwright Rachel Betts on her mosaic play As if you are Infinite, and can be seen in the films The Visitation, Beneath a Neon Tide, Smiley, and Drive-by Sunset. Tom trained at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts.
Charlie Field
Charlie Field is a British actor and writer. He was born in London and raised in Germany. He made his theatre debut at the Park Theatre in 2016 and has appeared in Poldark for the BBC, Genius for National Geographic, and starred as Harry in Harry & Meghan: Becoming Royal for Lifetime. Last year, he was a lead in Lorien Haynes’ Everything I Ever Wanted to Tell My Daughter About Men at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare’s Globe.
Niall Bishop
Niall is an actor from the West of Ireland. He is a co‐founder of Time Productions and host of the You Need to be Yourself You Can’t be No‐one Else podcast. In theatre, he is best known for the award‐winning revival of Abi Morgan’s Tiny Dynamite at the Old Red Lion in 2018, as well as performing in Riot Act’s acclaimed contemporary production of League of Youth. On screen he appeared in the final episode of the final season of Game of Thrones and is due to play a leading role in the much anticipated online series #honesty. Niall has also appeared multiple times in the Irish crime drama Red Rock. He trained at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
Olivia Bernstone
In 2018 Olivia played the role of Lisette Azaire in the No 1 tour of Sebastian Faulks’ Birdsong, which was recently adapted to digital form as Birdsong Online, an innovative hybrid of film and theatre, born of lockdown. Other theatre credits include Treasure at the Finborough Theatre, Red Tape at the Southwark Playhouse, Breaking Gadd at the Soho Theatre, First Time at the Bunker Theatre, a national tour of Anyone for Tea, and most recently The End of the Night at the Park Theatre. Film and TV credits include Fighting With My Family, directed by Stephen Merchant, Noel Clarke and Ashley Walters’ Bulletproof Season 2 on Sky One, Humans on Channel 4, The Rebel on UKTV Gold, Keeley Hawes and Roger Goldby’s new drama Finding Alice on ITV and Mood on BBC Three. Olivia trained at LAMDA and The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York.
Moe Bar‐El
Moe was born in Iran and moved to London at the age of ten. He landed his first professional job in 2016 when he played the lead role of Shapur Zamani in the award‐winning French TV series Le Bureau Des Legendes. He is now probably best known on screen for his recent portrayal, alongside Keeley Hawes, of Rhamat Suleiman in ITV's Honour, and of Karim in Apple TV's Tehran. For his role as Kareem in Richard Molloy’s Every Day I Make Greatness Happen at Hampstead Theatre, Moe was nominated for the Outstanding Achievement in Affiliate Theatre Award at the 2019 Olivier Awards. His 2019 achievements continued in the San Francisco tour of The Jungle for the Curan Theatre. He also starred in Marion Bott’s Moormaid at the Arcola Theatre, and in 2020 was cast in Welcome to Iran, Nadia Fall’s co‐production with the National Theatre. He trained at Identity School of Acting.
Nathalie Barclay
Nathalie is a British American actress based in London, who recently appeared as Maggie in the final series of Killing Eve for the BBC America/Sid Gentle. She has also appeared in Trigonometry for the BBC, written by Duncan Macmillan and Effie Woods. Other TV and film credits include One Day at a Time, 50 Kisses, Twenty Nothing, Duplicity, and Gradulthood. Her London theatre credits include Positive at the Park Theatre, The Class Ceiling at the Southwark Playhouse, The Boy Who Never Learned to Fly at the Arcola Theatre, Much Ado About Nothing at the New Wimbledon Theatre Studio, and Dog’s Bite at the Soho Theatre (for Goldsmiths). She has also appeared in theatres all over the UK, notably in a prominent 2022 tour of Boeing-Boeing, playing Gabriella, with London Classic Theatre, in Here I Belong, directed by Elizabeth Freestone with Pentabus Theatre and Theatre by the Lake, and Antigone, which was principally at The Lowry. At the Nuffield Theatre she performed in You Once Said Yes, and at the Oxford Playhouse in Primary Playmaker. Nathalie trained at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts.
Fayez Bakhsh
Fayez grew up in Reading, Berkshire to Yemeni parents. After earning a degree in Criminology, he trained as an actor, graduating from Drama Studio London in 2014. His TV credits include the Channel 4 BAFTA‐nominated mini‐series The State, directed by Peter Kosminsky, Howard Gordon's US TV drama series Tyrant for FX and Sky, and a lead role in BBC Two’s drama The Attack, directed by Gabriel Range. Stage credits include Tartuffe at the National Theatre in 2019, directed by Blanche McIntyre, the original lead in Jonathan Moore's Inigo and Twelfth Night (as Sir Toby Belch), and Sebastian in Twelfth Night at The Globe Theatre in Neuss, Germany. Most recently Fayez has featured in the successful Amazon comedy series The Jewish Enquirer, and has just finished filming for the Spanish period drama Glow and Darkness.
Harry Anton
Harry is a British actor based in London. Recent work includes Season 5 of The Crown for Netflix, and the final season of The Last Kingdom for Carnival Films/Netflix. He has also appeared in Emily, the biopic of Emily Brontë, directed by Frances O’Connor, and an unnamed Disney+ series. Theatre work includes starring in Macbeth for both the Young Shakespeare Company and Antic Disposition, and playing the character of Sidney Luft in Ray Rackham's Judy at the Arts Theatre and Southwark Playhouse.