FILM AND THEATRE
London-based Visual Artist & Set Designer
Maya Angeli
I am a Set Designer/Stylist currently living and working in London.
I started my career as a theatre and opera set&costume designer in Italy, Cyprus, Greece and London. I am highly experienced in developing projects from scratch to the very end. From the creative direction, image research and mock-up development to the supervision of the building team and collaboration with the sound and light designers at the end of the making process.
I like challenging myself accepting jobs from different backgrounds. I enjoy experimenting with scale and proportions, colours and different materials, light and shadow, observing and trying to create new worlds.
Storytelling and concept are very important in my work.
Contact details: mayaangeli677@hotmail.com
Oxford-based Visual artist, Filmmaker and Photographer
Thomas Nicolaou
Thomas Nicolaou is a British, Oxford based visual artist, graphic designer and tutor. Thomas studied printing, publishing and graphic design and worked for a number of years in publishing as a designer. The first book he made was the artists’ book Pensées with British artist Jeremy Deller. In 2008, his ‘Camden Chip Shop’ photograph was selected and screened as part of Street and Studio exhibition at Tate Modern. In 2016, he graduated from the MA Photographic Studies (now MA Photography Arts) course at the University of Westminster. His first London solo exhibition was at the Hellenic Centre, London, 2017.
Contact details: tom_nicuk@yahoo.co.uk
Surrey based Actor, Actress, Theatre Producer and Singer
Elena Hadjiafxendi
"Elena Hadjifaxendi is a Greek-Cypriot actress and soprano. Elena studied Opera at the Conservatory Elefthero in Greece, acting at the Drama School of National Theatre of Northern Greece and musical theatre at the Associated Studios in London. She graduated from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki with BA (Hons) Primary School Education and from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens with an MA in Drama and Education.
She has worked in the UK and Europe (Cyprus, Greece, Italy) with directors and musicians in classical and contemporary theatre, in musical theatre, operettas, cinema and television. These include but are not limited to Heinz-Uwe Haus, Fabio Tolledi, Mikis Theodorakis, George Hatzinasios, Spyros Evaggelatos, Alexandros Evklidis, Thanos Mikroutsikos, Elli Papakonstantinou.
Performance highlights include: EU IMMIGRANTS (Round House and Tate Modern, London), Cyprus’s Rhymes of Love (Paphos), Oedipus Rex and Women in Parliament ( Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus), The Daughter of the Storm (Athens Festival), Axios Esti (Union Chapel, London), The Lady from the Sea (National Theatre of Cyprus - THOC)."
Contact details: ehadjiafxendi@yahoo.com
London-based Set and Costume Designer
Petros Kourtellaris
Petros Kourtellaris is a Cyprus born, Wales trained and London based designer who works across the principles of set, costume and makeup. Upon finishing high school with distinction and completing his military service he enrolled at royal welsh college of music and drama. He graduated in 2020 with first class honours. In 2021, he was one of the 12 recipients of the Linbury Prize and has consequently showcased his work at the National theatre. He has worked both in theatre and film for prestigious projects for netflix, disney, and the bbc. His most recent project “Boy with a thousand faces” was a performance artist for Sessions x spel, which saw the exploration of three archetypes, a soldier, venus and the lady of the lent.
Contact details: kourtellarispetros@hotmail.com
Leeds-based Theatre Director
George Rodosthenous
George Rodosthenous is Professor of Theatre Directing at the School of Performance and Cultural Industries of the University of Leeds, UK. He is the Artistic Director of the theatre company 'Altitude North' and also works as a freelance director/composer for the theatre.
Contact details: rodis98@hotmail.com rodosthenous
Hertfordshire-based Filmmaker
Panayiota Panteli
Panayiota graduated from the prestigious Screenwriting MA at the University of Arts London, London College of Communication. She has since been selected for the BFI Network Writer's Lab and the BFI Network Feature Treatment Lab at the AMPLIFY! Film Festival, London Playwriting Lab and most recently, BFI Network South East Short Film Development Programme. Her debut play, BACK TO HACKNEY, which she wrote, produced and directed received critical praise, with The Camden New Journal calling it "an important reminder of how the sick and disabled have borne the brunt of austerity." Panayiota is a second generation Greek-Cypriot based in the South East and is in post production on her first industry supported short film.
Contact Details: museatmidnightltd@gmail.com
London-based Actress
Daphne Alexander
Daphne was born in Cyprus and trained at Oxford University and LAMDA. She started off as regular character Nadia Talianos on BBC’s iconic series “Casualty”. TV and film include: “House of Saddam” (HBO/BBC), “The Amazing Mrs Pritchard” (BBC), Polanski’s film “The Ghost Writer”, “Beckett” and “The Fourth Kind” with Universal Pictures. She played the lead female role in award-winning short film “The Palace” by Anthony Maras, and in Cypriot feature film “The Siege on Liperti Street” by Stavros Pamballis, which won five awards at Thessaloniki Film Festival. Recently she has taken part in “Smyrna my Beloved”, and stars in horror comedy feature “Minore”. Films “The Hunted”, “Loose Strands”, “Pomegranate “ and “A Night in Bath” are out next year. Stage highlights include City Stories at 59E59 in NYC and Hidden in the Sand (a play about Cyprus) at London’s Trafalgar Studios. She has also worked in Greece and has recently taken part in series Zoi for Antenna+ and the play Marshall Plan with the Athens and Epidaurus Festival 2023. Voice highlights include her portrayal of iconic heroine Modesty Blaise for BBC radio 4.
Contact Details: alexanderdaphne@gmail.com
London-based Visual Artist and Film Maker
Ronis Varlaam
RONIS VARLAAM has studied filmmaking at the London Film School and has produced and directed several documentaries, mainly for Channel 4 (Including ‘The Green Line – Cyprus' as Co-Director. It can be found on YouTube). Gradually his interests moved to art in general and now his practice includes painting, photography, videos and conceptual art. But he is primarily a painter. His series THE NATURE OF THINGS is an experimental series that started figuratively moved to abstraction and back to figuration. He now uses a new way of applying paint to figurative paintings. It is probably only the 5th way of doing so in the 50,000 history of painting. He has taken part in more than 30 exhibitions including the Jerwood Drawing Prize exhibitions, Creekside Open, Discerning Eye, National Open Art and at the Royal Watercolour Society, The Melina Mercouri Hall, Nicosia, Florean Museum in Romania, Scope Art in Miami and at events at the Venice Biennale and the Louvre. He is the Editor of a new online art magazine ART_LOVE. The link is https://bit.ly/ART_LOVE and is on Instagram as art_lovemagazine.
Contact Details: ronisvarlaam@hotmail.com
London-based Actress
Daphne Alexander
Daphne was born in Cyprus and trained at Oxford University and LAMDA. She started off as regular character Nadia Talianos on BBC’s iconic series “Casualty”. TV and film include: “House of Saddam” (HBO/BBC), “The Amazing Mrs Pritchard” (BBC), Polanski’s film “The Ghost Writer”, “Beckett” and “The Fourth Kind” with Universal Pictures. She played the lead female role in award-winning short film “The Palace” by Anthony Maras, and in Cypriot feature film “The Siege on Liperti Street” by Stavros Pamballis, which won five awards at Thessaloniki Film Festival. Recently she has taken part in “Smyrna my Beloved”, and stars in horror comedy feature “Minore”. Films “The Hunted”, “Loose Strands”, “Pomegranate “ and “A Night in Bath” are out next year. Stage highlights include City Stories at 59E59 in NYC and Hidden in the Sand (a play about Cyprus) at London’s Trafalgar Studios. She has also worked in Greece and has recently taken part in series Zoi for Antenna+ and the play Marshall Plan with the Athens and Epidaurus Festival 2023. Voice highlights include her portrayal of iconic heroine Modesty Blaise for BBC radio 4.
Contact Details: alexanderdaphne@gmail.com
London-based Director, Fillmaker, Motion Capture and Virtual Production
Giorgos Othonos
Hello, my name is Giorgos Othonos, I was born in Limassol, Cyprus, and in 2018 I moved to the United Kingdom to study Film Technology and Visual Effects. With a strong background in virtual production, Unreal Engine, and motion capture technology.
I am currently based in London, England, where I work as a Junior Performance Capture Technician at Centroid Motion Capture. Previously, I worked as a Location Marshal at New Pictures, where I provided valuable support to TV production crews, including cleaning locations, moving video villages, and assisting actors on set.
My educational journey includes earning a Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Film Technology and Visual Effects from Birmingham City University and in Multimedia from Cyprus University of Technology. Throughout my academic and professional career, I've been actively involved in various film-related roles, including producer, director, editor, and motion capture technician in student film projects.
In summary, I am deeply passionate about virtual production and technology, and my diverse experiences reflect my commitment to the field.
Contact details: giorgosothonosmart@gmail.com
London-based actress
Chrisanthi Livadiotis
I am an actor, artist, and activist. I began acting with ACT (Anglo Cypriot Theatre) group in Cyprus. I went on to graduate in BA Drama with a First Class Honours degree from Queen Mary University of London, during which I undertook a semester abroad at Columbia University in New York.
I was co-founder, rehearsal director and performer at Stage 3 - an award-winning People Palace Projects participatory theatre experience that generates discussion about migration, discrimination, and belonging (Gate Theatre and UK tour).
Commissioned to create ‘Filo Pastry’; a dive into my great grandfathers experience of Cypriot migration to London in the 1930s, for ‘;an Ethnography’ and ‘Eyes Wide Open’ project.
As an actor, I recently returned to London after performing two plays with a touring theatre company based in France and Belgium.
As a performance maker, I have co-created ‘Safari’, a verbatim piece which touches on voyeurism, surveillance and the male gaze, performed at Theatre Deli as part of Shift and Space and showcased and supported by Camden People’s Theatre, Battersea Arts Centre, and Runt of the Litter.
My upcoming projects involve a hybrid residency with Theatre in Palm.
London-based Theatre Director, Singer, Interactive Performance, Installation Artist
Pavlos Christodoulou
I am an artist and theatre maker working at the intersection of live art, immersive experience and performance. I’ve worked as a director and maker in theatres and festivals across the UK and have experience working with artistic collaborators, professional actors, young people and different communities. At the heart of my work is the invitation to play, and in accepting this invitation, an audience forms a temporary community that thinks collectively about complex ideas through games and joyful encounters. I often focus on ‘small p’ politics and finding the grey in an attempt to resist binaries. My work is optimistic about the power and desire of people to imagine a better world and way of living. It can look very different every time, and I believe in creating transparent structures that openly declare how they work to make the work accessible and unintimidating. I am currently developing a series of work under the name Chatterbox, a standalone audio immersive experience tailored to a variety of topics that invites audiences into a sound world which can facilitate them slowing down and encountering ideas and each other in a new way.
Contact details: pavlos.c.artist@gmail.com
London-based Set and Costume Designer
Daphne Chrysostomides
Daphne was born in Cyprus and trained at Oxford University and LAMDA. She started off as regular character Nadia Talianos on BBC’s iconic series “Casualty”. TV and film include: “House of Saddam” (HBO/BBC), “The Amazing Mrs Pritchard” (BBC), Polanski’s film “The Ghost Writer”, “Beckett” and “The Fourth Kind” with Universal Pictures. She played the lead female role in award-winning short film “The Palace” by Anthony Maras, and in Cypriot feature film “The Siege on Liperti Street” by Stavros Pamballis, which won five awards at Thessaloniki Film Festival. Recently she has taken part in “Smyrna my Beloved”, and stars in horror comedy feature “Minore”. Films “The Hunted”, “Loose Strands”, “Pomegranate “ and “A Night in Bath” are out next year. Stage highlights include City Stories at 59E59 in NYC and Hidden in the Sand (a play about Cyprus) at London’s Trafalgar Studios. She has also worked in Greece and has recently taken part in series Zoi for Antenna+ and the play Marshall Plan with the Athens and Epidaurus Festival 2023. Voice highlights include her portrayal of iconic heroine Modesty Blaise for BBC radio 4.
Contact details: alexanderdaphne@gmail.com
London-based Film Director, Film Maker and Film Producer
Athena Mandis
Athena Mandis – Athena is a second generation Greek Cypriot award-winning filmmaker and a Lecturer in Film Practice at QMUL, whose journey began in theatre with the David Glass Ensemble. Her work has screened at festivals world-wide. Her feature film script XENOS won best script at Cyprus IFF 2018, selected onto the Torino Film Lab 2019 and shortlisted for Sundance Screenwriters Lab 2021. Losing Grace has been screened at over 60 IFFs and has won numerous awards and is being developed into a feature for 2023. Her short THE RETURN, was selected for last year’s Pitch Lab in Drama, Greece. She is developing a slate of feature projects focused on Greece and Cyprus.
Contact Details: athenamandis72@gmail.com
Wales-based Film Director and Screenwriter
Alkin Emirali
White Hope, a biopic of the first British Black cycling champion was awarded funded script development from Film Wales. It was selected for PFM (’23). Frontline Autos, is a part packaged feature film with LOI’s from notable cast including Javone Prince, Aaron Phagura and Mo Sesay. In June 2018, Alkin was the recipient of prestigious funding from Creative Europe for the feature film script Goats & Sheep, a foreign language film set in 1920’s Cyprus (optioned by Perfect Motion). Currently in post production on his 5th short film A Father’s Love is a proof-of-concept for a feature starring Mo Sesay. Alkin’s 4th short film as writer-director In Another Life (Sept ’22), is a 10 minute drama about profound love and the ultimate sacrifice, it won awards at Toronto Film & Script Awards, Boston Independent Film Awards, and Toronto Indie Shorts it also made official selection at Venice Shorts, California and Aladerri International Film Festival and BAFTA nominating Carmarthen Bay Film Festival. His previous short film, Our Cyprus, was a semi-finalist at the Sao Paolo Film Festival, secured distribution with Shorts TV and was selected as part of the Cyprus Short Film Day in Nov ’19.
Contact Details: alkin@btinternet.com
London-based Film Maker and Film Director
Talat Gokdemir
Talat Gokdemir (writer/director) is a Cypriot filmmaker. He has an interest in telling stories drawn from his experience of growing up in Cyprus and pursues this by making short films. He developed his screenplay Haftasonu at the IN_Script residential workshop in Lithuania and directed the film in 2016. His most recent film Konsomatris (2020) explored toxic masculinity in Turkish Cypriot culture. He developed his new short film Night Shift through the Midpoint Shorts programme and pitched it at the When East Meets West co-production forum in 2022. Talat currently works in Public Engagement at Imperial College London.
Contact Details: talat@talatgokdemir.com
London-based Actress, Roleplayer, Voiceover Artist and Moderator
Lucy Christofi Christy
I trained at Rose Bruford School of Speech and Drama, London. I obtained a BA Degree. I have worked in both radio, voice, stage and screen in the UK and Cyprus both in Greek/Cypriot and English language. I was honoured to play the lead opposite the wonderful Paul Phaedro Stassino in a Cyprus TV series as well as featuring in various award winning feature films in Cyprus including, 'The Road to Ithaka' by Costas Dimitriou and Panikos Chrysanthou's 'Akamas'. In the UK, I have appeared on TV, music videos, feature films as well as many award winning short films. I can still be seen on TV in repeats of 'The Bill'! I have performed in many theatrical productions in English and Greek/Cypriot. I have been in one women shows, modern plays and the Greek Classics and Shakespeare plays. I have a long relationship with Theatro Technis in London having performed in many shows there. More recently I was a speaker for the first 'Cyprus Diaspora Forum' that took place in Limassol.
Contact Details: lucy_christy@yahoo.co.uk
London-based photographer
Alexis Andreou
Alexis Andreou is a London based documentary photographer and visual artist whose work deals with contemporary matters of war aftermath and bordering practises. His work is an intersection of issues around the agency of memory, the narration of unbiased history, the experience of trauma, and the role that visual culture and photographic representation plays in relation to those. The main focus of his work looks at the aftermath of the 1964-1974 events of conflict that took place in Cyprus between Greek-Cypriots and Turkish-Cypriots prior to the division of the island and the population exchange that took place as a result of that.
Contact details: alexis@andreoualexis.com