Cast & Creative

J.K. ROWLING is the author of the enduringly popular, era-defining Harry Potter book series, as well as several stand-alone novels and a crime fiction series written under the pen name Robert Galbraith.

The seven Harry Potter books were made into eight smash hit movies, and have now sold over 600 million copies worldwide and been translated into 80 languages. One of the series’ companion volumes written by J.K. Rowling for charity, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, was the inspiration for a new film series, begun in 2016, with screenplays written or co-written by Rowling, the latest of which was released in 2022.

In 2020, she returned to publishing for younger children with her fairy tale The Ickabog, which was serialised for free online during the Covid-19 pandemic. Her most recent children’s novel The Christmas Pig was published in 2021.

Theatre: Hope, Let the Right One In (directed by John Tiffany); A Christmas Carol, Woyzeck (The Old Vic); Junkyard (a Headlong Theatre, Rose Theatre Kingston, Bristol Old Vic and Theatr Clwyd co-production); The Solid Life of Sugar Water (Graeae Theatre Company, National Theatre); Bunny (Nabokov, U.K. tour); Stacy (Tron Theatre, Arcola Theatre, Trafalgar Studios); and 2nd May 1997, When You Cure Me (Bush Theatre). Adaptations: The Physicists (Donmar Warehouse) and Stuart: A Life Backwards (HighTide Theatre). Film: Wonder, War Book, A Long Way Down and The Scouting Book for Boys. Television: Kiri, Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams, The Last Panthers, Don’t Take My Baby, This Is England, The Fades, Glue, Cast Offs and National Treasure. 2018: Tony® Award for Best Play (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child). 2017: Olivier Award for Best New Play (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child): BAFTA and RTS Television Award for Best Mini-Series (National Treasure). 2016: BAFTAs for Best Mini-Series (This Is England ’90) and Best Single Drama (Don’t Take My Baby). 2012: BAFTAs for Best Drama Series (The Fades) and Best Mini-Series (This Is England ’88).

John Tiffany’s recent credits include Pinocchio at National Theatre and Road at Royal Court. He directed Once on Broadway for which he won a Tony® Award for Best Direction of a Musical. As associate director of Royal Court his credits also include The Twits, Hope, and The Pass. As associate director of National Theatre of Scotland his credits include Let the Right One In, Macbeth, Enquire, The Missing, Peter Pan, The Bacchae, Elizabeth Gordon Quinn, Home: Glasgow, and Black Watch for which he won the Oliver Award for Best Director. Other recent credits include The Glass Menagerie (A.R.T., Broadway, EIF, and West End) and The Ambassador (BAM). Tiffany was a Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard University in the 2010-11 academic year. For his work on Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, John received the Olivier Award for Best Director, one of a record-breaking nine Oliviers received by the production as well as the Tony® Award for Best Director.

He/him. Recent credits as movement director/choreographer include Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Broadway, West End, international); Angels in America (Broadway); The Crucible (Broadway); The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Royal National Theatre, West End, Broadway); The Last Ship (Broadway); Let the Right One In (National Theatre Scotland, St Anne’s Warehouse); Rocky (Broadway); The Glass Menagerie (A.R.T., Broadway, EIF); Once (A.R.T., Broadway, West End); Peter and the Starcatcher (Broadway); American Idiot (Broadway); Ocean at the End of the Lane and The Light Princess (National Theatre); St. Joan (The Public); and as associate director/movement: Black Watch (National Theatre Scotland, St. Anne’s Warehouse). As director, recent credits include Social! Distance Dance Club (Park Ave Armory) and Close To You: Bacharach Reimagined (New York Theatre Workshop, West End). Hoggett was a director and founding member of Frantic Assembly Theatre Company, and with Scott Graham co-wrote The Frantic Assembly Book of Devising Theatre (Routledge). Credits as director/choreographer include Little Dogs, Lovesong, Beautiful Burnout and Othello.

Christine Jones is a Tony® and Olivier Award–winning set designer for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and received a Tony® Award for American Idiot. She is also the creator and artistic director of the critically acclaimed Theatre For One and a director of one-of-a-kind experiences for companies like Rag & Bone and productions such as Queen of the Night (Drama Desk Award for Best Unique Experience). During the pandemic, she conceived and co-directed SOCIAL! the social distance dance club with Steven Hoggett and David Byrne (Park Avenue Armory) and was a curator of Radiohead’s digital art exhibition Kid A Mnesia.

Recent costume designs include The Lehman Trilogy for the National Theatre, in the West End and on Broadway; American Psycho at Almeida Theatre and Broadway (Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk nominations for Best Costume Design); Hamlet starring Benedict Cumberbatch at the Barbican/NT Live. As set and costume designer, most recently at National Theatre, Hex, Small Island, Three Sisters, Mosquitoes, Behind the Beautiful Forevers and London Road; plus production designer on the film of London Road, Cuba Pictures. Costume designs for opera, including Terry Gilliam’s Damnation of Faust and Benvenuto Cellini for the ENO and around the world. Katrina won the 2008 Tony® Award, Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk awards for Outstanding Costume for Les Liaisons Dangereuses on Broadway. And the 2017 Olivier Award and 2018 Tony® Award for Best Costume Design for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Recipient of an Arts Foundation Fellowship in Costume Design. Katrina is an associate of National Theatre, London.

Self-produced British recording artist for 20 years, Imogen Heap has released four solo albums, another as one half of Frou Frou and collaborated with countless and varied artists including Taylor Swift, Deadmau5, Nitin Sawhney, Jeff Beck and Jon Hopkins. Her compositions and songs pop up in blockbuster and indie films as well as countless TV shows, are sampled to the hilt with underground rap and dance music and feature in one of the first ever internet memes, ‘Dear Sister.’ Heap was nominated for an Olivier for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, has won two Grammys, an Ivor Novello and is recognised as a major pioneer in music and technology for her gestural music ware, the MiMu gloves system. She is also recognized for ways in which she interacts and works with her audience. Heap’s latest and widely quoted-about initiative, Mycelia, focuses on connecting the dots for a fair and sustainable music industry ecosystem.

Neil Austin (he/him) has designed lighting for plays, musicals, opera and dance internationally. He was the recipient of the Tony® Award in 2019 for Ink; the Tony®, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards in 2018 for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Lyric Theatre); the Tony® Award and Drama Desk Award in 2010 for Red (Golden Theatre); and the Olivier Award in 2017 for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Palace Theatre) and The White Guard (National Theatre) in 2011. His Broadway credits include Company, Ink, Travesties, Hughie, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Evita, Red, Hamlet, The Seafarer and Frost/Nixon. Other work in the U.S. includes Macbeth (Park Avenue Armory); Julius Caesar (St. Ann’s Warehouse); The Night Alive (Atlantic Theater Company); The Sunshine Boys (Ahmanson Theatre); and Red, Parade (Mark Taper Forum). Recent work in the West End includes Frozen (Theatre Royal Drury Lane); Leopoldstadt (Wyndhams); The Night of the Iguana, Rosmersholm, Ink, Labour of Love, Woyzeck, The Goat, Travesties, The Entertainer, The Winter’s Tale, Photograph 51, Shakespeare in Love, Henry V and The Children’s Hour.

Work heard in Canada includes Draw Me Close (Soulpepper/NFB); Barbershop Chronicles (Fuel/National Theatre); Black Watch (National Theatre of Scotland); The Oresteia (National Theatre). Gareth’s work includes over 20 productions at the Royal National Theatre, over 20 productions at the Royal Court and countless more. He has also designed events and exhibitions, from the V&A’s landmark David Bowie Is exhibition, to being asked by Danny Boyle to design the sound effects for the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games. Awards include an Olivier Award, Tony® Award, Drama Desk Award and Outer Critics Circle Award for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child; a Special Tony® Award, Drama Desk Award, Helpmann Award and an Evening Standard Award for Complicite’s The Encounter (with co-designer Pete Malkin); an Olivier Award and Helpmann Award for Black Watch; an Olivier Award for Waves; and an IRNE Award for Wild Swans.

Jamie Harrison (he/him) is co-artistic director of Vox Motusand, has co-created, co-directed and designed all of the company’s work, most recently The Ocean at the End of the Lane (National Theatre, West End); Bedknobs and Broomsticks (Michael Harrison Productions, UK Tour); Flight (Critics’ Awards for Theatre Scotland) at Edinburgh International Festival and Dragon (UK Theatre Award), a collaboration between Vox Motus, National Theatre of Scotland and Tianjin People’s Theatre, China. Other recent work includes Mozart’s The Magic Flute (Ex Machina, Quebec Opera Festival); The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Pinocchio (National Theatre); Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (West End, Broadway, San Francisco, Melbourne, Hamburg); and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Theatre Royal Drury Lane). Several international awards including a special citation from the New York Drama Critics’ Circle, San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics’ Circle Excellence in a Theatre Specialism Award and 2017 Edinburgh International Magic Festival’s Lafayette Award for outstanding contribution to stage magic. Harrison trained as an actor at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

Theatre credits include Once, Pinocchio, Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour, The Light Princess, War Horse, The Twits, Caroline, or Change; Jerry Springer: The Opera, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Mamma Mia!, The Full Monty, Once on This Island, Cats, Les Misérables, Jedermann and The Threepenny Opera (both Salzburg Festival). He won a Tony®, a Grammy and an Olivier for his work on Once and won a Golden Reel for his work on Mamma Mia! The Movie.

Dayton/Walters Casting CSA, CDC Casting Director Daytime Emmy Award nominees, Sherry Dayton and Michael Walters established Dayton/Walters Casting in 2003. Theatrical highlights include Matilda the Musical, Once, Hairspray, The Producers (Original Canadian companies, Mirvish Productions), The Book of Mormon (Canadian Casting Consultant, Broadway and National Tours), Jersey Boys, The Toxic Avenger (Original Canadian companies, Dancap). Recent work on new Canadian musicals includes The Hockey Sweater (The Segal Centre/ N.A.C.) and The Louder We Get (Theatre Calgary). Extensive animation Film/TV credits including Paw Patrol (TV series & Feature Film), Peanuts, My Little Pony, PJ Masks, Pinecone & Pony and Esme & Roy (2019 Emmy Award Nomination for Outstanding Casting for an Animated Series or Special.
www.daytonwalters.com

Jim Carnahan, C.S.A. has cast over 150 Broadway shows. His work on Broadway this season includes: Caroline, or Change, Moulin Rouge!, The Lehman Trilogy, Funny Girl, Take Me Out and Plaza Suite as well as off-Broadway’s Little Shop and Beautiful Noise in Boston, A Christmas Carol in Los Angeles and A Christmas Carol and Swept Away in San Francisco. Additional Broadway credits include: A Soldier’s Play, Betrayal, Burn This, The Ferryman, Travesties, Angels in America, Farinelli and the King, 1984, Fun Home, The River, Cabaret and Matilda. Additional London Theatre credits include: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, the Glass Menagerie, Nice Fish, The Red Barn, The Motherf***ker with the Hat and A Streetcar Named Desire. Film: Ari Aster’s Disappointment Blvd, The Seagull, A Home at the End of the World. Television: Glee (Emmy nomination).

Alexandre Bleau has been with Jim Carnahan Casting since 2013. Credits include: Broadway: Plaza Suite, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, The Lehman Trilogy, Moulin Rouge!, Betrayal, Burn This, The Ferryman, Groundhog Day. San Francisco: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Swept Away. West End: Mad House, Glengarry Glen Ross. Film: Ari Aster’s Disappointment Blvd. 

Finn Ross has won two Olivier Awards, a Tony® Award and three Drama Desk Awards. Recent work: Back to the Future (West End); Anna Karenina (Joffrey Ballet); Frozen (International); Mean Girls (Broadway); Bat out of Hell (West End); The Tempest (RSC); The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Broadway/West End); American Psycho (Broadway & Almedia); The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (Royal Opera House); Frankenstein (Royal Ballet); Jagged Little Pill (A.R.T. Boston); Chimerica (Almeida & West End); The Death of Klinghoffer, The Damnation of Faust, The Magic Flute (ENO); The Master and Margarita, All My Sons, Shunkin (Complicité); Hansel and Gretel, A Dog’s Heart, The Magic Flute (Netherlands Opera).

Ash specialises in video and projection design for live performance and has designed and animated content for shows on Broadway, in the West End and around the world. He has won a Drama Desk Award and Outer Critics Circle Award. Ash also designs for other live performance genres such as live music exhibitions and art installations. Recent theatre credits include: The 47th (Old Vic); Hex (National Theatre); Can I Live (Complicité); The Beauty Parade (Wales Millennium Centre); Bridgerton (Secret Cinema); Armadillo (The Yard); Madame Butterfly (WNO); The Cunning Little Vixen (ROH). 

Theatre includes: Jerusalem (Apollo Theatre); The Shark Is Broken (Ambassadors Theatre); South Pacific (Chichester Festival Theatre); The Night of The Iguana (Noel Coward Theatre); The Deep Blue Sea (Chichester Festival Theatre); Hansel & Gretel (Regent’s Park Theatre); Sweet Charity (Donmar Warehouse); Dusty – The Dusty Springfield Musical directed by Maria Freidman); Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (London, Broadway, San Francisco, Melbourne, Hamburg – winner of six Tony® Awards and nine Olivier Awards including Best New Play for both Broadway and London); Country Girls (Chichester Theatre); On the Town (Regent’s Park); One Love (Birmingham Repertory Theatre); Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (London); The Children (The Royal Court Theatre); Hamlet; (Barbican Centre); A Christmas Carol  (West End); Wonder.land (National Theatre & Manchester International Festival); Women the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (West End); Anything Goes (Sheffield Theatre); Sunny Afternoon (West End); Versailles; (Donmar Warehouse); Handbagged (Tricycle Theatre/West End); Mojo (Harold Pinter); Pygmalion (U.K. Tour); Much Ado About Nothing (The Old Vic); The Low Road, Love, Love, Love, In Basildon, Chicken Soup and Barley (Royal Court); Paperdolls (Tricycle Theatre); The Most Incredible Thing (Sadlers Wells); Six Degrees of Separation, A Flea In Her Ear (The Old Vic). Associate Hair and Make-up Designer for The Lion King (London and International productions). Opera: Mike Leigh’s Pirates of Penzance (ENO); Cellini, Wozzeck, The Damnation of Faust, The Ring Cycle, Madame Butterfly, Cavelleria & Pagliacci, Candide (U.K. & Japan): Turandot, The Pearl Fishers, Lucia di Lammermoor (The English National Opera). Ballet: Swan Lake (San Francisco Ballet).  Fashion: Jasper Conran (Autumn 2008). Film/TV: War Horse, Batman The Dark Knight Rises, Snow White and the Huntsman, Thor, Captain America and Game of Thrones.

Director: Good Vibrations, Gulliver’s Travels, White Star of the North (Lyric Theatre, Belfast); Teenage Kicks (Derry); How the World Began (Out of Joint); The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (Brian Friel Theatre); Gods Country (Tinderbox Theatre); The Prophet of Monto (The Flea); Johnny Meister and the Stitch (Mead Theatre Lab, Washington, D.C.), The Great Ramshackle Heart (The Public); Dying City (Project Dublin); The Laramie Project (Bush Theatre Directing Award); Scenes From the Best Picture (“Best Theatre of Decade” The Washington Post). Associate director: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (West End); Once (London, Dublin, Seoul); The Nether (West End); Top Girls, Our Country’s Good (Out of Joint); A Dish of Tea with Dr Johnson, Bang Bang Bang (Out of Joint). Assistant director: Now or Later (Royal Court); Crooked (Bush); The Elixir of Love (WNO). Television: The Girl at the Window (BBC), 6Degrees (BBC).

Productions as director include: Showstopper!, Box and Cox and A Bold Stroke for a Husband (Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds); Romeo and Juliet and As You Like It (International Open Air Tour); Descent (Birmingham Rep studio); Departure Lounge (MTM Award, George Square, Edinburgh/Waterloo East); From Up Here and Lift (Trafalgar Studios); Cinderella (Manchester Opera House); Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Alban Arena); Aladdin (Hawth Crawley); plus Dracula, Extraordinary, Stitching, The Maids, Judith, World Goes ‘Round, Henna Night, Jesus Christ Superstar and Attempts on Her Life. As staff director: Wicked and Spamalot (U.K. tour); Viva Forever!, Mamma Mia! and The Far Pavilions (West End). As associate director: Mamma Mia! (tour of China); Black Eyed Susan (Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds); Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (London & Hamburg).

For Mirvish: Come From Away (Resident Director/Toronto, Associate Director in London, U.K. and Melbourne, Australia), Blindness (Associate Director). Elsewhere: As Director, Crazy For You (Citadel/Theatre Calgary); Stones in His Pockets (Neptune); Avenue Q (Citadel); The 39 Steps (1000 Islands/Neptune); Forever Plaid (Starvox); Oliver! (NAC). Dayna spent 9 seasons at the Stratford Festival as an actor and choreographer and was a member of the English theatre company at the National Arts Centre for 12 productions.

Select credits include Broadway: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, The Crucible, Once (also West End, Australia, Canada, S. Korea), Rent. Off-Broadway: Social! (with David Byrne), Wild Goose Dreams, Sweeney Todd, My Name’s Not Indian Joe, Knives in Hens, Pearl, Tender Napalm, Once, Brown Butterfly. Other: Made for Love (HBO), SNL (Katy Perry), World Expo 2020, XXII Winter Olympic Games, Across the Universe (Sony Pictures), The Dunham Technique Video (commissioned by U.S. Library of Congress and archived by Smithsonian Institute), Amici (Canale 5), Margie Gilles’ Legacy Project, Momix, Donkey-Bunny. 

Training: The National Theatre School of Canada. Theatre includes Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (original Broadway company), Christopher Boone in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Broadway and North American tour). Dedicated with love to Granny Bea.

Brett J. Banakis is excited to continue his long-term professional partnership with Harry Potter and the Cursed Child set designer Christine Jones. Collaborations with Christine include The Cher Show and The Devil Wears Prada on Broadway; What’s It All About? Bacharach Re-Imagined (NYTW, West End) and Whorl Inside a Loop (2ST). As Design Supervisor for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Brett led the interior re-designs of the Lyric Theatre in New York, the Princess Theatre in Melbourne, the Großmarkt Theater in Hamburg, the Curran Theater in San Francisco and the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre in Toronto. Other recent credits: The Notebook (Chicago Shakes); An Officer and a Gentleman (Nat’l Tour). As Associate Set Designer: The Glass Menagerie, Old Times, Doctor Zhivago, The Last Ship, If/Then, Hands on a Hardbody and Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo (Broadway), as well as Rigoletto and La Traviata (Metropolitan Opera). Brett is a faculty member at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.  www.brettjbanakis.com

Sabine Lemaître is a costume design associate for theatre, ballet, and opera. Select credits include international costume design associate for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in London, New York, Melbourne, San Francisco, Hamburg, Toronto and Tokyo. Hamlet (Barbican); Hex, Mosquitoes, wonder.land, Dara, Behind the Beautiful Forevers, The Magistrate, Earthquakes in London, Death and the King’s Horseman (Royal National Theatre); Cabaret, Onassis (West End);  Love for Love, Loves Sacrifice, Wendy & Peter Pan, All’s Well That Ends Well, Titus Andronicus, Much Ado About Nothing, Morte d’Arthur, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, A Comedy of Errors (Royal Shakespeare Company); Porgy & Bess (Regent’s Park Theatre); Chroma, Infra (Royal Ballet); Damnation of Faust, Turandot (English National Opera); Onegin, La Traviata (Royal Opera House);  The Most Incredible Thing (Sadler’s Wells). Recent editorial work includes U.S. Vogue shoots for wonder.land, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and Victoria (ITV/PBS).

Nick’s recent lighting design credits include Imaginary Comforts by Daniel Handler; The Christmas by Lucas Hnath; and The Prince of Players by Carlisle Floyd. Nick’s recent Broadway and worldwide associate lighting design credits include Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Moulin Rouge!, The Music Man, and Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812. Nick is originally from Los Angeles and lives in New York City. SolyomDesign.com

He/him. The Chairs (Almeida Theatre); Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (San Francisco, Hamburg and New York); Deciphering (Curious Detective); Shade (Thick Skin Theatre); The Encounter (co-designed with Gareth Fry). Winner of Special Tony® and Drama Desk Awards for Sound Design; The Tempest (Donmar Warehouse, St. Ann’s Warehouse); Death of England and Death of England: Delroy (National Theatre); The Kid Stays in the Picture (Complicite, Royal Court); Beware of Pity (Complicite, Schaubühne); Twelfth Night (Royal Exchange Manchester); The Seagull (Lyric Hammersmith); Frogman (Curious Directive); Am I Dead Yet? (Unlimited Theatre); Andrea Chenier (Opera North); Farragut North (Southwark Playhouse). As Associate: 1984 (West End, Broadway); Oresteia (Trafalgar Studios), Complicite’s productions of The Magic Flute (ENO): Lionboy (international tour) and Hamlet (RSC). Other credits include The Forbidden Zone (Salzburg Festival) and Night Train in Cologne (as Assistant). Pete also worked with Gareth Fry on the 2012 London Olympics Opening Ceremony (assistant soundscape designer).

Chris Fisher is a member of The Magic Circle. He works worldwide as International Illusions and Magic Associate for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. His work in theatre as illusion designer includes Peter Gynt, Here We Go, Treasure Island, Julie and Angels in America (also on Broadway) at the National Theatre; Charlie & the Chocolate Factory at Leeds Playhouse & UK Tour; The Time Travellers Wife at Storyhouse; Back To The Future: The Musical (Adelphi Theatre, London); The Prince of Egypt (Dominion Theatre); The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (UK Tour/West End); 2.22 A Ghost Story (Noel Coward, London, LA); Wicked Das Musical at Neue Flora Theater, Hamburg; Company (Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, NY & Gielgud, London); Merlin for Nothern Ballet; Bedknobs & Broomsticks (UK Tour); Superhero at the Tony Kiser, New York; A Very Very Very Dark Matter at the Bridge;  Macbeth and The Alchemist for the RSC at the Swan and the Barbican; Barnum at Menier Chocolate Factory; The Hypocrite for the RSC at the Swan and Hull Truck; Big the Musical at Plymouth Theatre Royal and the Bord Gáis Energy; No Man’s Land at Wyndham’s; Into the Woods and The Skriker at the Royal Exchange; Xanadu at Southwark Playhouse; and Company in the West End. As illusions associate work includes Pinocchio at the National; The Magic Flute at Opera de Quebec; and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in the West End.

Will Pickens is glad to be debuting at the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre. Recently he has worked on: Broadway: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Lyric Theatre); M. Butterfly, Indecent (Cort Theatre); Dames at Sea (Helen Hayes Theater); Honeymoon in Vegas (Nederlander Theatre); The Realistic Joneses (Lyceum Theatre); Bronx Bombers (Circle In The Square Theatre); Death Of A Salesman (Ethel Barrymore Theatre); That Championship Season (Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre); The Importance Of Being Earnest, Present Laughter (American Airlines Theater). Off Broadway: The Michaels Abroad, Uncle Vanya (Hunter Theater Project); The New One (Cherry Lane Theatre); Our Lady Of 121st Street (Signature Theater). Regional: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Curran Theatre SF); Indecent (Ahmanson Theatre LA); Indecent (Huntington Theatre LA); Hello, Dolly! (1st National Tour); White Card (American Repertory Theater MA). A proud member of USA 829 and TSDCA. www.willpickens.com

Skylar Fox (he/him) is a director/playwright/designer, and the co-artistic director of Nightdrive, where he has directed, co-written and designed an apocalypse around a campfire (The Grown-Ups), a live immersive alien movie (Alien Nation, Paradise Factory); a five-dimensional community meeting with a full pancake breakfast cooked onstage (Providence, RI, The Tank); a haunted rock concert (Thank You Sorry, Ars Nova); and a hybrid comic book with interactive animation (Apathy Boy, The Brick & Ars Nova). He has created magic & illusions for Damn Yankees (Shaw Festival); Fat Ham (The Public Theater); and Dracula (Maltz Jupiter Theater). Other directing includes The Annotated History of the American Muskrat (New Ohio); Pussy Sludge (Less Than Rent, HERE Arts Center) and the Boston premieres of the 6-hour genre-bending epic The Valentine Trilogy and of Sarah Ruhl’s Passion Play for which he was nominated for an IRNE Award. BA in Theatre from Brown University.

Gary is Director of Gary Beestone Associates (GBA) in the U.K. and U.S. He is the long serving International Technical Director of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and works as a Project Director and consultant for worldwide theatre renovations and complex projects, as well as working with producers and world class creative teams to develop and create extraordinary productions. Gary is currently producing the Birmingham Commonwealth Games 2022 Opening and Closing Ceremonies. Gary is also an independent Governor for the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and a consultant to the Public Theater.

Recent Broadway:  Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Kinky Boots, Fish in the Dark, Bullets Over Broadway, The Nance. Lincoln Center Theater: South Pacific, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and Happiness. City Center’s Encores! Series: On the Town, Stairway to Paradise and Face the Music. Manhattan Concert Productions’ one-night-only performance of Crazy for You at David Geffen Hall.  First National tour: The Producers (including the Los Angeles run at Pantages Theatre).  Eight seasons of the musical version of A Christmas Carol at Madison Square Garden as well as Leonard Bernstein’s Mass with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. 

For HPCC Group Ltd

– Global Director Of Marketing – Krista Tuchscherer
– Director of Partnerships and Special Projects – Shannon Kingett

David Mirvish is a multiple Tony®, Olivier and Dora Award-winning Canadian theatre producer. Mr. Mirvish owns and operates four theatres in Toronto: the Royal Alexandra, the Princess of Wales, the CAA Ed Mirvish and the CAA. Mr. Mirvish and his father, Ed Mirvish, also purchased and restored the renowned Old Vic Theatre in London, England which they operated from 1983 to 1998. Mirvish Productions, founded by Mr. Mirvish in 1986, has produced plays and musicals for these and other venues throughout Canada, on Broadway and in London’s West End. The Toronto theatres have been home to such outstanding productions as Miss Saigon, Les Misérables, The Lion King, Mamma Mia!, War Horse, Kinky Boots and Come From Away. In addition, Mirvish Productions has presented over 800 touring productions in the city of Toronto.

SONIA FRIEDMAN PRODUCTIONS (SFP) is an international production company responsible for some of the most successful theatre productions in London and New York.

SONIA FRIEDMAN PRODUCTIONS has developed, initiated and been lead producer of over 180 new productions and together the company has been responsible for winning 58 Olivier Awards, 34 Tonys and 2 BAFTAs.

In 2019, Sonia Friedman OBE was awarded ‘Producer of the Year’ at the Stage Awards for a record breaking fourth time. In 2018, Friedman was also featured in TIME 100, a list of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. In 2017 she took the number one spot in ‘The Stage 100’, becoming the first number one in the history of the compilation not to own or operate West End theatres and the first solo woman for almost 20 years.

Current productions include: The Book of Mormon, West End and UK and Europe tour, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, London, New York, Melbourne, San Francisco and Hamburg Mean Girls US tour; To Kill a Mockingbird, London; The 47th, London; Jerusalem, London; Funny Girl, New York and Dreamgirls UK tour.

Forthcoming productions include: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in Toronto and Tokyo; Oklahoma! London; Merrily We Roll Along, New York; The Doctor, UK tour and London; The Piano Lesson, New York and Leopoldstadt, New York.

Previous theatre productions include: The Human Voice, The Shark is Broken, Leopoldstadt, Anna X, Walden and J’Ouvert as part of the Re:Emerge season, The Comeback, Uncle Vanya, Mean Girls (Broadway), Fiddler on the Roof, Rosmersholm, The Ferryman, The Inheritance, Summer and Smoke, Dreamgirls, The Jungle, All About Eve, Consent, The Birthday Party, Ink, Hamlet starring Andrew Scott, Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Travesties, The Glass Menagerie, Nice Fish, A Christmas Carol, Funny Girl, Farinelli and The King, Hamlet starring Benedict Cumberbatch, 1984, Sunny Afternoon, Bend It Like Beckham, The Nether, The River, Electra, King Charles III, Shakespeare in Love, Ghosts, Mojo, Chimerica, Merrily We Roll Along, Old Times, Twelfth Night and Richard III, A Chorus of Disapproval, The Sunshine Boys, Hay Fever, Absent Friends, Top Girls, Betrayal, Much Ado About Nothing, Clybourne Park, The Children’s Hour, A Flea in Her Ear, La Bête, All My Sons, Private Lives, Jerusalem, A Little Night Music, Legally Blonde, Othello, Arcadia, The Mountaintop, The Norman Conquests, A View From the Bridge, Dancing at Lughnasa, Maria Friedman: Re-Arranged, La Cage aux Folles, No Man’s Land, The Seagull, Under the Blue Sky, That Face, Dealer’s Choice, Hergé’s Adventures of Tintin, In Celebration, Boeing-Boeing, The Dumb Waiter, Rock ‘n’ Roll, Love Song, Faith Healer, Bent, Eh Joe, Donkeys’ Years, Otherwise Engaged, In Celebration, Shoot the Crow, As You Like It, The Home Place, Whose Life Is It Anyway?, By the Bog of Cats, The Woman in White, Guantanamo: ‘Honor Bound to Defend Freedom’, Endgame, Jumpers, See You Next Tuesday, Hitchcock Blonde, Absolutely! {Perhaps}, Sexual Perversity in Chicago, Ragtime, Macbeth, What the Night Is For, Afterplay, Up for Grabs, A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, Noises Off, On an Average Day, A Servant to Two Masters, Port Authority, Spoonface Steinberg and Speed-The-Plow.

TV productions include: Wolf Hall, Uncle Vanya, J’Ouvert (BBC), Walden and Anna X (Sky Arts) (Co-Producer), The Dresser, King Lear (Exec Producer), Dennis Kelly’s Together (BBC) (Producer). For cinema, Uncle Vanya and Walden. SFP’s productions of Hamlet, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? All About Eve and Leopoldstadt have been filmed for cinema release by NT Live, with All About Eve, Hamlet and Leopoldstadt featuring on NT at Home and Hamlet on Amazon’s Great British Theatre series.

For full details of SFP’s theatre productions, please visit soniafriedman.com
Twitter: @SFP_London Instagram: @sfpofficial Facebook: /SoniaFriedmanProductions

Colin Callender is an award-winning theatre, film and television producer who founded New York and London-based Playground in 2012. Broadway productions include Nora Ephron’s Lucky Guy, Harvey Fierstein’s Casa Valentina and Tony winners Hedwig and the Angry Itch and Dear Evan Hansen. His multiple television credits include the Emmy-winning adaptation of the RSC’s The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Golden Globe and BAFTA Award-winning miniseries Wolf Hall starring Mark Rylance and most recently, the hit adaptation of James Herriot’s All Creatures Great & Small. As long-time president of HBO Films, he was responsible for an unprecedented award-winning slate of movies and miniseries including Mike Nichols’ celebrated adaptation of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America starring Al Pacino, Meryl Streep and Emma Thompson. Callender began his career as stage manager at London’s Royal Court Theatre working with David Hare and Sam Shepard. He received a knighthood in the Queen’s 2016 New Year’s Honors list for services to British film, theatre and television in the U.S. Playgroundentertainment.com

Harry Potter Theatrical Productions Ltd was founded by J.K. Rowling and Neil Blair in 2013 to develop and produce the stage play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the original new story by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany. The team from Harry Potter Theatrical Productions Ltd have worked closely with Sonia Friedman Productions and Colin Callender’s Playground to produce the play, and in controlling the international rights for the production.

Neil Blair is J.K. Rowling’s agent, chairman of Pottermore and founding partner of The Blair Partnership. He’s worked with J.K. Rowling for over 20 years, and in 2011 founded The Blair Partnership, a literary, entertainment and brand management agency. Prior to that Neil was VP, Head of Business Affairs, Europe at Warner Bros. Neil has worked closely with J.K. Rowling on Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and represented her as co-producer through Harry Potter Theatrical Productions. For a number of years, Neil was chairman of Lumos, J.K Rowling’s international children’s charity. Neil is also Chairman of Brontë Film & TV, J.K. Rowling’s production company, responsible for Robert Galbraith’s Strike series, and The Casual Vacancy.

Pam Skinner joined Sonia Friedman Productions in 2007 and has since been privileged to work closely on many of its award winning plays and musicals both in London and on Broadway including; La Cage Aux Folles, Legally Blonde, The Book of Mormon, Merrily We Roll Along, Sunny Afternoon, Shakespeare In Love, Bend It Like Beckham, Funny Girl and Dreamgirls. As Executive Producer for Sonia Friedman Productions, she oversees the multi-award winning Harry Potter and the Cursed Child worldwide. Before joining SFP, Pam worked for twelve years at the Really Useful Group in London and Europe. During her time at RUG she supervised over twenty major Really Useful productions in London, Europe, Mexico, Brazil and North America.

Diane Benjamin initially joined Sonia Friedman Productions part-time when it was first established in 2002, with just a team of four. She worked as Business Affairs Manager for SFP as well as the Ambassador Theatre Group from 2001 to 2005, prior to which she set up and ran the National Theatre’s Contracts Department from 1987 to 2001. Diane joined SFP full-time in 2005 as Executive Director and has worked on all its productions – over 160 – in the West End and on Broadway. She now also works on the company’s expansion with Harry Potter and the Cursed Child into Melbourne, San Francisco and Hamburg.

Thomas Swayne initially joined Sonia Friedman Productions in 2017 in London before moving to the United States and continuing his role based in the New York office in 2018. As Associate Producer for SFP, he has worked on a variety of acclaimed productions including Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and The Ferryman (Tony and Olivier Award for Best Play). In addition to supporting numerous shows in development, he is currently working on the first Broadway revival of Funny Girl and the international expansion of the multi-award winning Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in New York, San Francisco and Toronto. Prior to joining SFP, Thomas worked for Disney Theatrical Group from 2013 to 2017 working on productions such as Aladdin, Shakespeare in Love and Disney’s Broadway Hits at Royal Albert Hall. Before moving to London, he was based in Toronto where he worked with numerous theatre companies including The Musical Stage Company and Yonge Street Theatricals. Thomas holds a Master’s Degree in Theatrical Producing from Columbia University and a Bachelor’s Degree from Ryerson University.

Max Bittleston initially joined SFP in 2014 and for over half a decade collaborated with a wide variety of artists and producers on a number of Olivier and Tony Award-winning shows. Specific highlights include The Jungle (London, New York & San Francisco), The Book of Mormon (Prince of Wales Theatre, London & Worldwide), Hamlet starring Benedict Cumberbatch (Barbican, London), Dreamgirls (Savoy Theatre, London), The Ferryman (Gielgud Theatre, London), Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? starring Imelda Staunton & Conleth Hill (Harold Pinter Theatre, London) and All About Eve starring Gillian Anderson & Lily James (Noel Coward Theatre, London). Between 2019 and 2021, Max worked as a Producer for the award-winning 59 Productions, where he led design teams creating a number of unique digital presentations combining art and technology. Max re-joined SFP in 2021. Prior to 2014, Max worked as an independent Producer with shows at the Finborough Theatre, the Arcola Theatre and the Whitstable Playhouse.