Danny Boyle
Danny Boyle was born Manchester in 1956 and is one of the United Kingdom's foremost theatre and film directors. Upon graduating in drama from the University of Wales, Bangor he began work with the Joint Stock Theatre Company before serving as Artistic Director of London's Royal Court Theatre from 1982 until 1985 and then Deputy Director between 1985 and 1987. His productions during this period included the award-wining Victory and the Genius at the Royal Court and five separate productions for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Boyle began work as a producer for BBC Northern Ireland where he produced, amongst other TV films, Alan Dark's controversial ‘Elephant’ before becoming a director on shows such as 'Arise And Go Now', 'Not Even God Is Wise Enough','Scout' and was also responsible for the highly acclaimed BBC2 series ‘Mr. Wroe's Virgins’. He made his feature directorial debut with the film Shallow Grave. It was an instant success and was widely praised by film critics. Next came the film Trainspotting, based on the novel by Irvine Welsh. Critically and financially successful, it is considered among the most influential and iconic British films of the 1990s. Boyle has since gone on to direct many successful films including A Life Less Ordinary, 28 Days Later and The Beach staring Leonardo Di Caprio. Boyle has just completed his seventh film, 'Sunshine'.
Sir Antony Sher
Born in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1949, Antony Sher KBE trained at London's Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art between 1969 and 1971 and continues to live in London. With more than forty major theatre productions and thirty films to his name, Antony is one of the world's most respected actors of stage and screen. His long-running collaboration with the Royal Shakespeare Company, which began in 1982, has seen him play such roles as Macbeth, Tamburlaine, Shylock, Malvolio, Richard III, Stanley Spencer, and most recently, Primo Levi; his prolific film work includes Shakespeare in Love and Mrs. Brown.
Antony is the recipient of numerous critical accolades including various Lawrence Olivier Awards for Best Actor and London Critics' Circle Theatre Awards. He is also an accomplished director, writer and artist, having published four novels, two diaries - The Year of the King, Primo - two screenplays, an autobiography - Beside Myself - and a collection of his artwork. Antony Sher was was knighted for his services to the arts in November 2000.
Madeleine Morris
Born in Australia, Madeleine Morris is a Senior Broadcast Journalist with the BBC World Service in London, specialising in HIV/AIDS and the developing world. In her five years at the BBC she has reported and produced news from South Africa, Lesotho, Uganda, Zambia, Botswana, Israel, the West Bank, Thailand, the United States and India as well as various European countries.
In 2005 she was appointed First Developing World reporter for World Service news programmes. In this capacity she covered the G8 summit in Scotland, the Millenium Development Goals in India and travelled to South Africa and Lesotho for World Aids Day. In 2005 Madeleine was awarded the Alexander Onassis Bursary (AOB). Madeleine's AOB project focussed on HIV prevention and care in Africa. As a result, in early 2006 she spent two months travelling throughout Uganda and Zambia, researching how Sub-Saharan Africa is combating the scourge of Aids. Her travels took her from Gulu in Northern Uganda to Kabwe in Zambia, living and working with Africans whose lives are a constant struggle against the ravages of HIV and poverty.
Madeleine is currently providing technical advice to internationally renowned Aids activist Winstone Zulu, assisting to establish a community radio station in the rural town of Kabwe. After completing her secondary schooling in Rockhampton, Australia, she attended high school in France for a year before returning to Australia to gain a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Queensland, majoring in journalism and French. After a year work for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation as a reporter, she lived in Germany for a year before joining the BBC in London.
Clemency Burton-Hill
Clemency Burton-Hill was born in London in 1981 and has worked extensively as a professional journalist, actress and musician. After graduating with a Double First in English from Cambridge in 2003, she became the UK's youngest broadsheet columnist, for the Telegraph; elsewhere her writing has been published in the Guardian, Observer, Sunday Telegraph, Independent on Sunday, New Statesman, Spectator, Times Literary Supplement, Evening Standard and Vogue. She has played many leading roles in US and UK films and television, and performed as a solo, chamber and orchestral violinist in concert halls all over the world. Most recently she appeared as part of the 2006 Guardian Hay Festival.
In 2004, whilst filming in South Africa, Clemency became involved in various township music projects including Terfjamp and Tomecy. Shortly after Yasser Arafat's death she travelled to the West Bank to help set up a similar music project in Ramallah, and now travels regularly to the region as a performer and Trustee of the Choir of London, whose work teaching music to underprivileged children in Palestinian refugee camps (such as Al-Kamandatji) continues apace.
In early 2006 Clemency worked for the United Nations World Food Programme, assisting on a new initiative to better engage and utilise the private sector in humanitarian disaster relief. Later that year she was a part of a Palestinian - Israeli peace project with the Geneva Initiative. Clemency currently lives in London.