Joan Collins

Joan Collins OBE is a Golden Globe Award-winning English actress, bestselling author and columnist.

Collins was educated at the Francis Holland School and then trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). At the age of 17 Collins was signed to the J. Arthur Rank Film Company, and in 1951 she made her feature debut as a beauty contest entrant in Lady Godiva Rides Again. In 1952 she starred in the film I Believe in You and was next signed by 20th Century Fox in 1954 as their answer to MGM's Elizabeth Taylor.

Collins has worked with some of the biggest names in Hollywood, including Richard Burton, Bing Crosby, Bette Davis, Kirk Douglas, Gene Kelly, Gregory Peck and Sir Laurence Olivier. In the 1970s, Collins made several movies and then starred in the film versions of her sister Jackie Collins' novels The Stud and The Bitch. The films were smash hits in England, becoming the most profitable films since the James Bond series.

In 1981, Collins was offered a role in Dynasty (1981-1989) playing Alexis, the vengeful ex-wife of tycoon Blake Carrington. The role successfully relaunched Collins as a powerful sex symbol and icon of independence. In 1985, Dynasty was the number 1 show in the US, and Collins became the highest-paid actress on television at the time. As Alexis, Collins was nominated six times for a Golden Globe Award (every year from 1982 to 1987), winning in 1983.

In the 1990s Collins made several guest star appearances on series such as Roseanne, The Nanny and Will & Grace while dabbling in films like Decadence and A Midwinter's Tale. She also appeared films such as Mama's Back, Annie: A Royal Adventure! Collins’ theatre roles in the 1990’s included Amanda in a revival of Noël Coward's Private Lives, Pacific Palisades and an American tour of Love Letters with the likes of George Hamilton and Stacey Keach. Additionally, she appeared in a West End production of Over the Moon with Frank Langella in 2000. .

In 1994, she launched her exercise video, Joan Collins Personal Workout and in 2001 Collins starred in TV movie These Old Broads with Debbie Reynolds, Shirley MacLaine and Elizabeth Taylor. Her many international appearances include the American daytime soap opera Guiding Light, playing South African journalist Jani Allan in a comedic spoof and appearing in the Dutch comedy film Alice in Glamourland .

In 2005 actress Alice Krige portrayed Collins in Dynasty: The Making of a Guilty Pleasure, a fictionalized television movie based on the creation and behind the scenes production of Dynasty. In early 2006, Collins toured the UK in A Evening With Joan Collins, a one-woman show in which she detailed the highs and lows of her roller coaster career and life, directed by her husband Percy Gibson. Collins has also appeared on a number of popular shows, from Have I Got News For You to the hit British television series Footballer's Wives and Hotel Babylon.

Collins has been featured in numerous advertising campaigns since she first appeared in a Gas Board commercial in the early 50’s. She has advertised brands including British Airways, Revlon and the Dorchester, and the cult adverts which she appeared alongside Leonard Rossiter in for Cinzano. She is also a best-selling author of numerous novels and lifestyle and beauty books. In 1997, Collins was granted the title of Officer of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in honour of her contribution to the arts and ongoing charity work.

Percy Gibson

Percy Gibson is an American actor and production technician. Gibson is a naturalised United States citizen of Peruvian and Scottish extraction. Brought up mostly in Peru, Gibson came to the United States to attend Bard College. After divorcing his first wife, Cynthia, he became the fifth husband of British actress Joan Collins on 17 February 2002.

Gibson worked as manager for theatrical companies before his second marriage, but since their marriage seven years ago (for which they renewed their vows in March 2009 in LA) Gibson has stepped into the role of manager for his wife, using his own expertise as a Theatre Manager and Actor. In early 2006, Collins toured the United Kingdom in A Evening With Joan Collins, a one-woman show in which she detailed the highs and lows of her roller coaster career and life, directed by Percy.

Tara Newley

Tara Newley is an actress and singer, and the daughter of actress Joan Collins and singer Anthony Newley. Born in New York, she returned to London in 1970 following her parent’s divorce and currently lives in Weston-Super-Mare, Somerset.

Tara launched a singing career with a band she formed in the UK in the 1990’s, and entered the UK Singles chart in the mid 1990s with Breathing is Easy. Tara’s TV appearances include Top 50 Showbiz Comebacks and Showbiz Poker in 2008, When Shoulderpads Ruled the World in 2002, Liquid News and Kelly.

Tara also appears in a role based on herself but named Thumbelina in the movie written and directed by her father Anthony Newley in 1969, Can Hieronymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?

Paul de Freitas

Paul began his career at the age of 10 by being one of the original members of the now famous Sylvia Young Stage School. Following a career as a child actor on stage, as a TV presenter and in commercials, he went on to become an Assistant Casting Director at the age of 16. Seven years later Paul formed his own company, Paul de Freitas Casting, and soon gained a reputation within the industry for his eye for spotting and employing talent early on, with artists such as Jude Law, Liz Hurley and Ross Kemp on his books.

In addition to casting award-winning advertising campaigns for brands such as Lloyds TSB and Philadelphia, Paul has appeared on numerous TV shows including Celebrity Extreme Makeover 2, The Alan Titchmarsh Show and Britain’s Next Top Model . He has also been a guest on many TV shows including The Esther Show, This Morning and GMTV and was a judge on TV’s Soap Stars in 2002. His career has been the subject of numerous press articles including Televisual, Creative Review and British Airways Business Life. Campaign magazine described him as “the doyen of the casting world” and “London’s most fashionable casting director”.

Stephen K Amos

Stephen K. Amos is a British stand-up comedian. A regular on the London comedy circuit, he is also a compere. He has performed stand-up at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival every year since his debut solo show in 2001. During the 2006 run, he performed the revealing solo show All Of Me, in which he publicly acknowledged his own homosexuality to his audience for the first time, hosted a chat show on weekends (in addition to his own show), performed as a guest at various extra festival shows such as Spank! and performed daily in Stewart Lee’s production of Eric Bogosian's play Talk Radio.

Away from the fringe, Amos is a regular performer at The Comedy Store, London, featuring on the bill several evenings each month as well as various other London comedy venues. Amos appeared in the Australian Great Comedy Debate in 2006 for the negative team. In May 2007, he appeared at the New Zealand International Comedy festival. He performed at the 2007 class clowns state final in South Australia. During late 2008 and early 2009 he embarked on a UK tour of his show Find The Funny.

Amos’ TV appearances include the Australian Network Ten improvisational comedy, Thank God You're Here; the ABC game show, Spicks and Specks; and the Mad Monday edition of the Channel 9 game show, Bert's Family Feud. In the UK, Amos has appeared as a guest on panel shows such as Have I Got News For You, Mock The Week, The Wright Stuff and And Then You Die.

In March 2007, his documentary on homophobia in the black British community and Jamaica, Batty Man, was broadcast by Channel 4. He made a guest appearance as Jimi Hendrix on the third episode of the BBC Three show, Snuff Box. He has also appeared in Rich Hall’s Cattle Drive, Eastenders, and as a featured performer on the BBC’s Live at the Apollo. Amos has the distinction of being one of the few stand-up comics chosen to appear at the 2007 Royal Variety Performance. As an actor he performed in both the Edinburgh Fringe & London runs of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest.

Amos most recently made an appearance on the gala/comedy gig We Are Most Amused, an ITV televised production on 15 November 2008 in celebration of HRH The Prince of Wales’ 60th Birthday. Amos also hosted a 2007 documentary, Penis Envy, for the free UK digital TV channel Virgin1.

Ann Mitchell

Ann Mitchell trained at the pioneering E15 acting school in London. Throughout her acclaimed career she has been a leading member of the groundbreaking Glasgow Citizen’s Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company. She has played the classics and the avant-garde, often performing multiple roles in marathon productions of over 10 hours including the World Premier, in Denver, of Tantalus directed by Sir Peter Hall. The play Summit Conference, in which she played Eva Braun, was written for her by Robert David McDonald and Guinevere, in which she played Guinevere, was written for her by Pam Gems.

Her work on screen from Diary of a Young Man, written for her by Troy Kennedy Martin and John McGrath, directed by Ken Loach, She’s Out (the culmination of the Widows trilogy in which she starred as Dolly Rawlins) written for her by Linda La Plante, to comedy as Miss Twitch in Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, written for her by Jonathan Harvey, and Dolly / herself in French & Saunders has been seen throughout the world.

Nominated for Best Actress in The Olivier and Evening Standard Drama Awards for her performance in Through the Leaves in London’s West End. Winner of the Pye TV Award for Female to Make the Greatest Impact on TV. Nominated for the prestigious writing award the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for Kiss & Kill.

Photo credit: Lisa Linder

Tamara Beckwith

Tamara's career includes writing, presenting and acting. Tamara has written columns for many magazines and newspapers including OK! Magazine, Harpers Bazaar Australia, LA Confidential, Esquire, Sunday Express, Ahlan! Dubai, and contributed to Marie Claire, Tatler, and the Evening Standard. She currently writes for Hello Magazine.

Tamara's radio and television career has included presenting for The Big Breakfast (Ch 4), MTV, VH-1, Exclusive (FIVE) and The Casting Couch (ITV1). She has appeared on numerous TV shows including Dancing On Ice (ITV1), Celebrity Scissorhands (BBC3 + 1), Come Dine With Me (Ch 4), Celeb Detox (FIVE), So You Think You Can Teach (FIVE), Celebrities Under Pressure (ITV1) and I'm Famous and Frightened (Living). Tamara has also been a presenter on Liberty Radio and Talk Radio.

Tamara's acting credits include performing Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues on tour with a number of actresses including Anita Dobson, Mina Anwar, Su Pollard and Josie D'Arby. She played Lady Margaret Marchmont in Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband alongside Prunella Scales, Robert Hardy, James Wilby, and Jonathan Firth; made a cameo appearance in Ardal O'Hanlon's Big Bad World (ITV1); and played the lead opposite Ed Tudor-Pole in the short-film Tunnel of Love, London's first rock n roll love movie. The film was the only British short-film to win entry to the highly prestigious Critics Week at the Cannes Film Festival. Tamara also appeared in the Puff Daddy video Victory with Danny De Vito, Dennis Hopper and Oliver Stone, directed by Marcus Nispel.

Banksy

Banksy is a famous English graffiti artist. There is substantial public uncertainty about his identity and biographical details, but according to Tristan Manco, Banksy "was born in 1974 and raised in Bristol, England. The son of a photocopier engineer, he trained as a butcher but became involved in graffiti during the great Bristol aerosol boom of the late 1980’s.”

Banksy's work was born out of the Bristol underground scene which involved collaborations between artists and musicians. His often satirical artworks are on topics such as politics, culture, and ethics and combine graffiti writing with a distinctive stencilling technique. Banksy's stencils feature striking and humorous images which are occasionally combined with slogans. The message is usually anti-war, anti-capitalist or anti-establishment. Subjects include rats, monkeys, policemen, soldiers, children, and the elderly.

Banksy does not sell photos of street graffiti or mount exhibitions of screenprints in commercial galleries. Art auctioneers have been known to attempt to sell his street art on location and leave the problem of its removal in the hands of the winning bidder. Due to the shroud of secrecy surrounding his real identity and his subversive character; Banksy has achieved a cult following within the stencilling community.

Banksy has carried out a number of stunts, including hanging pieces of his own art in London's Tate Modern, the New York Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and the American Museum of Natural History. In May 2005 Bansky's version of a primitive cave painting depicting a human figure hunting while pushing a shopping cart was found hanging in the British Museum.

His art has appeared in cities around the world. Examples of Banksy’s Street Art in foreign locations include 9 images on the Palestinian side of the Israeli West Bank barrier, including an image of a ladder up and over the wall and an image of children digging a hole through the wall, and in New Orleans on the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

Banksy’s exhibitions include ‘Barely Legal’ in Los Angeles in 2006, where the purchase of his art by celebrities such as Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt led to much media interest. After Christina Aguilera bought an original of Queen Victoria as a lesbian and two prints for £25,000 in 2006 a set of Kate Moss paintings sold in Sotheby's London for £50,400, setting an auction record for Banksy's work at five times their estimated value. His stencil of a green Mona Lisa with real paint dripping from her eyes sold for £57,600 at the same auction. Prices for his art continue to reach soaring prices.

In 2008 Banksy held an exhibition in New York entitled ‘Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill’ and organised a London street art exhibition with fellow street artists including Blek Le Rat called ‘The Cans Festival’. Banksy has published several books that contain photos of his work in international locations. These include Banging your Head Against a Brick Wall, Cut it Out, and Wall and Piece.

Helen Lederer

Helen Lederer is a multi talented professional whose work covers stand up comedy, comedy/drama acting and TV/radio presenting. She is also known for her unique brand of wit and observational humour which are reflected in both her writing and presenting work. She is a prolific comedy writer with a bulging portfolio.

From the early days at the famous Comedy Store in London, to creating the ‘girl at the bar’ in BBCs Naked Video, not to mention becoming Catriona, the ditzy journalist in BBCs Absolutely Fabulous, Helen enjoys the unique position of having starred in most top TV comedy and Radio shows including winning a Sony radio award for in one ear. She has just recorded Galton and Simpson’s comedy for BBC Radio 2 for television, Love Soup and the new Miss Marple.

Treading the boards includes following hot on the heels of Julie Walters in Educating Rita, playing Doreen in Alan Bleasdales’ Having a Ball, and performing in London’s West End The Vagina Monologues in 2002. Helen is about to record her own pilot for BBC Radio 2, currently in development of a sitcom for BBC 2, a comedy novel, and a number of TV and film projects.

She is a sought-after columnist and her work regularly appears in a stream of national press including Woman & Home, EVE, Independent Magazine, Mail on Sunday and Telegraph. She is the new agony aunt for My weekly. Helen’s short stories have been published in the Daily Express, Girl’s Night In (Harper Collins) and Big Night Out (Harper Collins). Helen is in demand for after dinner speaking reflecting on the vagaries of 'show business' as well as conducting a wine workshop "the show off’s guide to wine".

Samantha Bloom

Samantha Bloom is a British actress who trained at Guildhall School of Music and Drama. After a successful run at Edinburgh she is currently touring with her one women show A Cloud in Trousers in which she plays love forelorn poet Vladimir Mayakovsky. She can be seen at the Komedia during the Brighton Festival and at Wilton's Music Hall in July.

Sam has acted in theatre productions and films including Rabbit Fever in 2006, Love and Other Disasters (also in 2006), Cashback (as Mrs Booth in 2006) and Pride & Prejudice (in 2005, playing Rosings Governess).

Bloom’s theatre roles have included The Skin Game, The Kiss of the Spiderwoman, The Comedy of Errors (as the Abbess), Oedipus (as Chorus Leader), Ghetto (as Judith), Miranda, Richard II, The Memory of Water, An Italian Straw Hat, Measure For Measure (as Juliet) and Afore Night Come (as Mrs Trevis). She also appeared in the Roots Manuva music video in 2005.

Nickolas Grace

Nickolas Grace is one of Britain’s most distinguished and versatile actors. Best known for his roles as the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood (ACE award nomination), and Anthony Blanche in Brideshead Revisited (BAFTA nomination), Nickolas’s career spans television, film and theatre.

Numerous film and television credits include Confetti, These Foolish Things, An Ideal Husband, Shooting Fish, Lorca: Death of a Poet, Tom and Viv, Heat and Dust, The Commander III, Shellseekers, Casanova, Daniel Deronda, Midsomer Murders, Merlin and House of Cards.

Nickolas’ theatre work includes the Royal Shakespeare Company 1972–74, 1976-78, Full Circle (National Tour), Amadeus (Her Majesty’s) A Swell Party (Vaudeville), The Guardsman (Albery), Life Support (Aldwych), Candide (Old Vic) - Olivier Award nomination and The Mikado, HMS Pinafore (Sadler’s Wells).

Nickolas trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama.

Yitkin Seow

Born in Singapore, Yitkin Seow was invited at the age of twelve to study at the Menuhin School. At nineteen he embarked on his international career, winning the BBC Piano Competition despite being the youngest contender. His first appearance at the Royal Festival Hall followed with the Philharmonia Orchestra and a televised PROM at the Royal Albert Hall.

In the 1977 Piano Competition in Israel, Arthur Rubinstein hailed his performance of the Brahms Paganini Variations as the “most wonderful” he had ever heard, giving him his own special prize. In 1982 he played at the PROMS with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

In 1988 he toured Russia for the BBC. He has since made recordings of Satie, Schubert’s Trout Quintet and Grieg with the Philharmonia Orchestra.

In 1998 he played Rachmaninov’s Second Concerto with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, and since then he has performed across the world from New York to New Zealand.