(Drama BA, 2012)
If I'm going to do it, I want to make work that is really going to push things and open up conversations. I always use comedy as the way in which I tell the story because we need to laugh as well so then it feels earned. When you're dealing with difficult topics, if you can get people to laugh and then you can make them cry, then you've done something awesome.
Why did you choose to study Drama at Queen Mary and what did you enjoy most about your time at university?
I chose Queen Mary because it was the only university that was London based that had a campus. It felt like a village within London. I had mates that were at UCL, and LSE and they were living 40 minutes away from their lectures, but when I went to look at Queen Mary, I really liked the campus, the accommodation, and the feel of the place. I also really liked the fact that the Drama department seemed quite small compared to some other Drama programmes.
The social side was amazing. I was treasurer of the Queen Mary Theatre Company, which I loved, along with all the other extracurricular activities that were on offer. There was such an eclectic mix of people from diverse backgrounds, all melting into this very cool pot, rather than what it would be like at some of my friends’ universities where everyone was similar. Everyone at Queen Mary seemed interesting.
Can you talk us through your career journey and what you are doing now?
I left Queen Mary in 2012 and had already started writing to agents in my final year. I ended up getting an agent through a casting director that I knew in Newcastle because I had a small part on Byker Grove when I was little. I started going to auditions and started in fringe theatre doing various small plays with varying levels of success. I then did a show called News Review which is a satirical sketch show where you tell the news in a week through sketches and songs. You perform for 6 weeks, and you write the show on a Monday and open on a Thursday every week. That’s when I realised I really love sketch comedy performing.
I really enjoy writing and I’d written a play when I was at university which I’d taken to Edinburgh Fringe, but it made me realise I didn’t like directing but I did like writing and performing. From that, I met four other people and we formed a comedy collective called Zazu and we did five Edinburgh Fringe Festivals together and Soho Theatre is currently developing our work for Radio 4. Alongside that, I started booking better acting jobs – you know, your standard Doctors episode, things like that. Then I got a part on a Comedy Central sketch show called Every Blank Ever, which was the best fun I have ever had.
After that, I thought, how do I make this more sustainable? I wanted to go back to writing and figure out a way to do that for myself, so I wrote a play which I took to Edinburgh in 2019 called Ticker. We did a run in Edinburgh and a run in Newcastle. I have just done a run in London and I am currently developing it for TV. Then I caught the writing bug again and since then, I have been writing on a couple of different shows and started entering my work into various competitions.
I won an award for my film, A Spoonful, at the UK Film Festival last year for Best Short Script, which was awesome. I am now working on my next play, which is called Second the Best, which is all about silver medalists, and I’m writing a couple of other sitcoms for production companies. Acting wise, I’m currently filming Emmerdale and Vera for ITV, and have just recorded ‘Our place in the North’ for BBC Radio 4. I’m also in a new sitcom on Channel 4 called Hullraisers which came out in April. Check it out!
What do you enjoy most as an actor – TV work or stage work?
I like the rehearsal process of theatre, but I love the lifestyle of TV - the set and the camaraderie are amazing. But I love rehearsals and theatre offers a lot more opportunities to explore and to fail. Ideally, you would have the best of both worlds, which would be doing TV or film, but having three weeks of rehearsals before you shoot. That would be my absolute dream, but you very rarely ever get the chance to do that. But there is something amazing about a live audience and that feeling of being on stage and performing for hundreds of people. It is exciting because only a certain number of people get to experience that moment with you at that time, and each night is so different. However, I do like the fact that television is way more inclusive as it offers an opportunity for anybody to be able to see something.
Can you tell us a bit more about your writing? Has writing always been part of your repertoire or is this something you decided to explore more recently?
Queen Mary actually gave me the opportunity to write. I had never written before but being part of the Queen Mary Theatre Company gave me the opportunity to go to Edinburgh, where I was able to write a play and that was amazing. I would say I got the writing bug there.
I like to explore different topics through my writing, and it is a bit weird, but I really like writing about grief. Grief is my muse. I find it really fascinating because it is something that is so personal, but which can cause people to behave in the most bizarre ways. I lost a friend to an undiagnosed heart condition in 2014, and with my first play, Ticker, I wanted to explore that idea of outsider grief, where you're not at the centre of those who are grieving and therefore feel the need to justify how you're feeling and you have to take a step back. I put that feeling into a fictional circumstance of a guy and girl in a relationship, where his girlfriend dies and her family wants to take over everything after her death, her family being very religious and him knowing that she hated religion, the conflicts between those two things, and then watching how grief plays out amongst them.
When you're dealing with difficult topics, if you can get people to laugh and then you can make them cry, then you've done something awesome.
My short film script, A Spoonful, explores the same theme. It’s about a pair of siblings who have been instructed by their mother to drop her ashes in a hundred places around Northumberland, but they haven't seen each other in ten years. I am working with an actor called Kim Tserkezie who is in a wheelchair, and I am trying to explore this idea of creating characters with disabilities onscreen, where the disability isn't part of the character description. She has found that the wheelchair becomes a character otherwise. With A Spoonful, she's the one that's left the family and her brother has been left on his own to look after the mum in her final years. And we never see that; we never see a character who is not as physically capable as somebody else, leave the place where she is being looked after to get away from it and do it on her own. But how can we make a much more three-dimensional character who happens to be in a wheelchair? I think with writing, especially with the challenge of difficult topics that people do not want to necessarily talk about or do not really know how to address, you can put some people off along the way, but that's fine – that's the thing that excites me. If I'm going to do it, I want to make work that is really going to push things and open up conversations. I always use comedy as the way in which I tell the story because we need to laugh as well so then it feels earned. When you're dealing with difficult topics, if you can get people to laugh and then you can make them cry, then you've done something awesome.
What or who inspires you as an actor and a writer?
As a writer, I love Yorgos Lanthimos who wrote The Lobster and The Favourite. His way of creating absurd comedy is amazing and I think his commentary on society and the way in which he frames his weird worlds is really clever. I love Adam McKay as well; I think his work is just unbelievable. Again, I like the political commentary that he makes in his work without saying it and how clever he can be at intertwining quite difficult messages into things.
Acting wise, I absolutely love Jason Bateman. I just think he is an unbelievable powerhouse. Ozark is one of the best television shows I have ever seen. I love how he can switch between comedic and dramatic roles. Back in the day, my two favourites were Jim Carrey and Robin Williams. I love that kind of silly sense of humour that they both have, and I think what is great about them as performers is that they don't care; I think it’s always really exciting when you see that on stage or on screen.
Being an actor involves a lot of tenacity and you don’t always get every role you want. How do you keep yourself motivated through these challenges?
Rejection is part of the job, but it doesn’t get any easier. I now have a philosophy when I go into auditions that I am not going to get the part, and that allows me to actually enjoy the audition for what it is. I spent the first three or four years spending so much time in a room just waiting to be called, only to then have my five minutes, leave, and then feel completely disheartened when the phone didn’t ring. My writing has always been really helpful because it takes the focus away from acting – I can go into an audition or record a self-tape, send it off, and then get back to writing and forget about it. I look back at when I was leaving university and every time I achieved something, I didn’t really give myself the opportunity to celebrate it because I was always striving to do the next thing, but I think it’s really important to reflect and realise all of the cool things you’re doing right now. And actually, the pandemic has really taught me to enjoy it, because when it all got taken away, it made me realise how much I love what I do.
How else have you used the skills gained through your Drama degree in your career so far?
When you do a Drama degree, you have to work in group formats a lot of the time which teaches you to compromise and work well with others. But another key thing you learn is how to present with confidence. I set up a business with a friend of mine called ‘Who’s the Boss?’ where we mostly worked with NHS staff to help them build their confidence. I think as Drama students, we take confidence for granted - a good Drama degree involves working with so many different people all the time - you're constantly having to present, to perform and to be on your feet – but this is a skill that can be transferred to so many things. My friends who I studied Drama with have gone into such an eclectic mix of careers, from teaching to acting, to marketing, producing, directing and filmmaking. The degree really builds that confidence into you, especially in your final year, because then it's on you as an individual. What are you saying about the world? How do you want to showcase yourself? Your identity? What do you want to put out into the world through your work?
What's interesting about the course, I think, is that in your second year, you make the decision about whether you are a performer or not. But ‘Who's the Boss?’ has definitely come from the skills that I learned in my degree, you know, walking into a room and thinking, how can you present the most confident version of yourself?
What would your advice be for Drama students who are interested in careers in acting?
I would say that Queen Mary offers you a really good foundation for the world – especially the world of theatre and performance. And it offers you a great opportunity, especially if you like making your own work. It’s a great platform for that and you should start doing it as soon as possible. It might be worth doing some acting training alongside your degree if you can, just to give you the opportunity to fail in a space where it’s specifically around acting. But you should definitely join the Queen Mary Theatre Company. I think we did 30 plays in a year which was amazing. We did a whole Pinter festival, we did Christmas productions, and we did Edinburgh Fringe. It was such a great thing to be part of socially and just great fun.
I’d also say don’t be afraid of failure. So often these days, we try something and if it doesn’t work on the first go, we give up, when actually it can sometimes take 8 or 9 tries, but keep going, keep persisting. And also, find something you enjoy outside of acting that gives you joy – whether it’s running, swimming, playing an instrument – have an activity that can take you away from acting so you don’t get obsessed with it.
Finally, don’t be shy. In Newcastle, we have a saying, ‘shy bairns get nowt’, which means ‘shy children get nothing’. So don’t be shy, speak up, try and have a go, and you’ll figure it out.
If you would like to get in touch with Tom or engage him in your work, please contact the Alumni Engagement team at alumni@qmul.ac.uk.