Tom trained at East 15 Acting School and worked professionally as an actor before studying screenwriting and developing film-directing and producing skills in Oxford. For the past decade, Tom has specialised in leading film, drama and public speaking workshops that inspire confident communication in young people as well as producing videos and short films. Tom has lead workshops for students in the UK, France, Zimbabwe and China to name a few. He is known for creating playful, inspired and open environments that allow students to take risks and make breakthroughs.
Al is a trainer, performance poet and recovering lawyer. He brings humour and a passion for learning to his training sessions, and a belief that learners learn most effectively from within themselves and from each other.
Pete comes from a background in business, where he works with individuals and groups to help them achieve their potential. He’s believes passionately in the importance and benefits of excellent spoken communication. He loves seeing students have break-through moments as they grow in their ability to put themselves across with clarity, confidence and impact. He brings energy and enthusiasm to all workshops he delivers and hopes to be a role-model to everyone he works with.
Alison comes from a background of business, marketing and the travel industry. She loves the journey that the students make during the day, especially the less confident ones that find they can do it. She likes to focus on the life skills that this day gives them in the hope that when it comes to being interviewed in the future they will remember the training and pull on those resources.
Emma has worked in Education for over 20 years. As a secondary English Teacher and key stage coordinator, she has led public speaking and debating initiatives in a number of secondary schools in her area. She firmly believes that oracy plays a central role in both personal and educational development. Emma loves seeing the progress students can make when they start to overcome their fears about speaking up and begin to find an inner confidence. She finds it a privilege to be a part of that journey.
Krista has worked in Education for 20 years, most recently as a Senior Lecturer in TESOL. She now runs her own business supporting students’ academic and professional development and is particularly passionate about oracy at secondary and HE levels. As a trainer with Talk The Talk, she has the wonderful opportunity of helping young people find and use their voices to communicate confidently their knowledge, beliefs, values and life stories. It’s always a privilege for Krista to be part of what is, for many students, a transformative process.
After graduating with a degree in Russian, Clare spent a short spell planning publicity campaigns for the Welsh government before landing an unpaid work placement at the BBC. She ended up staying at the BBC for 13 years, producing live programmes for Radio Wales, Radio 4 and the World Service. Clare believes passionately in state education and is determined that children shouldn't lose out to their private school peers because of a lack of opportunity or self belief.
Claudette has been a Facilitator of Learning for over 20 years. For the last 6 years, she has been working in education alongside delivering development skills in the business world to adults. She is passionate about people being the best version of themselves and appreciates the importance effective communication skills play in our everyday lives.
She loves the opportunity to use her energy and enthusiasm to create a space for internal breakthrough moments to happen for the students and considers it a privilege to see this growth happen.
Simon was once terrified of speaking but now loves to help others overcome their fear and find their voice. He spent over 10 years in secondary education before starting his own communications and presentation coaching consultancy. Simon has won numerous UK public speaking awards from Toastmasters International, The Professional Speaking Association and holds Grade 8 Speaking in Public with Distinction from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA). He is passionate about helping to create the next generation of confident leaders and communicators.
Jolene has worked in secondary education for almost 18 years, 14 of which she spent as an English teacher. Most recently, she worked within SEND, safeguarding and pastoral management roles to holistically assist students with both their learning and wellbeing.
She believes that confident oracy skills can help young people make the most of their lives, no matter their learning style, qualifications or background. She considers being able to formally verbalise their opinions, wants and needs, to be the driving force to help give students equal opportunities and build self-esteem.
Michael is an experienced teacher and passionate Oracy advocate. He was a teacher for over 12 years, working in private and state schools in Lincolnshire, Manchester and Yorkshire. He has spent the last five years as an Oracy specialist delivering high impact interventions that he believes make a real difference to students’ lives in and beyond the classroom. Outside of education, he challenges himself with property development and the most challenging role of all – being a Dad!
Having trained well over 30,000 people, Jonathan is a confident professional trainer specialising in helping people develop and enhance their verbal and non-verbal communication and public speaking skills mainly within education and business sectors. His passions range from Health & Fitness, transformation change using NLP to the future of a digital world using crypto currency. His goal is to empower audiences all over the country to become more engaged, more confident and more resilient in order to meet their own individual needs. When he isn't travelling and training, Jonathan lives and relaxes with his beautiful family in sunny Essex.
Rowena joined Talk the Talk in 2019 and is thoroughly enjoying visiting schools across the country. She prides herself on building a strong rapport with students to support them in stepping out of their comfort zones, surprising themselves and often their teachers.
Adam trained at RADA. He has been acting in leading roles extensively for various regional, touring and Theatre in Education companies across the UK, Ireland, France and Croatia. Speaking & listening skills have been (and continue to be) the key to his own personal success and as a trainer for Talk the Talk it is wonderful to have the opportunity to encourage students to experience for themselves just how vital communicating confidently can be.
Alastair has worked in the sales and travel industry, as well as his current career of acting and TV presenting. Over the years he’s been developing his speaking and communication skills whether it be from the stage or in front of the camera, and he’s passionate helping others to be more effective speakers.
Over the last 20+ years, Rob has worked in a variety of young people centred organisations, from mentor to consultant. His natural ability to engage with people of all ages, especially young people, led him to pursue a lengthy career in Youth Justice. During this time, he has used his humour and engagement skills to train and direct young people and professionals working within the industry. Rob is passionate about supporting young people identifying their ‘WHY’ and navigate the road map that leads to successful and achievable life outcomes.
Anna has worked with young adults for over 20 years in both sports coaching and as a science teacher.
She loves enabling different groups of students to achieve growth in confidence and self belief.
Along side delivering workshops for Talk the Talk, Anna coaches Cheerleading and gymnastics and travels internationally to coach, compete and judge.
Kayleigh trained as an actor at East 15 Acting school and has spent the last decade working as a theatre director and youth facilitator. She believes wholeheartedly in social mobility, in theatre as a public service and in using drama, oracy and communication skills to expand our expectations of art, society and and ultimately ourselves. Born and raised in Essex, she moved to the North nearly 10 years ago after having lived in Japan, London and New Zealand.
Gemma has worked in education for over 10 years as an English teacher, trainer and coach. She has a passion for supporting young people to thrive and realise their potential. She believes in the power of understanding that your opinions have value and the impact of being able to communicate them clearly. Gemma loves working with young people and considers it a privilege to see the transformation as students overcome their fears, grow in confidence and develop in their oracy skills.
Ffion has a masters degree in acting and trained at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. She utilises her extensive experience in the performing arts, twenty years, throughout her work with young people. When she's not facilitating or on stage, she uses her skills in oracy to work with medical professionals to help improve their patient-communication. Ffion is a passionate and strong advocate for the power, freedom and agency that the confidence to speak in public can bring to young people.
Laura is a graduate of RCSSD and Goldsmiths College London. She is a professional actor and education facilitator. For the past two decades Laura has specialised in using theatre as a tool to engage a whole variety of communities (including mainstream education, criminal justice settings, marginalised adult communities and medical students). Laura has led workshops with young people all over the country and is known to create inspiring yet nurturing environments where students can find their voice and feel empowered to fulfil their dreams
A registered teacher of Performing Arts, Liza has been involved with training Public Speaking and oracy throughout her career. A professional choreographer and fellow of the ISTD. she also trains Dance students to Advanced 2 level. Liza is on the board of LAMDA examiners.
Lisa is an experienced Actor, Theatre Maker and Educator with over 25 years professional experience. Amongst numerous exciting work adventures, she has: established three theatre companies; lived and worked across two continents and jumped out of a plane once! Developing young people's confidence, resilience and encouraging respect and kindness is at the heart of Lisa's creative practice and she is thoroughly enjoying being part of the Talk The Talk team.
Sophie’s first career was in business. She spent 3 years working as a buyer in Paris, before transferring back to the UK spending 5 years as a Product Manager for a multi-national distributor. Sophie then moved into charity work encouraging children to develop a love of reading. In 2007 she took on the role of Chair of Shrewsbury Children’s Bookfest & since 2010 has been running the Book Award for Shropshire primary schools. Inspired by the Book Award she explored options to link this with an opportunity to develop pupils’ confidence when speaking up.
Max has been working in education and special needs for the past sixteen years. Alongside Talk The Talk, he runs his own online EFL teaching business and has worked in five different countries. An ability to develop rapport with students helps Max in his passion, helping young people realise their potential and gain in confidence.
Abi has been working as an actor for over 25 years and also runs her own theatre company Bespoken Theatre. She has worked in the worlds of theatre, TV, film, voiceover, teaching, storytelling, workshop facilitation and live interpretation where she can be found in a wide variety of museums playing various historical characters. It's safe to say that in her daily work she does a lot of talking! But it was not always this way as when younger Abi was very shy. Her experiences have made her feel passionate about helping others to feel more confident and to find their own voices.
Joe is a stand-up comedian, actor, writer and presenter. His TV career started in 2001 writing put-downs for Anne Robinson on "The Weakest Link". He has hosted 2 UK tours of "Brainiac Live" which culminated at the Hammersmith Apollo after appearing in all six series of the award-winning hit Sky 1 show "Brainiac: Science Abuse."Joe has worked in business and education delivering workshops in a number of motivation, mindset and memory techniques. He is passionate about helping young people reach their full potential and find their voice by equipping them with the necessary skills to have the confidence to speak up for themselves.
As a passionate linguist and 12 years’ experience teaching Spanish and German in secondary schools in Derbyshire, Jo understands the importance of communication and oracy skills and the role they play in everyday life. Leading visits and exchanges abroad were her favourite part of this role, where Jo saw many of her students blossom and excel in both their listening and communication skills, not only in their first language, but also in an additional foreign language.
In her current role working within Higher Education, she is fortunate enough to work within widening participation; helping students who may traditionally face more barriers when progressing to higher education when compared to their peers; something in which she strongly believes.
Dave has performed comedy all over the country with the likes of Peter Kay, Lee Evans and Rich Hall. Transferring his writing skills into print, he also wrote for numerous magazines as a columnist, and for the Sunday Times as a travel writer. He appeared on TV shows and as a columnist on Radio 4’s Home Truths with John Peel. Dave has now visited over 600 schools, running creative writing and public speaking workshops, helping young people overcome the fear of expressing themselves. He realises the enormous part self-esteem and confidence play in enabling young people to fulfill their potential, both professionally and socially.
Felicity has worked in secondary education for 16 years. She began her career as a teacher of Business studies before moving into senior leadership and spending 4 years as a Headteacher. She is now a Director in her own events business. In order for young people to succeed in life, Felicity believes passionately in ensuring that all children have access to good education and that as well as the academic curriculum, they should be exposed to a wide range of careers education opportunities including the development of their communication skills. In her experience, even the most academic students can be held back by a lack of confidence and the knowledge and skills to communicate effectively.
Gregory A. Smith trained through Lee Strasberg Method in Los Angeles, California. He has worked predominantly in theatre for the past twenty years including several Shakespeare plays. Gregory has acted in feature films, television, and short films. He has toured in the United States, France, Germnay and across the U.K and so understands the importance of communication skills, speaking French and Italian fluently. Previously a drama and comedy tutor with Pauline Quirke Academy, Gregory is also a faciliatator of historical workshops in the U.K, and with drama workshops in France. Gregory also writes novels, poetry a play so far, and paints in oils and pastels.
A qualified CIPD training professional with a passion for the arts, Sarah draws on her background in theatre, and 25 years of business experience to develop high impact training and audience engagement.
Her passion for social marketing underpins many creative ventures. Projects have ranged from multi-media performances to promote sustainability in business to designing and leading anti-bullying roadshows.
Sarah works with young people and adults to create non-judgemental environments, where everybody feels comfortable to contribute and has fun learning. She is adept at working with all abilities and SEND, both in mainstream schools and alternative provision.
Nicola began her career in marketing; spending 6 years developing the brands of household names. After taking a sabbatical to travel and volunteer overseas, Nicola was inspired to move into education and start working with young people. Having spent over 12 years in the classroom Nicola is passionate about giving every student a voice. She particularly enjoys helping the quietest, least confident student develop over the course of a Talk The Talk workshop.
Ash has a degree in sports studies and understands the power of having excellent communication skills. Although these skills were developed through sport they have since been transferred to the classroom. Having worked in education and third sector for the last 13 years as a primary teacher, a project leader for a social mobility charity and most recently as a careers advisor. Ash is a social mobility advocate driven by seeing and supporting young people to achieve their aspirations. He feels passionately that students should be encouraged to realise the power of their voices. Enabling students to have the confidence to communicate and be heard is a huge motivator for him for working with Talk The Talk.
Frankie is an actor and writer with a background in stand-up comedy, improvisation & filmmaking. She is currently developing a solo show in her hometown of Swansea. She has many years’ experience teaching students in primary, secondary and higher education and as a workshop facilitator, delivering various programmes to students across the UK. Frankie loves working with young people, bringing her energy, enthusiasm and sense of humour to every workshop. Her mission is to inspire and empower young people to build their confidence and to reach their fullest potential
The first 25 years of Lesley’s career was in the music industry. However whilst bringing up her 3 daughters she discovered a passion for education!
Nearly 15 years later, Lesley brings her experience as a Special Needs Assistant, Learning Mentor, English teacher and Year 7 Transition Coordinator to delivery of the Talk The Talk workshops.
Working with young people continues to be the single most rewarding thing I’ve done in my 40 year career to date. Being part of their individual journeys during the workshops – and witnessing those “lightbulb” moments - is just priceless.
