Biography
Having grown up in Ayrshire, it’s safe to say that I was introduced to the concept of public speaking at a very young age, with my primary school, ever the patriotic establishment, holding annual class Burns Verse speaking competitions right from the very beginning of P1 - competitions which, much to my surprise and delight, I actually won the majority of the time, going on to take part in several of the Garnock Valley events, as well as the full Ayrshire final, both of which I also won and were rousing personal successes. As well as this, a few years later, I was also furthered on to the Nationals, in which I managed to secure myself a relatively impressive tenth place in the wider Scottish leaderboard, earning myself sufficient bragging rights among many of my friends and peers.
My Dad, the social butterfly that he is, sometimes shared a few of my Burns performances on social media following my winnings, of which one, specifically my address to the haggis, actually caught the eye of a friend of his who was responsible for running a large charity Burns event at Oran Mor, Glasgow, in aid of cancer research, leading me to address the Haggis there as I gleefully stood next to comedy idol Karen Dunbar whilst she threatened me not to try and steal her spotlight. Safe to say, the evening was a great success. So much so, that I was asked if I would attend the following year to the same venue and recite a few other Burns poems alongside Elaine C. Smith, who, once again, much to my surprise, said she was impressed by my rendition, and asked me if I would like to attend the pantomime that year and come for a backstage tour and to meet the cast, an offer which, for lack of better phrasing, I jumped at!
As well as this, during the same year as my first performance, my dad’s social media post had also been seen by a teacher from my school, who then promptly asked me to address the haggis at the Garnock Community Campus inaugural Burns Dinner, an opportunity which, although not taken entirely serious by my younger self, who decided that it was an absolutely brilliant idea to try and order a spaghetti carbonara at what was very clearly a Scottish centric event, still went down fairly well in the end in spite of my naivety. Furthermore, as if the poem hadn’t been drilled into my brain enough, I was also asked to once again address the haggis at the Ayrshire Police Officers Burns Dinner in 2021, and while this never ended up going forward due to covid, I did receive decent compensation when I was also asked to lead the Scottish Police Rugby Team out onto the field to play the Australian Police Rugby team, and performed a rendition of Scot Wha Hae to the teams prior to the match.
Jumping back once again to my earlier years, I also frequently took part in the biannual primary school shows that were held in my town's church hall, in which the main roles were typically played by the P6/7 pupils. Usually, I only managed to get small roles in these productions, however, in P4, all of that changed when the main lead character had to call off sick the night before the first of 2 performances, and my parents received a call in which my teacher asked if I would be willing to step in, knowing that I pretty much already knew everyone else's lines and songs. Naturally, I jumped at the chance and took to the stage both nights in our production of Shakespeare Rocks as Romeo (In clothes that were a wee bit big for me!) acting and singing a solo.
Two years later, me now being a big P6, I landed one of the main roles in the school’s version of Ali Baba and the Bongo Bandits, playing the comical character of Mustaffa Widdle, the Sultana’s evil adviser who, for all intents and purposes, was basically just a poor man’s imitation of Jafar, but was still great fun to portray all the same!
I have also performed on stage several times with the school choir, including both at local events and also once at Glasgow Concert Hall, and have also helped out behind the scenes at local amateur dramatic shows.
From a young age I started attending PACE Youth Theatre in Paisley, a group which, among a few other things, mainly specialises in holding acting, movement and musical theatre workshops for young aspiring actors and artists, with them regularly putting on performances that feature both serious and comedic roles, almost all of which I have gotten a chance to play during my time there. During school holidays, I also have attended numerous workshops through PACE and again built towards performances at the end of the week/s
Previous Jobs:
Skills
* Acting. (Currently studying Performance at UWS in Ayr)
* Singing. (somewhere between tenor and baritone)
* Keyboard.
* Memorisation. (quick at picking up both lines and choreography/blocking)
* Experience with poetry.