Our Team
Here are just some of the people who make Improbable what it is. We think they’re improbably brilliant in all sorts of ways.
Kathryn Bilyard
Executive Producer
Kathryn joined Improbable in June 2020 from Fuel, where she was Senior Producer. Kathryn has been Creative Producer at Emergency Exit Arts, worked in events and project management at the Donmar Warehouse and Battersea Arts Centre and as a freelance stage manager with companies across the UK.
Ellie Claughton
Executive Director
Ellie joined the team in July 2023. She was previously Executive Director (Maternity Cover) at Boundless Theatre, Interim Executive Producer for Paines Plough and has worked for award-winning organisations such as Barrel Organ, Breach, Headlong and LUNG. She is the Chair of the Board for Zoo Co Theatre.
Anna Crisp
Fundraising Officer
Anna joined the team in May 2018. Before this, she worked in research, development, and learning & participation for arts organisations including Turner Contemporary, Garsington Opera and the Institute of Art and Ideas. She trained as a classical singer before completing an MA in Cultural & Creative Industries at King’s College London, where she is currently completing her PhD.
Becki Dack Administrator
Becki joined the team in October 2023. Having previously worked in both the legal and charity sectors, Becki decided to pack it all in and follow her passion to pursue a career in the arts. As this is her first time working for a professional theatre company, she is excited to get stuck in and learn the ropes.
Lola Hibberd-Cook
Placement Student
Lola is on a working placement from Mountview Academy of Dramatic Arts where she is studying MA Creative Producing. Having completed her BA in Drama and Creative Writing in Bristol, Lola is working in the realm of Fringe Theatre and diving into every opportunity that presents itself!
Ess Grange
Research Associate
Ess is a poet and theatre-maker and has worked with Improbable for ten years - previously as Open Space Producer. Currently they are exploring ways to gather, archive and document the Improbable's work and processes, especially improvisatory practices. Ess also works as an audio describer.
Susie Italiano
Finance Manager
After a short career as a contemporary dancer, Susie realised that she was not meant to be on stage but rather belongs behind the scenes, where she can make things happen while wearing pajamas. After moving to London from Italy, she pursued a career in finance and had the pleasure of working with companies such as Improbable, Park Theatre, and The Yard. She is now a Management Accountant for Adding Value, an accounting consultancy that helps social enterprises thrive. She also offers bespoke finance and accounting services to artists and small theatre companies, helping them to keep their books, and make friends with finance and accounting. She recently managed to save up and buy a motorhome, where she, her husband, and her dog live a few months per year. www.idlemoneyblog.com
Rachel Grunwald
Strategic Lead - The Gathering
rachel@improbable.co.uk
Rachel joined Improbable in June 2023. Previously she was Director of Programming for JW3 London, Chair of 'Act for Darfur’ and Associate Director for SPID Theatre Company. She is a mother/maker, a theatre director, and a Fellow of the Clore Cultural Leadership Programme.
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Matilda Leyser
Associate Director
Matilda was an aerialist for 10 years. She now works as a writer, mother and an Associate Director with Improbable – she considers all of these roles to entail more daring and dangerous work than her previous circus career ever demanded of her. Matilda is one of the co-founders and co-directors of Mothers Who Make.
Phelim McDermott
Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director
Phelim is a founder member of Improbable. He has won various awards such as an Olivier Award for Best Entertainment, TMA Awards for Best Touring Production and Best Director and a Critics Circle Best Designer Award. He was awarded a National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts Fellowship and an Honorary Doctorate from the Middlesex University. He is also a father and a husband.
Varshini Pichemuthu
Open Space and Community Participation Producer
Originally from Singapore and having made London her home, Varshini joined the team in January 2023. She is also an actor, spoken word enthusiast and a freelance applied theatre facilitator, having worked on projects both locally and internationally, with companies such as Eastside, Theatre for a Change, Polka Theatre and Seenaryo. Up until May 2022, Varshini was also co-artistic director of London based RootPrints Theatre. She is currently one of the lead practitioners on the Minding the Gap Project at Kiln Theatre and an ad hoc visiting lecturer with the Central School of Speech and Drama.
Lee Simpson
Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director
Lee is a founder member of Improbable, a Comedy Store Player and one of Paul Merton's Impro Chums. He’s also been a croupier, cinema projectionist and breakfast show DJ. He’s written plays, appeared in sit-coms and in some films, been on some Radio 4 panel shows and once did a very poor poodle act at the London Palladium. He feels this lack of direction is the essence of his work. His real name is Len.
Improbable Workshops Team
Isaac Acheampong
Isaac is originally from Ghana. He studied architecture, and is a multidisciplinary artist, creative practitioner/facilitator and librarian. Isaac heard about Open Space whilst on a cultural leadership program. He became fascinated and began searching for opportunities to participate. He found Improbable and got in touch, offered to volunteer, and was welcomed to join them at one of their annual D&D events. Hooked on the vibe, he began volunteering regularly at Open Space events, to learn, and for the love of it. Isaac has a wide range of active interests including photography, film and facilitating drumming workshops. Isaac loves bringing people together, to connect.
Niall Ashdown
Niall is an actor, improviser, teacher and writer. He improvises comedy onstage with the Comedy Store Players, Paul Merton’s Impro Chums, Impropera and Ross Noble. He has performed regularly with theatre companies such as Improbable, Kneehigh and Told By An Idiot. He has written solo shows that became radio plays, prizewinning poetry for Radio 3, and crops up occasionally on the telly,too.
He fulfills a variety of roles at corporate events too, either as host, facilitator, performer or leading classes in applied improvisation, helping clients to promote better teamwork, creativity and communication. He teaches widely in the arts sector, most recently at institutions such as Drama Studio London, Oxford School of Drama and Trinity College London.
He loves watching birds, noodling on a piano and doing regional accents. But mostly he likes making things up and helping others to do the same.
Angela Clerkin
Angela Clerkin is a theatre maker, director, facilitator, writer & actor. She began performing with The Hairy Marys in the 1980s (Irish Dancing/Comedy) touring the UK, Ireland and supporting The Pogues at Brixton Academy. She works with Improbable in various capacities including as a facilitator (Open Space, World Cafe, Impro Workshops), co-director (Outside The Frame), associate director (An Improbable Musical), co-producer/co-writer (The Bear) and performer (LifeGame, Panic, Cinderella and Animo). She produces/facilitates Through The Door, impro workshops for women and non-binary people, and directed Moll and the Future Kings at the Sam Wanamaker. Recently Angela was a Creative Engagement Fellow at the University of Leicester, and curated the Festival of Radical Care at the Albany Theatre. Currently she leads creative writing courses for lgbtq+ people at the Triangle and Albany and improvisation workshops at London Bubble.
Ben Qasim Monks
Ben's first encounter with Improbable was seeing LifeGame in 2010 - and he's been a huge fan ever since. He was Executive Director of Improbable between 2016 and 2022, when he left the arts to work as a farmer. Ben has facilitated Open Space for Chatham House, UCL, Royal Exchange Theatre, the National Theatre and Kindred PLC among others, as well as Devoted & Disgruntled conversations. Alongside farming he is a non-executive director of Shared Assets, a think-and-do tank imagining new ways of connecting people and land.
Company Co-Founders
Nick Sweeting
Co-Founder
Nick is an independent producer who has worked with a wide range of artists and organisations over the last thirty five years. He is currently the Executive Producer at The Javaad Alipoor Company. He co-founded Improbable and produced all their work until he left the company in June 2020. Over that period he has also worked with, amongst others: Stan’s Café, Told by an Idiot, Mark Bruce Company, dreamthinkspeak, London International Festival of Theatre, The British Council, Arts Council England, Nalaga’at (Israel), Nada Theatre (France), Mouthpeace (South Africa) and Wierzalin Theatre (Poland). He is an experienced facilitator and has hosted Open Space events throughout the UK and in Australia, USA, Israel and Turkey. Nick is also an Open Space Facilitator for Improbable.
Julian Crouch
Co-Founder
Julian Crouch is an independent director, designer, librettist, illustrator and musician. He was co-director and designer of the multi award-winning Shockheaded Peter. His opera work has included has included set design and direction at La Scala Opera (Milan), English National Opera, the Met Opera, Dutch National Opera, Welsh National Opera and Berlin Staatsoper. On Broadway, he designed Little Shop of Horrors, The Addams Family Musical, Big Fish, Head Over Heels and Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Tony Nomination). His production Birdheart played for the Dalai Lama in Brussels and has toured as far afield as Zimbabwe and Abu Dhabi. He was recently Artist in Residence at New York’s Park Avenue Armory and was the first commissioned artist for the BRIC House Fireworks Residency Program in Brooklyn, NY. He is a Libretto Fellow for the American Lyric Theater.
Board of Trustees
Phil Clarke
Joint Managing Director of Various Artists Ltd (VAL)
Phil is a comedy producer and commissioner with three decades of experience at BBC TV, Absolutely Productions, Talkback Productions and Objective Productions, where he set up the comedy department. Prior to managing VAL, Phil spent four years as Head of Comedy at Channel 4. His work has received numerous awards including BAFTA’s, British Comedy and Royal Television Society Awards.
Stephen Daldry CBE
Theatre, film and TV director and producer
Stephen is an award-winning director and producer. His first four films — Billy Elliot, The Hours, The Reader and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close —together received 19 Academy Award nominations and two wins. His hit theatre and musical productions include Billy Elliot the Musical (which won ten Tony awards), The Audience and Skylight. Stephen currently directs the critically acclaimed Netflix series The Crown.
Natasha Freedman
Director and producer
Chair of Improbable’s Board
Natasha is a creative director working across the arts. She was formerly Deputy Director of the culture and climate organisation Cape Farewell, Director of Education for theatre company Complicite, and Director of ENO Baylis, the learning programme for English National Opera. As a practicing artist she has led projects for Tate, the National Gallery, Royal College of Art and Royal Academy of Arts and is a regular visiting tutor at the National Film and Television School. She is on the board of Fevered Sleep, runs her own producing collective studio2909 and is Creative Producer for Cavendish Art Science.
Françoise Girard
CEO, Writer and Advocate
Françoise Girard is the CEO of Feminism Makes Us Smarter (FMUS.org), a feminist communications platform. A lawyer by training, she is an author, advocate and expert on women’s health, human rights, sexuality, HIV and AIDS and feminist movements. Girard was previously president of the International Women’s Health Coalition, and director of the Public Health Program at the Open Society Foundations. She chairs the Board of American Friends of Les Arts Florissants. She lives in New York with her husband David Knott and toy poodle Arthur.
Patrick Handley Partner and Co-Head of Energy and Resources at Brunswick, Theatre Investor
Patrick is co-head of the Energy & Resources group at Brunswick Group Advisory Ltd.. Located in London, he works extensively with colleagues across Brunswick’s global network advising clients in multiple geographies. In addition to being a board member of Improbable, he is a Trustee of AlumNI, the past pupils’ association for all integrated schools in Northern Ireland, which he co-founded. He is a former board member of the Young Vic Theatre and a regular investor in theatre projects.
Patrick is a keen fly fisherman and has travelled the world in pursuit of his hobby.
Pauline Mayers
Dancer, choreographer and theatre-maker
Pauline is a multidisciplinary theatre-maker based in Yorkshire. Pauline’s dance career spanned 15 years, dancing, teaching and working with contemporary dance choreographers and companies across the UK. Now making work in her own right, Pauline’s interest is in reframing spaces and histories through experiential art and culture. Pauline’s critically acclaimed solo show 2017’s What If I Told You toured to theatres throughout the UK and was a shortlisted nominee for the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award.
Pauline is an Associate Artist with the Leeds Playhouse and an Open Space Facilitator for Improbable.
Elspeth Murray
Poet and visual artist, General Manager of Puppet State Theatre Company
Elspeth has a broad range of experience as an arts practitioner, particularly with poetry and creative writing residencies and was featured in BBC Radio 4’s documentary Blood, Sweat, Tears and Poetry. She has a strong interest in the arts and health having worked as a trainer in Health Promotion and for a cancer network around patient and carer involvement in policy development. She is trained in Critical Response Process, has experience in facilitating Open Space events and is a big fan of Devoted & Disgruntled.
Elspeth is Chair of Puppet Animation Scotland.
Griselda Yorke
Deputy Lead Producer at RSC
Before joining the RSC, Griselda was Executive Producer for the pioneering immersive theatre company, Punchdrunk. Previously Griselda was Executive Director at Cheek by Jowl, producing and touring productions in three languages in the UK and around the world. Prior to that she was a Producer at the Barbican Theatre where projects included Robert Wilson and Tom Waits’ The Black Rider and Merce Cunningham’s Events. She has worked in New York, with Pomegranate Arts. Griselda also sits on the Board of the Cambridge Arts Theatre and is a mentor for the National Youth Theatre.
Benjamin Yeoh
Theatre-maker, podcaster, investor
Ben is an award winning theatre-maker, blogs and hosts a podcast at Ben Yeoh Chats. He is also a pension fund manager stewarding sustainable investments. He was previously chair of Talawa Theatre Company and Coney. He is an associate fellow at Chatham House, and a trustee of the London Mathematical Lab.