Our Team
More about our Band of Bards
Victoria Gartner
Artistic Director
Bard since 2015
Victoria Gartner is a Swiss-Ukrainian award-winning director and writer whose work has been produced in the UK, Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. She is the Artistic Director of Will & Co, which she founded in 2015. She is also a freelance theatre director & has recently directed Three Mates by Natalka Vorozhbyt at the Arcola, a short play about the scale of cowardice and the cost of war as part of an evening of five plays around Ukraine, Ukraine Unbroken, directed by Nicolas Kent. She was Associate Director for Lucy Bailey on both UK and international tours of Murder on the Orient Express and And Then There Were None. Previous credits as a director include Romeo and Juliet (British Youth Music Theatre, Theatre Royal Plymouth), Bard in the Yard: The Scottish Play (UK tour), Bard in the Yard: King Leonardo (UK tour), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (LAMDA), Twelfth Night (East15), Anne (Read for the Globe; Pleasance), Will or Eight Lost Years of William Shakespeare’s Life (Rose Playhouse, European tour – nominated for Best Director by the OFFIES), The Merry Wives of Windsor (East15), Verona (Theatre tri-bühne Stuttgart, Germany). Victoria has an MA in English literature with a specialisation in Shakespearean studies as well as a degree in Dramaturgy and Directing and teaches regularly in renowned institutions such as LAMDA, East15 & Mountview.
Charlie Mackellar
Executive Producer
Bard since 2019
Charlie Mackellar is a theatre producer and operations manager with a decade of experience across live performance, digital content and cultural strategy. She has been Will & Co's Executive Producer since 2019. She oversees the company's slate of live theatre, digital content and educational workshops, including Bard in the Bookshop, its seasonal promenade Shakespeare programme at Waterstones Gower Street. In 2020 she co-founded Bard in the Yard with writer and director Victoria Gartner, a solo-touring Shakespeare production launched in response to the Covid-19 theatre closures, earning an Offie nomination, patronage from Dame Helen Mirren, and the StageOne Bursary Award for Emerging Producers in 2021. Alongside her producing work, she is Head of Operations at Night Time Economy Solutions, leading nationally commissioned research and strategy projects for public bodies and cultural institutions with clients such as Arts Council England, Westminster City Council and regional police forces, managing substantial public-sector budgets and designing and delivering training programmes and digital toolkits used by local authorities in the UK. Her work has included safeguarding research for freelance creative practitioners and night-time economy strategies connecting cultural, safety and economic policy across the UK, Europe and Northern America.
Luke Farrugia
Associate Producer
Bard since 2020
Bio coming soon.
Ronan Kelly
Social Media & Marketing
Bard since 2026
Bio coming soon.
Our Patrons
Dame Helen Mirren Bard in the Yard
Michael Maloney Bard in the Bookshop
Zelda Chauvet
Our Associate Artists
Hannah Young
Actor
Bard since 2020
Hannah Young is an actor and theatre educator whose work spans Shakespeare, contemporary theatre, film, television and radio. Her extensive work with the Royal Shakespeare Company includes The Tempest, Antony and Cleopatra, King Lear, Julius Caesar, The Winter’s Tale, Coriolanus, The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Drunks, American Trade, Little Eagles, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and the 37 Plays Festival, appearing in Godmodders and Metagamers and Land Wreck. She also voiced Leonato in the RSC’s audio production of Much Ado About Nothing. Her wider theatre work includes productions at the Almeida, Royal Court, Birmingham Rep and Theatre Royal Bath, alongside West End appearances in As You Desire Me and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with Dawn French as Bottom.
Her longstanding collaboration with Will & Co includes Bard in the Yard and, most recently, Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Claudius in Hamlet for Bard in the Bookshop. She is delighted to continue this creative relationship as an Associate Artist.
On screen, Hannah plays Lady Macbeth in Cheek by Jowl’s film Acting, directed by Declan Donnellan, and Isabelle in She’s Still Here. Her television credits include The Robinsons, Waking the Dead and Offenders, alongside radio work including The Archers.
An RSC Associate Learning Practitioner since 2010, Hannah works with teachers, students and community groups across the UK to democratise Shakespeare and widen access to theatre. She is particularly committed to supporting young people in areas of structural deprivation and those with special educational needs and disabilities, opening opportunities for creative participation and future careers in theatre.
Asia Rob
Director
Bard since 2026
Asia Joanna Rob (pronounced Asha) is a Polish theatre maker and educator whose work spans Poland, India, and the UK. She most recently worked at Teatr im. Słowackiego (one of Poland's most important theatres seating 540); in India, she worked with Netflix, Amazon MiniTV, and independent theatre companies; and in the UK, her recent credits include sold-out productions at the Arcola, Seven Dials Playhouse, and South London Theatre. Highly organised and with exceptional communication skills, she thrives in environments where she can help a director bring their vision to life, and is often called on to support production and marketing as well.
An English as an Additional Language tutor and guest lecturer (most recently at UCL, University of the Arts London, and the University of Manchester) and with a passion for embodied acting pedagogies, Asia is especially interested in using improvisation and somatic, non-textual scene analysis to lower creative access barriers for international actors, and in working with international creative teams in English. She hopes to start her PhD on this topic in September 2027, and continue developing her research career alongside teaching and directing.
Rishi Rian
Actor
Bard since 2025
Ibraheem Toure
Actor
Bard since 2025
Ibraheem Toure is a London-based actor who has been part of Bard in the Bookshop since its early workshops and sharings. He has worked at the RSC as both an actor and a Learning Practitioner, and he loves bringing text to life through vivid characters and storytelling.
Theatre includes: Henry VI Parts 2 & 3 (RSC); Twelfth Night (RSC); Troilus and Cressida (Shakespeare's Globe).
Television includes: Foundation (Apple TV+); The Agency (Paramount+). Ibraheem trained at East15.
Alix Dunmore
Actor & Accent Coach
Bard since 2020
Alix Dunmore is a renowned actor and accent coach. For Will & Co she has played Henry V in Henry V, Mowbray in Richard II, Hamlet in Hamlet and Enobarbus in Antony and Cleopatra as well as William Shakespeare in Bard in the Yard (2020-2022).
Alix is currently appearing as Mrs Asterid Everdeen in The Hunger Games On Stage at the Troubadour Theatre, Canary Wharf. Other theatre includes: The Hidden Dangers of Camping (Windsor Theatre Royal); Blood Wedding (Clapham Omnibus); The Silver Cord (Finborough); Don’t Destroy Me (Arcola Theatre), Cinderella (Norwich Theatre Royal); Bodies (Southwark Playhouse); A Day By The Sea (Southwark Playhouse); A Christmas Carol (Vaults); The Fifth Column (Southwark playhouse); Ben Hur (Kiln); The 39 Steps (Criterion, West End); What The Women Did (Southwark Playhouse); Gaslight (New Vic, Newcastle-Under-Lyme); Nature Adores a Vacuum (Soho Theatre); A Winter of War (Cheltenham Everyman) and The Two Noble Kinsmen (Bristol Old Vic). She is also a regular at the Factory Theatre Company.
Television includes: Steal (Amazon Prime), The Sister Boniface Mysteries, There She Goes, Casualty, Doctors and Call The Midwife (BBC).
Film includes: The Pod generation (MK2 Films) and London Wall (Master Media).
Alix Dunmore trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. She has 14 years experience as an Accent Coach, working in theatre, film, TV and with private students. Her coaching CV can be found at alixdunmoreaccentcoaching.com
George Wright
Actor
Bard since 2026
Graduated 2022 from East 15 Acting School (BA Acting Course). George is professionally Meisner trained, having graduated from the London Meisner Company in 2025. He has been a member of the NYT, National Youth Theatre, since 2019. Acting credits include: Ageless (National Theatre) The Canterville Ghost (Italian Theatre Tour) A play called ‘Best Wishes, Kind Regards’ performed at the Nest (Chichester Fringe) Recent numerous short films playing the lead in ‘My Friend the Turtle’ by Mad Potato Studios, and a body horror short film called ‘The White Cocoon.’
George has recently become a Director of his own production company ‘ Cloudborne Pictures.’ George has co-produced alongside Ellie Gallimore a mini-series called ‘The Question.’ This is a four-episode drama exploring how important the questions are we ask to one another. George, through Cloudborne, has produced creative content such as theatre trailers, for Will and Co and In HerElement theatre company.
Rishi Rian
Actor
Bard since 2025
Rishi Rian is an actor, facilitator, and poet. He has worked as an actor across stage and screen in productions such as Murder on the Orient Express (UK Tour), Elsinore (Studio Canal) and Winter (ITV and Eagle Eye Drama).
Rishi works as an education practitioner at Shakespeare’s Globe, as well as facilitating with the National Youth Theatre and The Old Vic.
Alice Merivale
Actor & Educator
Bard since 2020
Alice is from Liverpool and trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Her theatre credits include “A Pacifist’s Guide to the War on Cancer” (Complicite/National Theatre), “Rapunzel” at the Liverpool Everyman, “Vile” with Time and Again Productions and the Lowry Theatre, and the UK tour of “The Worst Princess” (Full House Theatre). Her screen work includes “Midas Man” on Amazon Prime.
She has worked with Oddsocks Productions on their large scale, outdoor tours of “The Tempest” and “Romeo and Juliet”. For the past few years she has also been working with 440 Theatre on their clown-inspired productions of “A Midsummer Nights Dream” “Twelfth Night” and “Macbeth”, regularly touring to venues including Theatre Clwyd, Shakespeare North Playhouse and Queens Theatre Hornchurch. Alice also works as their education consultant, developing and delivering Shakespeare workshops in schools across the UK.
Alongside her acting work, Alice works as a primary school teacher and a speech and drama examiner.
Ella Boyes
Actor
Bard since 2025
Ella is an intelligent and instinctive actor who trained at LAMDA. For Will & Co, she has played Juliet in Romeo & Juliet, Hero/Borachio in Much Ado About Nothing, Hermoine in The Winter’s Tale and Hamlet in Hamlet.
Other Theatre credits: Much Ado About Nothing (Changeling Theatre), M.S.N.D (Orange Tree Theatre), The Angry Brigade (LAMDA), Hedda Gabler (LAMDA), Scuttlers (LAMDA).
Christopher Commander
Actor
Bard since 2021
Christopher Commander is an actor with over 17 years of professional experience in the theatre spanning England, Europe and the Northern America. He joined Will & Co. in 2021 as William Shakespeare in Bard In The Yard and Bard in the Bookshop for As You Like It in 2026. Other notable work include: Hamlet (National Production Company), A Christmas Carol (UK Tour), Henry V (Nottingham Shakespeare Company), The Comedy Of Errors (The Festival Players International), A Month In The Country, The Importance of Being Earnest (Red River Theatre), Crabs, We Are Here (National Theatre), All My Sons, The Dumb Waiter, The Deep Blue Sea, The Vortex (Sutton Arts Theatre), Hamlet, The Glass Menagerie, Romeo and Juliet, Richard III (Project Shakespeare). Awards include: Nominated for 'Most Outstanding Male Performance’ for Chris Keller in All My Sons. Winner of 'Most Outstanding Male Performance’ for Nicky Lancaster in The Vortex.
Katherine Moran
Actor & Movement Director
Bard since 2018
Katherine Moran is an award-winning London-Irish performer. She first collaborated with Will & Co in 2018, playing Anne Shakespeare in the original UK cast of Will at the Rose Playhouse, followed by a European tour. She went on to debut Victoria Gartner's Anne at the Pleasance London in 2019, before joining Will & Co's creative team for the critically-acclaimed Bard in the Yard and starring as Henry V in the inaugural Bard in the Bookshop season. She is passionate about the company's fresh, playful approach to classical texts and innovative storytelling.
Screen credits include Slow Horses (Apple TV), Call the Midwife (BBC/PBS), LYNLEY (BBC/Britbox), and Victorian Psycho, alongside Jason Isaacs and Ruth Wilson. She also recently completed filming a new series regular role for a major streaming platform. Katherine's solo show Ruthless sold out its debut at The Old Town Hall in 2025, and is in its next stages of development. She has since been awarded Arts Council DYCP funding to advance her practice within storytelling as a hard of hearing artist. Away from the stage and screen, Katherine is an award-winning voiceover artist, leading the cast of BAFTA Games-nominated Casette Beasts as Kayleigh, with further credits spanning video games, audiobooks and commercial & corporate campaigns. Katherine also combines twenty years of dance with her acting experience in her work as a choreographer & movement director. Previous productions include work for the Theatre Royal Plymouth and British Youth Music Theatre. Katherine trained at the Royal Central School of Speech & Drama.
