Victoria Hogg

Vic is an improv teacher, player and business coach. She uses her Applied Theatre MA (Goldsmiths) in her day-to-day career and has studied under Keith Johnstone, at Second City, UCB and iO, and with many other international schools and teachers. She plays in various teams, is an AIN Certified Practitioner, a GPB Co-Founder and Brigadier, and coaches in a variety of settings from global businesses to local theatres. As a facilitator of our Kids & Teens Improv Clubs, Vic draws on her extensive experience of teaching improv in schools and training child actors. Vic has embraced online facilitation via The Offer Bank and currently runs her popular free weekly jam, DDG Improv (in its seventh year) on Zoom.

Jonah Fazel

Jonah is an experienced theatre maker and comedian and has appeared at in the West End as well as being a veteran of the London Fringe and Edinburgh festivals.

He has created work at The Battersea Arts Centre, Royal Court and The National as well as many site-specific venues and toured the UK as a performer, director and workshop leader and currently teaches Improvisation at The Nursery, where he also produces community events like our weekly Jam and the Garden Party.

Jonah trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and the Webber Douglas Academy. He has studied clowning under Philippe Gaulier, stand-up comedy under Logan Murray and improvisation under Keith Johnstone.

Rebecca MacMillan

Rebecca is one of The Maydays’ founding members and taught the very first Maydays beginners course. She has trained at iO Chicago. As well as the Maydays she performs with Impromptu Shakespeare & The Improvised Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and in the past has graced the stage with Mothers Uncorked, BiteSize, The Treason Show, Voodoo Vaudeville & Fluxx. Combining improv with her degree in Latin & Ancient History, she worked for 6 years as a historical interpreter (improvising in costume as characters from history) with leading interpretation company Past Pleasures. Now based in Gloucestershire she coaches several teams and teaches courses and workshops in the South West and Midlands.

As a Maydays improv facilitator, Rebecca holds a QA Level 3 Award in Emergency First Aid at Work (RQF).

Chris Mead

Chris’ first exposure to improv was at the Edinburgh Festival when he stumbled across Baby Wants Candy: The Improvised Musical by sheer coincidence. What he saw that night was so monumental it seared itself onto his brain. After years of stumbling through scripts and following someone else’s directions it became very clear that improv was his mothership. Luckily, Baby Wants Candy had forgotten to bring anyone to tear tickets for them. Chris seized the job and promptly watched every one of their performances for a whole glorious month. Travelling back to London, Chris immediately started looking for a local improv scene, but failed miserably. This was either because they were hiding from him, or because the internet was less sophisticated back then, comprising solely of US military infrastructure and Hamster Dance. Nearly a decade later, Chris was surprised to find a massive, thriving improv community had silently grown up around him, like ninja plants. From that moment on he threw himself into training like a man possessed. Chris has studied with Second City, The Annoyance and iO in Chicago, as well as teachers from Baby Wants Candy, Dummy, Crunchy Frog, Hoopla Impro, Free Association, Monkeytoast, UCB, Bad Dog and The Hideout Theatre.

He has performed as part of a regular team with The Ministry, 8-Bit, Music Box, Curt Hatred, Silly String Theory, The Cartel, Destination and Project 2 as well as making guest appearances with Grand Theft Impro, Hoopla, Baby Wants Candy, The RH Experience, At Home with Katy & Tony, The London and Liverpool Improvathons, Dad’s Garage and The Maydays.

Away from improv, Chris co-writes, performs and produces cult Doctor Who comedy podcast The Ood Cast, which somehow attracts thousands of listeners worldwide.

Currently Chris is also The Nursery’s Interim Artistic Director.

Jessica Mitolo

Originally from Youngstown, Ohio, Jessica Mitolo received her degree in Acting and Directing from Bowling Green State University. Since moving to Chicago, Jessica has studied, performed and directed at various schools and venues throughout the city. Her directing credits include Nostalgia Sucks: But It Used To Be Awesome!, Second Day Party Hair and Forty Winks. Jessica is proud to have worked as Assistant to the Director on Second City Mainstage production, South Side of Heaven. Jessica is also The Nursery’s Education Manager.

Jules Munns

After seeing Lifegame at the National Theatre in 2001, Jules Munns waited over five years before starting to improvise during his acting training at the Guildhall School. After graduating, he co-founded The Nursery in 2009 and was its Artistic Director until May 2020. He has performed with Music Box (5* FringeGuru and Remote Goat) and Friendly Fire before joining the Maydays in 2012. He is the director of Impromptu Shakespeare (5* Broadway Baby and Playstosee), which he also performs in and is one half of improv duos Ten Thousand Million Love Stories and Sitting in a Tin Can.

He has performed and taught at festivals across the UK and in countries including the US, Pakistan, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Finland. At the Nursery, Jules has directed ‘Magicked – the improvised Harry Potter’ and ‘Happy in their own Way’, as well as house teams Parkin and Dinner from Scratch. He has also taught applied improv at companies from Google to Unilever.

Jon Nguyen

Jon Nguyen is an improviser based in Norwich, UK, he believes that fun, connectivity and inclusion should be present in all improv.

He plays with Unbridled – A Nursery Original, The Dogface Allstars, Michelle – A Hoopla House Team, Wretched Hive Comedy, The Comediasians and The Improvised Play. He has appeared at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and taken part in online improv festivals, including Improv Comedy Bangalore.

Jon had training with Dogface, The Nursery, Hoopla, Dummy, The Maydays, Showstoppers as well as a myriad of international teachers from across the globe.

Jon loves improv and tries all variations from shortform, various formats, narrative, musical and any other style offered. He has fully embraced online improv and plays with people around the globe. Jon is a self-professed nerd and borrows techniques from Stanislavski, Brecht and Artaud among others to infuse theatricality into his improv.

Francesca Reid

Francesca is a facilitator for our Kids and Teens Improv courses. Francesca has worked creatively & therapeutically with the arts & young people for over 18 years. As a graduate of East 15 Acting school’s Acting with Community Theatre BA, she has run youth theatre sessions, holiday activities schemes & been the lead on longer term projects. These projects have been with S.E.N, Y.O.T’s/P.R.U & refugee groups to name but a few. She is a multidisciplinary artist using forms including improv, comedy, clowning & singing in her practice.

Dan Ryan

Dan is a London-based improviser and coach, and currently plays in Nursery house team Parkin, and in Soundcheck, the show of amusing musical musings. After doing his first improv show in Slovenia in the late nineties, he co-founded Barcelona Improv Group in 2011, before joining Ripcord, London’s first freeform team, in 2014. His biggest passion is organic freeform as developed by Kevin Scott and ImprovBoston under Will Luera.

He has trained with the FA, the Nursery, C3 and Hoopla in London, and worked with instructors from American theatres such as UCB, Second City, iO and Annoyance, and European groups such as L’Oignon. He loves fearlessness and theatricality, and believes in the power of practice, practice, practice.

Heather Urquhart

Heather trained in Physical Theatre and then studied improvisation at Chicago’s I.O and Annoyance theatres. She improvises with the Olivier award winning Showstopper! The Improvised Musical and is a director and performer with The Maydays and former interim Artistic Director at The Nursery. Her duo improv show ‘Ten Thousand Million Love Stories’ has toured extensively around the US, Europe & most recently to Malawi. She has also co-written a book on the subject of musical improvisation called ‘Sing it!’

Over the last 3 years Heather was the representative of the UK in the EU funded Our Lives project, an international theatre project that brought together actors from all 28 countries of the European Union combining improvised theatre with the biographies and experiences of the actors.

Heather was winner of the award for best female performer in the Brighton Fringe & winner of the Argus Angel Award for artistic excellence.