Class Act | With James Cooney

12 Years ago she was starting LIPA as her home country voted in a new President. The more things change, the more they stay the same. To find out more about Tana and her work you can find her at tanasirois.com

Seeing as I have been asking other people to open up and share their experience, I felt it only right that I did the same thing. In this episode of Class Act you'll hear how progression in the acting industry is far from linear, and how, looking back, there was a large oversight in drama school training. And before you press play; No, I did not interview myself. That would be cringe. A big thank you to Polly Jordan for stepping in and doing such a great job.

Back when Facebook was brand new, Natalie was the first person I saw was going to be part of the Acting course in the LIPA 2008 FRESHERS GROUP. Little did I know that in the years following we would play opposite each other as husband and wife!  Back then I remember thinking to myself, "If Natalie doesn't work as an actor, none of us will." What I never thought to myself was, "Will she always want to be one?" A big thank you to Natalie for her openness in sharing her story. 

Grace is from Wales. She went to LIPA in Liverpool. Now she lives in Switzerland. Change is inevitable and Grace has dealt with some major changes in her life. Even as we come up to 10 years of friendship, I learn something completely new that I only wish I could have teased her about back in the day. Enjoy.

Hello and welcome to the first episode of Class Act, the reunion podcast which brings together the LIPA Acting Class of 2011 and asks: so what happened? Chris Aukett is (one of) my best friend(s). I know exactly what he's been up to most days since we met in one of the rehearsal rooms at LIPA.  But what I really wanted to know was how Chris looks back on his time at drama school. Chris opens up about the challenges of being surrounded by highly skilled people and how he has managed to balance his career with his personal well-being. 

These days she's called Holly Tempan, but back when we were at drama school we all knew her as Holly Gocoul. To her school kids, she decided it was probably best to keep it the same. Listen in to find out why!