Cast
Lauren
Donna Air
Donna Air is an English media personality, actress and singer, first starting her television career aged just 10 on the CBBC series ‘Byker Grove’.
Having found early success, Donna then joined pop duo ‘Crush’ and toured the United States and Asia, before returning to the UK and signing to MTV. As a presenter, she hosted shows including ‘MTV Select’, ‘The Big Breakfast’, and ‘TFI Friday’.
Concurrent to her presenting duties, Donna also found time to star in TV series such as ‘Hollyoaks’, ‘Hotel Babylon’, and ‘A Dinner of Herbs’. She has also starred in films such as ‘The Mummy Returns’ and ‘Bad Day’. She has taken part in reality shows including ITV’s ‘Splash!’ and ‘Dancing on Ice’ and the second series of The Split – BBC1.
Donna has also taken up a position as Contributing Style Editor for Hello Magazine, as well as teaming up with Markus Lupfer to create a range of children’s clothes exclusively for Debenham’s.
Donna is also the founder and Creative Director of Little Bird, a high-end jewellery brand which has featured heavily on QVC.
Ben
James Buckley
BAFTA and British Comedy Award nominee, James Buckley, is best known for his role as Jay Carwright in the multi-award winning series The Inbetweeners for Channel 4. Following the TV series came two feature films; with The Inbetweeners 2 receiving record-breaking success for the biggest ever opening day for a comedy at the UK box office. Other film credits include The Comedian’s Guide to Survival (Amazon Prime), Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (Universal Pictures), The Pyramid (20th Century Fox), The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman (Lionsgate). TV credits include: I Feel Bad (NBC Universal), White Gold (BBC2), Zapped! (UKTV Dave), Doctor Who (BBC One), Rock N Chips (BBC One). James is thrilled to be returning to the West End, 20 years since making his debut in Les Miserables as a child.
Jenny
Stacey Dooley
Stacey Dooley is one of Britain’s most loved documentary presenters.
She rose to prominence in 2008, appearing as a contributor on BBC3 series Blood, Sweat and T-Shirts;. From 2009 to present day, Stacey has produced an array of social-issue themed documentaries concerning sex trafficking, domestic abuse and prisons from some of the world’s most hostile territories, bringing a voice and platform to many earnt her an MBE for services to broadcasting in 2018.
In more BBC3 documentaries Stacey Dooley Investigates took her to Russia; Florida; Iraq; and Hungary; Thailand and Kenya to explore more challenging issues such as child exploitation; sex offenders; domestic violence; War; wage exploitation and pollution in the fashion industry and coming face-to-face with an ISIS soldier for which she won a One World Media Award. Some of the episodes of this series won the title of the Most Watched Documentaries on BBC iPlayer.
She is a big advocate for children’s TV and has worked closely with CBBC for a number of years on programmes such as The Pets Factor; The Nine to Five with Stacey Dooley; Show Me What Your Made Of and The Young and Homeless for BBC Children In Need where Stacey explored the extent of homelessness in the UK.
Stacey was crowned the winner of the 16th series of BBC One’s Strictly Come Dancing in December 2018 and named as Grazia’s new Contributing editor for Investigations in early 2019.
To date Stacey has presented over 100 docs for the BBC.
Sam
Joe McFadden
Joe is probably best known for playing surgeon Raf Di Lucca in Holby City and motorbike policeman Joe Mason in 60s drama Heartbeat, and for winning Strictly Come Dancing in 2017.
Other television credits are Dr Jack Marshland in Cranford, Alistair in Casualty, Prentice McHoan in The Crow Road, Dallas McCabe in Sex, Chips and Rock ’n’ Roll, as well as roles in Sparkhouse, Judge John Deed, The Law, High Road and Taggart.
Past theatre roles include playing Mark Cohen in Rent at The Shaftesbury Theatre, Keith in Rainbow Kiss at The Royal Court, Ed in Torch Song Trilogy at The Menier Chocolate Factory, Georg in She Loves Me and J Pierrepoint Finch in How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying at Chichester Festival Theatre, King James in Treason at The London Palladium, Caractacus Potts in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at Edinburgh Playhouse, John in A life in the Theatre at The Lyceum, Edinburgh, Sloane In Entertaining Mr Sloane at Theatr Clwyd, Claude in 15 Seconds at Traverse, Edinburgh, Aladdin in Aladdin at The Old Vic and The Writer in The Missing for National Theatre of Scotland.
Joe has toured the UK most recently playing The Narrator in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. His other tours include playing Jason Rudd in The Mirror Crack’d, Ollie in The House On Cold Hill, Andy in Haunting Julia and Tick/Mitzi in Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert.
His film credits include Small Faces, Dad Savage, The Trouble With Men And Women and Zig Zag Love.
Company
Letitia Hector
Letitia Hector, a comedic and dramatic actress who trained in Musical Theatre and has worked in a combination of all TV, Film and Theatre.
TV credits include; ‘Famalam’ (BBC), US Series ‘The Box’, ‘Succession’ (HBO), Ted’s Top Ten (ITV), ‘Venus vs Mars’ (SKY)
Theatre credits include; ‘Thriller’ (West End Lyric Theatre/International Tour), ‘The Lost Love Speakeasy’, ‘Hamilton (Lewis) – (EdFringe/King’s Head Theatre), ‘Cinderella’ 2017 and 2023 (Belgrade Theatre)
Company
Ché Walker
Ché’s recent stage credits include Othello (Globe) The Prince (Southwark Playhouse), Intra Muros (Park Theatre), which Ché also directed.
Other stage credits include Mark Ravenhill’s Biloxi Blues (Salisbury Playhouse); Christmas (Bush Theatre). Ché has also appeared in The Globe’s previous productions of Othello & Love’s Labour’s Lost.
TV credits include Riches (ITV); The Chelsea Detective (Acorn TV); Youngers (Channel 4); Holby City, and The Office (BBC).
As a writer and director, Ché’s credits include Been So Long (Royal Court), which was adapted into a feature film by Greenacre/BFI/Film 4, the award-winning play Flesh Wound (Royal Court); Crazy Love (Paines Plough); The Frontline; The Lightning Child (The Globe); Lovesong (ETT); The Ballad of Klook & Vinette (Park Theatre); The Etienne Sisters (Theatre Royal Stratford East); Time Is Love (Finborough Theatre); and Wolf Cub (Hampstead Theatre).
Ché has also written for screen; his short film My Old Flame (Channel 4) was directed by Academy Award winner Asif Kapadia.
Ché has been an associate teacher at RADA, and has further taught at LAMDA, RCSSD, East15, Webber Douglas Academy, and Stella Adler Academy in Los Angeles.
Company
Gemma Yates-Round
Gemma is a British Australian actor who trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
Theatre credits include: 2:22 A Ghost Story at The Lyric and The Apollo, The Girl on the Train (Barn Theatre), The Yellow Wallpaper (Omnibus Theatre), Goodbye Jamie Boyd (State Theatre of Western Australia, Darling Theatre, Australian Tour), Hamlet (La Boîte Theatre, Brisbane).
Gemma has written and starred in several films, her most recent 1-800-D-DIRECT (Bish Media) had notable recognition in Oscar/BAFTA & BIFA accredited festivals.
Other Film/Television credits include: Casualty (BBC), The Mountain (SKY), Forever Young (Bish Media), Breaking the Band (ITV), The Big One (Comedy Unit for C4), Final Resting Pose (Really Bright Media), Pulse (ABC).
She is absolutely delighted to return to the company of 2:22 at the Gielgud as Jenny.