The Tutors

The experience goes far beyond the highest of all expectations
A sample selection of the Tutors who contribute their experience & knowledge at London Academy

Sally Gray MBE

Is a multi-talented TV Presenter and writer. Sally earned a nomination from the Royal Television Society, Best Presenter Award. Sally has presented various TV shows including: BBC1's The Holiday Programme, ITV's "Moving Day" , "Our House". CBBC's "50/50", "Record Breakers", "It'll Never Work" "Real Rooms", "Holiday", "The Really Useful Show", "The National Lottery" for BBC and many more TV shows for UK and worldwide distribution.

James Bartholomew

Is a renowned anglo-american photographer whose international eye has produced many international exhibitions and several photo books, including 'The Magic of Kew' 'The City of London' and 'Inside the Tower'. As well as enjoying a successful commercial career spanning 20 years, his view of photography as a holistic life tool motivates him to explore social-psychological aspects of the media through personal stock images, and his interactive workshops such as 'Photo Diary' and 'Self-Image: using the camera as an emotional tool'.

Melinda Lawler

Melinda is Head of Speech and Drama at the Academy. She has ten years experience as an actress/broadcaster in commercial radio, radio drama and voice overs. She was trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama before working in repertory theatre and moving into commercial radio as a presenter.

Her credits include WDR, 2TEN fm, Capital Radio, GLR and Xfm. She also lectures in Music Production and Music Culture at the BCUC University in Buckinghamshire.

Milfid Ellis

Is a freelance Actors Coach and film maker, working with Directors such as Altman ( The Player ) and Peter Greenaway ( The Pillow Book ) Milfid's career working with actors has enabled her to collaborate with actors such as : Bernard Hill, Joely Richardson, Juliet Stephenson, Miranda Richardson, Bruno Ganz, Sir John Gielgud, Helen Mirren, Ralph Fiennes, Ewan Mc Gregor, Sir Michael Gambon, Tim Roth, John Malkovitch, William Dafoe, Eddie Izzard and vinnie Jones and most recently with John Cusack.

Her performance films for the BBC and C4 have won several awards at Berlin and San Sebastian.

Adam Roberts

Adam Roberts has worked in all areas of broadcasting, including as editor, director and producer. He has also worked in programme acquisition and commissioning. He has worked on Panorama and Newsnight, as well as more recently as a producer developing documentaries at Zenith Entertainment.

Adam has also made documentaries, dramas and dance films for both Channel 4, French TV and the BBC. Several of his films have won festival prizes. He is currently experimenting with time-based work for gallery exhibition.

Mike Absalom

Michael Absalom (Abs) is currently a commentator on Eurosport & can be regularly heard hosting Big Toe Radio on BBC7. He is one of the voices for the popular Cartoon Network Channel. He recently appeared onBBC1co-hosting Best of Friends; a popular CBBC show and also appeared on one of the most entertaining episodes of Ready Steady Cook - BBC2

Andi Reiss

Andi Reiss is a film writer, producer and director. Despite a background in English, design and painting, he was drawn to cinema. Rarely distinguishing between the two, he now freelances as a writer/director and producer of drama and documentary. In addition he has directed,shot,edited and produced a number of music promos and commercials.

He is the director of the critically acclaimed refugee feature docu-drama "Cargo" (which he also produced), and the short films "Sleeper" and "Little Angels" amongst others. He is the director/producer of the documentaries " Special Delivery", "Empty Vessels" and "Killer Cure" (which he also produced).

He has worked in many different mediums, and on a variety of formats from 35mm to HDV, and is employed as a cinematographer, editor and cartoonist as well as a writer,director and producer.

Tim Rogg

Tim Rogg is an award winning freelance director and editor. He studied at Bournemouth Film school in 1991-1993. He started out making short films and was represented by British Council for a comedy short film called “In Frank’s Head”.

He was signed with advertising company Sneezing Tree where he made several commercials and has worked with several agencies (including JWT & Mother). Tim has also made many internet virals for MTV, Virgin Media and Sony Ericsson.
He currently works in both television and advertising..

Jonas Hurst

Jonas has been a regular presenter on Five News for a number of years, covering news, showbiz stories, movie reviews, current affairs and conducting studio based interviews. He co-hosted The Five Breakfast Show, a live programme with guests. He can also be seen fronting Thomas Cook TV, both in the studio and on location.

Other credits include; ITV2, ITN Sports News, ITV series In Good Company, Sky news, Eurosport, The Money Channel, London TV and RI:SE for Ch 4. He also has numerous co-operate videos, 'live' events and countless voice-over credits to his name, across many genres and channels(tv and radio).

Brian Deacon

Brian’s film career began when he played Gunner Barton, opposite Glenda Jackson and Oliver Reed in “ The triple Echo”. He then made “ Il Bacio da una Morta” in Italy and took the role of “ Jesus, His life and Times” ( Warner Brothers) shot on location in Israel. In his last film, he played Oswald in Peter Greenaway’s “ A Zed and two Noughts”, co-starring his brother Eric.

Brian’s voice can be heard on numerous TV commercials: The Times, Fiat Punto, Timotei, Yellow Pages and BT to name but a few. He has also voiced numerous characters for Lucas Films Stars Wars games “ Knights of the Empire “

Othello De’Souza-Hartley

Othello De’Souza-Hartley was born in London England. He received a postgraduate in photography from Central St Martins School of Art. He is photographer and Visual Artist. His photography work has appeared in a range of magazines, Trace Magazine, Neo 2, The Guardian, Clam Magazine, and Amica Magazine.

De’Souza-Hartley has received commissions from The National Portrait Gallery, The Photographers’ Gallery, The Victoria and Albert Museum, Camden Arts Centre, Platform Art, Orleans House Gallery and The National Trust.

His work has appeared in three publications:
Colour in Fashion Published by Maomao Publications ISBN 978-981-245-714-1.
New Londoners. PhotoVoice  Published by Trolley ISBN 978-1-904 563-87-7.
Platform for Art. Art on the Underground Edited by Tasmin Dillian Published by Black Dog Publishing  ISBN 978-1906 155 063.
For examples of his work: www.othellodesouzahartley.com

Stuart Bray

Stuart Bray has worked as a freelance prosthetic and makeup effects artist in the film and television industry for fifteen years.

He works in all aspects of makeup effects from design,lifecasting, sculpting, moulding, casting and final application on set. His work can be seen in movies such as Dr Who, Saving Private Ryan, Gladiator, The Mummy and Harry Potter films, Shaun of the Dead, In Bruges and Stardust.

In the last several years he has also taught a number of courses for makeup schools. He is still actively involved in the industry and ensures that the methods and materials used in courses accurately reflect those used in productions today.

Andrew Kuchanny

Andrew Kuchanny is a professional Orange BAFTA short nominated lighting cameraman specialising in digital formats. He has had a varied career; spanning terrestrial broadcast news, high budget corporate video, music promos, broadcast commercials and feature films.Working as Head of Production for Chapters Digital TV, Andrew was responsible for training all production staff, in the work flow and production techniques and focused on the then new Sony XDCAM format, as well as preparing the network into changing over to HDCAM. He later left to take on more production roles as a cinematographer and post-production consultant, specialising in the building, filing structure and workflow of final cut pro suits for production companies.

Andrew was Director of Photography on the Dhallywood feature “Radio Bhai” which was the first feature film to be shot digitally in Bangladesh, and was a national theatrical release. This film has since gone on to wing awards in its home country.

His work has been used by Televisual Magazine, and Sony when discussing the new word of tapless production, and its postproduction workflow. Currently, Andrew splits his time as a freelance Lighting cameraman / DOP, a freelance editor and colourist, and teaching various media production skills, for both in front and behind the camera

Rachel Dinic

is a Celebrity Hair and Make-up artist.
She started her career 15 years ago in Theatre, for the Welsh National Opera, and moved to London, to work for The National Theatre, and numerous shows, including, Sunset Boulevard, Cats, Les Miserable, Mary Poppins, Spamalot, The Sound of Music, Wicked, and was Patrick Swayze, and Don Johnson’s personal Hair and Make-up Artist on Guys and Dolls.

Her Television career began on the Big Breakfast, as Denise Van Outens personal Make-up artist, then she became make-up Designer on the Graham Norton Show where she worked with literally hundreds of Celebrities, including Dustin Hoffman, Heath Ledger, Katie Holmes, Keifer Sutherland, Alec Baldwin, Roseanna Arquette and Cate Blanchett, to name but a few.

Other TV credits include, Bad Girls, Silent Witness, Family Affairs, The Dame Edna Treatment, Russell Brand’s got Issues, Strutter, The Joan Rivers Position and most recently, The Secret Diary of a Call Girl.

Rachel was also a Personal make-up Artist to Roseanne Barr, and Joan Rivers on their London visits.

Nick Hardcastle

As a Presenter, Nick has hosted Planet PolyGram for PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, Watch Your Own Wednesday and The Big Help News for Nickleodeon. Most recently, Nick has presented Creature Features Series 1-5, Kids In The Garden, Nick Gets The Knack, Rollercoaster Videochat and The Young Performer Awards for ABC TV.

Nick has also become the un-official face of ABC Kids, Australias most respected and largest-reaching childrens entertainment brand. Nicks vocals can be heard on the new theme song for Rollercoaster on ABCTV Great Adventure, a song he co-wrote that features as a bonus track on his debut, self titled album released April 10.

Nick is an active supporter of childrens charities including UNICEF, a National Ambassador for Variety and a Youth Ambassador for Life Education Australia. In fact his song, State of Mind has been selected as the Theme song for Life Education and he performs it regularly on his many school visits around the country.

Chris Lycett

Chris Lycett has over 30 years experience working for BBC radio. Chris also spent 10 years as editor and producer for BBC radio 1. In 1984 he was responsible for the Radio 1 broadcast of 'Live Aid' in which he received a Sony Gold Award.

Chris was responsible for developing live music for both BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 2 throughout the 90's. The most notable during Chris’s tenure were Glastonbury, Sound City, Reading, Oasis from Knebworth (another Sony Award), and U2 from Sarajevo - in fact, broadcasting virtually every leading contemporary artist and group.

Chris has risen from BBC sound engineer in the 60's recording the likes of Pink Floyd, David Bowie, Elton John, Rod Stewart to his present day love of Radio. Chris can teach you all you need to know about production and presentation and is a highly respected individual within the media industry.

Chris has worked closely with the BBC and University of Westminster in recent years lecturing and running “White Network” initiatives involving studio,OB and reportage.

Eric Deacon

25 years experience as a professional actor, includes many leading roles in theatre, television and films. For the last 11 years has worked extensively for all the major UK broadcasters as a scriptwriter.

His work includes… Prime Suspect: Granada. BAFTA nominated. Relative Strangers: RTE. IFTA nominated. Statement of Affairs:Carlton. Blind Ambition:YTV. McCadden:RTE. The Bill: Pearson/ITV. The Lodge: YTV. Lovejoy: BBC.

Catalin Brylla

Head of post-production, a freelance editor and filmmaker, Catalin supervises our editing courses and teaches documentary production. His area of expertise is Avid and any technical issue involved in the editing process. However, an aficionado of film theory and aesthetics, he also encourages his students to be self-reflective and proactive in order to achieve the best artistic outcome of their film.

He draws on his vast filmmaking and editing experience in documentaries, fiction, corporate videos and community films. His work was selected and screened at festivals around the world, such as 100% Art (Tel Aviv), Assim Vivemos (Rio de Janeiro) The Other Film Festival (Melbourne), the Hawaii International Film Festival, the Black International Film Festival (London), FESPACO (Burkina Faso) and the Goteborg International Film Festival, and broadcasted on TV Brazil and SVT1 (Sweden).

Ryan Khan

Head of Adobe Digital Video editing, with talents that go beyond the technical process of post production and editing, Ryan’s abilities truly shine through his tutoring. This is because he is able to properly transmit and translate the process of post production and editing and the relation that pre-production has on post. This allows him to unlock the hidden talents of of his students through simplistic explanations of the tools used to create a digital or celluloid master piece.

He also reveals the beautiful complexities of the art through retrospective concepts, ideas and opinions.

Javier Ideami

Javier is a multidisciplinary award winning artist, skilled in different creative areas, from filmmaking to photography passing through music and design. Founder of Ideami Studios, as a photographer he has worked for many european firms and individual clients and has exhibited his works around the world.

Javier combines his expertise in photography with his advanced knowledge of Digital retouching, producing works that blend different creative areas. You can view his portfolio at http://www.ideami.com

Andy Jaye

A presenter and producer for over 11 years, working on a raft of different programs and channels. From CiTV, to international property shows, Record of the Year to Sci-Fi anime reviews, interviewing A list celebrities, hosting the latest sport news, and even interacting with a crazy puppet of Sir Paul McCartney

Andy enjoys a fun and varied career, works with a wide range of production companies and broadcasters including the BBC, ITV, Sky Sports, Shine and Talkback Thames. He also runs his own production company developing formats with BBC Entertainment, Done and Dusted, and Hot Iron Productions.

Natalie Oparah

Natalie Oparah is a Makeup Tutor here at the Academy and is also one of the resident makeup artist providing her makeup expertise to the Film and TV department.
Natalie has always had a passion for fashion and makeup,which then led her to pursue her career as a Professional Makeup and Image Stylist. Her career within the fashion industry has carried her through a variation of interesting and unforgettable projects including a wide variety of TV & Film, catwalk, photographic, fashion shoots and not to mention awesome Weddings making Brides beautiful on thier special day.

Astrid Schulz

Astrid is a freelance media photographer with a specialized field in portraiture for both corporate and conceptual photography. Her experience is backed up by 7 years of design work for film, TV and media. She is also working for editorial and reportage publications such as magazines and books. Many of her projects take her abroad and she developed a descriptive style in documentary photography on urban and environmental issues as well as people and homes.

Astrid is mainly working with a digital SLR camera, which made her an expert in PhotoShop. But she also still uses a medium format film camera on many of her assignments and exhibition projects

Jerry Leer

Jerry is certified as an Apple trainer and Adobe instructor and can deliver post production training across a a wide range of applications from an introduction level all the way up to cross training experienced post production clients.

Staring in audio post production in the 1980's and moving into video and compositing in early 1990's, Jerry has built up a vast knowledge base of post production that is shared thru his training.
As well as delivering training Jerry has been a freelance editor and compositor for over 17 years and works for clients from the BBC to corporate and advertising.

Mike Raycroft

Began his career at ITN as senior cameraman. While at ITN Mike devised many training programmes, winning ITN a national training award. Mike has continued designing and delivering training programmes for new digital start-up stations around the world, including the world’s first digital satellite network in Italy, followed by Asia’s first digital network in Malaysia. Now specialising in his passion for DV cameras and the revolution they have brought to broadcast production, Mike is here to help you backed by a wealth of experience.

Charles Brescia

A veteran production manager and Assistant Director and a member of the Directors Guild of America. Among his many credits are the television series Baywatch, Quantum Leap, Hunter, Murder She Wrote and Cheers. The feature films Midnight Run and Coming to America and over 200 music videos and commercials. Charles was also Supervising Producer at MTV for four years

Maryellen Lamb

Maryellen Lamb is a leading international makeup artist. From Catwalk shows, beauty, advertising and editorial, she has worked with some of the world's top designers, photographers, and brands. She's had extensive experience working at the BBC, Channel 4, and various satellite channels.

Mary Ellen also has considerable teaching experience and likes to encourage new talent and collaborations. She's taught at London College of Fashion, Morley College and London Academy of Media Film and Television.

Tony Wilson

Tony joined BBC Radio as a Studio Manager in 1963. After a few months in Bristol doing local TV news sound effects he moved back to London working on Current Affairs, Drama and Comedy before moving into Music. He began engineering sessions with the likes of Jimi Hendrix, King Crimson, The Moody Blues, Led Zeppelin and countless other names from the late 1960s.

In 1970 he became a producer at Radio 1, where he remained for 25 years producing several award winning programme series with broadcasting legends Tommy Vance and Alan Freeman and continuing on the path of live and session music recording which had started back in the 60’s. Tony was a driving force in the development of recording and editing and computing technology at the BBC ensuring that the in house facilities matched the best commercial recording and radio studios.

In 1997 he was a founding director of digital station TotalRock, filling the roles of Programme Director and Head of Music, posts he still holds today.

Peter Purves

Is one of Britain's most experienced Presenters and Speakers. Everybody knows Peter from his Blue Peter days. He is the legend. More info www.peterpurves.com

Ted Ager

Ted Ager is a veteran scriptwriter, with more than 40 years experience. The bulk of his early work was in television drama (mostly in Australia) where he wrote for many series, and was the originating writer for ‘Matlock Police’ and ‘Sons and Daughters’. He has also script-edited and advised (uncredited) on several feature films, including ‘Picnic at Hanging Rock’.

Later, he formed his own production company (based in Scotland) which specialized in educational and training films. He also co-wrote and taught the Scriptwriting modules for a Film Production HND in Edinburgh.

Since retirement, he has served as a consultant to a number of production companies in the UK and Europe.

Oriona Robb

Oriona Robb is an experienced fashion stylist and a trainer with a portfolio that includes BBC, London Fashion Week, Warner Bros. and the Aston + Hayes. Oriona is a qualified Image Consultant, being registered as an Affiliate of the International Federation of Image Consultants.

Louis De La Foret

An Emmy award winning Television News writer, designated as one of the 100 Best in the business by the "Washington Journalism" review magazine, and won multiple Associated Press Broadcaster's Association awards for documentary work for CNN, ABC, CBS.

Geoff Leesley

30 incredible acting years to steer you in the right direction. credits include: Only Fools and Horses, Little Britain, Coronation Street, The Darling Buds of May, Minder, Hi-de-hi!, The Bill Peak Practice, Harrys Game, Heartbeat, Holby City, Little Britain, Wimbledon and lots more. Get your acting off to a great start in the company of Geoff Leesley.

Anastasia Trahanas

Anastasia is a professional photographer with over 15 years experience of photographic assignments. Her work has included working within the advertising industry for 7 years, and has also worked with the British Red Cross, as well numerous other charities, as well as personal projects in Greece, Australia, India and the Amazon.

Anastasia has shown her work world wide and is at present preparing yet another project entitled Naked Exposure-Naked Britain, which again will be exhibited. She is very knowledgeable in both film and digital photography, and also has a great interest in Visual Anthropology whilst doing her MA in London.

Michael White

Is a passionate and talented Photographer. Michael has been based in London for 10 years and has had a successful professional career covering many areas of commercial, editorial and advertising photography working on significant campaigns for Asda, Sofitel, Harrods and Jaguar.

In his career he has worked with and alongside big named photographers such as Tim Walker and Ken Niven to name a few. His work has taken him all over the world from Italy, Spain and Morocco to Cape Town, South Africa.

He is currently dedicating his time to personal projects consisting of fashion and portraiture and teaching at the academy. However, there are not many areas of photography that Michael hasn’t covered in his career, giving any student who wishes to take his course with the academy a great opportunity to learn broad aspects within photography.

Sital Patel

Sital's interest in makeup stemmed from a young age and worked in the cosmetic industry as early as 1998.She qualified professionally in 2005 and has been working actively as an International Makeup Artist since then.

She is also an experienced teacher in TV & Film, Photography and Bridal Make up. Her wide breadth of experience includes Editorial (Harper’s Bazaar (India), Bombay Times, Star Magazine, Daily Express, She and Filter Magazine), Musics videos (Hoosiers), Commercials (Sony Blu-ray, Heinz, Warburton Bread, Natural Collections) and working with a variety of international photographers.

Clients include Channel 4, Virgin Trains, Tesco and Marks and Spencer. Sital is also experienced in providing make up for a number of fashion shows including work for London Fashion Week, Lakme Fashion Week and HDIL Couture Week.