Biographies

Core company members

Julian is a director, designer, writer, maker and teacher whose career has spanned Theatre, Opera, Film and Television. He was initially a mask and puppet maker. Julian has gone on to specialize in site-specific design, including seventeen productions for Welfare State International. Along with Lee, Nick and Phelim formed Improbable in 1996. Their productions of ANIMO, 70 HILL LANE, LIFEGAME, COMA, SPIRIT, STICKY, Angela Carter's CINDERELLA, THE HANGING MAN (winner Best Design 2003 TMA award), STARS ARE OUT TONIGHT with Amici Dance Theatre Company and THE WOLVES IN THE WALLS (winner Best Show for children and young people 2006 TMA award) have gained far-reaching national and international recognition, winning several major awards. Julian and Phelim’s most enduring collaboration to date has been SHOCKHEADED PETER for Cultural Industry (Olivier Awards - Best Entertainment, also nominated for Best Direction and Best Design, TMA Best Director Award, Critics Society Best Designer Award and a South Bank Show Theatre Award Nomination).

More recently Julian was Designer on the multi award winning JERRY SPRINGER - THE OPERA (Best Musical - Evening Standard awards, Olivier Award, Critics Circle) and Addams Family musical (Phelim McDermott). Julian is currently in receipt of a NESTA fellowship.



For Improbable Lucy has worked as the assistant director on Theatre of Blood, a co-production between Improbable and The National Theatre, and The Wolves in the Walls, a collaboration with the National Theatre of Scotland. She has also been involved in the setting up and running of Improbable’s Cooking Chaos workshops, Devoted and Disgruntled events and the Mentoring Resource and Fête.

Other assistant directing work includes Jason and the Argonauts for Beggars Belief, and several productions at The Bush Theatre. Lucy runs her own theatre company, Jumbled, which she founded in 2003. For Jumbled Lucy has directed and devised 22 Death Scenes as part of the Enterprise festival at The Space and at The Blue Elephant Theatre, Love-Knot and Party Piece, both at The Chelsea Theatre, Crossed Wire at the Burton-Taylor Theatre, and Inside at The Lyric Hammersmith studio, as part of the NYT Shorts season 2004. For Jumbled she also produces Jumble It Up, nights of work in progress performances and feedback cafes, at the Oxford Playhouse Studio. Previous work includes Crave by Sarah Kane, which won the Bush Directing Award and the Judges’ Individual Award at the National Student Drama Festival 2002. Lucy also works as a youth theatre tutor and workshop leader.







Phelim has been directing and performing since 1984. He co-founded dereck dereck Productions with Julia Bardsley and productions include Cupboard Man, as solo performer (Fringe First), Gaudete (Time Out Director's Award and The Sweet Shop Owner. Other directing includes Dr Faustus, Improbable Tales and A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the English Shakespeare Company in 1996/97 (TMA Award for Best Touring Production).

He co-wrote with Lee Simpson and appeared in Get Off My Foot. He directed Shockheaded Peter in London and at the Little Schubert Theatre, Off Broadway, with Julian Crouch; a junk opera collaboration with The Tiger Lilies for Cultural Industry (Olivier Award for Best Entertainment, TMA Best Director Award and Critics Society Best Designer Award). Productions with Improbable include the multi award-winning 70 Hill Lane, Lifegame, Animo, Coma, Spirit, Sticky, Cinderella, The Hanging Man and Theatre of Blood, a collaboration with The National Theatre.

Phelim McDermott has also worked as an actor in radio, film, TV and theatre. In 2003, he was awarded a NESTA fellowship to research new ways of rehearsing and creating theatre using Improvisation and Process Oriented Conflict Facilitation Techniques. As part of this work, he recently facilitated the fifth Open Space Technology event called ‘Devoted and Disgruntled: What are we going to do about theatre?’ for the theatre community.







Lee grew up in Great Yarmouth by the sea, where he found gainful employment cooking burgers in a Wimpy, as a croupier in a casino, and as a cinema projectionist.

Unable to get a proper showbiz job, he became an improviser. The money was bad but there was precious little hard work involved, and the people seemed nice. Since then, apart from his work with Improbable, he's become a member of the Comedy Store Players; he’s written plays; appeared in some sit-coms; acted in some proper telly drama and some films; performed a very poor poodle act at the London Palladium and spent six months as a Breakfast Show DJ.

It is this obvious lack of direction that he feels is the real essence of his work. His real name is Len.




Since starting a freelance career with a short spell at The Chicago International Theatre Festival, Nick has worked with a broad range of national and international clients, including The David Glass Ensemble, Phoenix Dance, Lip Service, Wierzalin Theatre (Poland), Nada Theatre (France) and Mouthpeace (South Africa).

In the mid 1990s he was a co-founder of both Told by an Idiot and Improbable. Over the last few years he has concentrated more and more on his work with Improbable, as they tour more widely, working in collaboration with a series of key presenting partners in Europe and North America.


Sarah-Jane has been General Manager of Improbable since April 2007 and went part time in December 2008 in order to be able to pursue other projects and interests. She worked with the No Idea team early on in the development of the piece and at the beginning of this year produced the STORM festival at the Lyric Hammersmith. She has previously worked as a Theatre Officer at the Arts Council, London office where she was one of the officers responsible for contemporary performance, working with Complicite, LIFT, BAC, Ridiculusmus, Shunt and many others. Prior to that she worked at the Lyric Hammersmith and the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, managing their education programmes.


Sharon Kean has been working in publicity for the past 20 years. Over this period she has delivered all sizes of campaign from the smallest pub production to major West End shows, and worked with a variety of performers on cross-media production, new plays, major dramas, outdoor events, dance, music, festivals and comedy.

Some of her clients alongside Improbable include Cheek by Jowl, Australia Council, The Lyric Hammersmith, English Touring Theatre, Method and Madness, Bill Kenwright, Maly Drama Theatre and Offshore Productions.

She has also delivered campaigns for building launches, including The Lowry, The West Yorkshire Playhouse and The Lighthouse, Poole.