Director Alison Rashley talks us through Television Workshop's best known actors

Aisling Loftus
"I can remember her first audition. She would have been eight or nine and she made me laugh until I hurt. There's just something unique about her. Anyone that saw her in the one-woman play Girls and Boys at the Playhouse last year will know she’s a tour de force."

Best known for: ITV's Mr Selfridge (2013-2016), hit horror film Homebound (2021), and BBC's Nottingham-set Sherwood (2022).

Amos Kitson
"Amos is a current workshopper who is going to be in the new series of Harry Potter as Dudley Dursley. Both he and his parents are a delight. He’s going to get a lot of attention later this year but he’s got to enjoy the ride, take it in his stride, go back to school and stay normal."

Best known for: the Harry Potter series (2026).

Bella Ramsey
Gosh. How do you define Bella? Bella wanted to do the Notts County play but then got offered the chance to go into the castle to do The Traitors. Bella is so grounded and down to earth and wants to be an actor, but doesn’t want to be famous. Those are my favourite type of students. 

Best known for: Game of Thrones (2016-2019), The Worst Witch (2017-2020), and The Last of Us (2023-). 

Chanel Cresswell
If you're in a room with Chanel, you'll know about it. She’s really self-deprecating, yet gives these phenomenal performances. She’s so heartfelt and so funny. Not that many women on screen are comfortable being funny. But Chanel will always make you laugh. 

Best known for: This Is England (2006-2016), Vardy v Rooney (2022), and The Gentlemen (2024).  

Erin Kellyman
"Erin was a student at the Workshop in the ten years when I wasn't there. So other than knowing the fantastic work she does and feeling very proud that it was rooted with us, I have to admit I don't know an awful lot about her. Other than how devastatingly beautiful she is."

Best known for: Channel 4 sitcom Raised by Wolves (2015-2016), Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021), Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), and the BBC adaptation of Les Miserables (2018). 

Felicity Jones
"Felicity was from the Birmingham Workshop, when we had an outpost there in the 90s to 00s, while I was an assistant. She’s phenomenally talented and does beautiful, detailed work. And again, she’s just a really decent human being."

Best known for: The Theory of Everything (2014), Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) and The Brutalist (2024).   
 

Jack O'Connell
"Jack is an enigma. I taught him, which was never easy but was always thoroughly entertaining. He never did as he was told, but there was a magic about him that you could hardly tame. It's no surprise he's gone on to do all the wonderful stuff he's done. He’s incredible."

Best known for: Skins (2009–2010, 2013), Lady Chatterley's Lover (2022), Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black (2024) Sinners (2025), and 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026).

Jake Dunn
"Jake played the lead in a play I did in 2018. He works really hard and turned up to that first rehearsal knowing every word of a huge monologue. I saw him play Kurt Cobain last year in the modern opera Last Days and he was phenomenal. The pain he conveyed without speaking!"

Best known for: Disney+ series Renegade Nell (2024), and What It Feels Like for a Girl (2025).

Joe Dempsie
"I burst with pride when I watch him on screen. He's very quiet and unassuming and I don't think you'd ever pick him out and say he's going to be a star. But give him a script and he gives you everything, right from his gut. He's got no other way of doing it."

Best known for: Skins (2007–2008), Game of Thrones (2011-2019), This is England '86 (2010) and This is England '90 (2015).

Michael Socha
"Have you seen him in The Cage? What a phenomenal performance. It was an award-winning performance. What Michael can tell you with no words, just with his eyes is incredible. He’s probably got the most expressive eyebrows in the business."

Best known for: This Is England '86, '88, and '90, Being Human (2011-2013), The Gallows Pole (2023), What It Feels Like For A Girls (2025)

Pete Dalton (aka MistaJam)
"He was a really good actor, but his life was always all about music. It’s lovely to see him succeed in a different creative industry. He DJed at a lot of Workshoppers birthdays and there are lots of ex-Workshoppers, all now in their forties, who had him play at their 18th birthdays."

Best known for: shows on both BBC Radio 1 and Capital.

Perry Fitzpatrick
"Like many of our students he has a unique Midlands self-depreciating sense of humour. But then he can do Shakespeare or a role like he does in Sherwood with such detail. He's one of the great brooders on screen. He’s tremendous fun in the bar too."

Best known for: This is England '86, '90, Line of Duty (2012 – 2021), Man Like Mobeen (2016 - 2025) and (Sherwood (2022-).

Samantha Morton
"I'm not quite old enough to have taught Sam, but her connection with Workshop still goes on. I could talk for hours about her talent, but what I'd like people to know is how she always supports us. She’s a patron and I think she's mentioned us in every awards speech she’s ever done."

Best known for: Minority Report (2002), The Unloved (2009). Harlots (2017-2019), and The Burning Girls (2023).

Toby Kebbell
"Toby played Romeo when I did Romeo and Juliet. He had a strange route to Workshop, he came to us late and taught us that we needed to let over-16s audition. He's gone on to do stratospheric things like Fantastic Four and Planet of the Apes. He made a cracking Romeo."

Best known for: Dead Man's Shoes (2004), Fantastic Four (2015), RocknRolla (2008), Black Mirror (2011) and Ben-Hur (2016).

Tom Blyth
"Tom wasn’t my era and I never worked with him, but he will often send in messages and comment on our social media. He’s attending big ceremonies these days, but it’s wonderful that he still does that. It's just so heart-warming and it's what makes Workshop so magical."

Best known for: The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023), Plainclothes (2025), and People We Meet on Vacation (2026).

Vicky McClure
"She is the Queen of Nottingham and gives more to various causes in this city than anybody needs to. I taught her as a teenager, directed her in various plays and I was so happy she became a patron when I first took over because Vicky is the epitome of Workshop."

Best known for: A Room for Romeo Brass (1999), This is England '86, '88, '90, The Replacement (2017), and Line of Duty (2011-2021).

Click here to read our interview with Television Workshop Director Alison Rashley, talking about her time at the Workshop and their new play I Had A Wheelbarrow, which is showing at The Nest on 15-16 June.

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