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

Andy 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.

Debbie King

Hot from ITV's Late night show; 'Quiz Mania', Debbie is working both in the States and here in the UK as a TV Presenter. Meet Debbie and find out how she became the original face of the new Quiz genre of live television.

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 “

Rachel Pring

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

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

Mary Ellen Lamb

Mary Ellen 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

I joned the BBC as a Studio Manager in 1963. After a few months in Bristol doing local TV news sound effects and engineering sessions with the likes of Jimi Hendrix, King Crimson, The Moody Blues, Led Zeppelin etc etc.

In 1970 I joined BBC Radio 1 as a producer, where I remained until 1995 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.

In 1997 I became a founding director of digital station TotalRock filling the roles of Programme Director and Head of Music which I still run 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

Jo Plumridge

Jo Plumridge is an experienced photographer and writer with over ten years experience. She has worked in Africa as a wildlife photographer and in New Zealand, America and Europe as a travel and documentary photographer. Back in England she works across a broad spread of genres, including portraiture, fashion, corporate and events.

Jo combines both traditional and digital photography with a comprehensive knowledge of Photoshop to give students a well rounded approach to their work. Jo is an extremely practical tutor, and believes that the key to Photography is learning to have fun!

Oriona Grzyb

Following a passion for make up since age of 12, has led Oriona Grzyb to the fashion and clothing industry where she's been a professional make up artist for 7 years. Her qualifications and training within the world of Beauty Therapy , Make-Up and Personal Styling is second to none and she's worked on a wide variety of catwalk and photographic fashion jobs.

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.