Jonathan Howard

Hey! My name is Jonny Howard, I’m a British actor, director and theatre practitioner with a career that has taken me from performing and directing professionally to spending more than a decade working internationally as a Drama and Theatre educator. Now, I’m returning to professional performance with something I didn’t have fifteen years ago: experience, perspective, confidence and a far greater understanding of what it takes to tell a story truthfully and connect with an audience. Originally from The Wirral, North West England, I trained in Professional Musical Theatre at The Hammond School, Chester and then obtained a First Class BA Hons in Professional Practice in Performing Arts. My early career was rooted in performance, theatre-making and directing, with my first paid directing credit when I was just 17, but my time in education has arguably been one of the most valuable chapters of my professional development. For more than ten years, I have worked with young performers across the UK, Venezuela, Brazil and Mexico, directing productions, developing performers and building successful Drama and Theatre programmes from scratch. I have worked across contemporary theatre, devised performance, physical theatre, puppetry, musical theatre and international theatrical traditions, while working with students following the English National Curriculum, Cambridge IGCSE, MYP and IB Diploma programmes. Teaching has made me a far more perceptive performer and director. Every day has required me to understand people quickly, communicate clearly, adapt to different personalities and circumstances, think on my feet and create an environment in which people feel confident enough to take risks. Those are skills that translate directly into acting, voice work, directing and improvisation. I have directed productions ranging from intimate contemporary pieces and devised work to large-scale musical theatre in professional venues, working with performers of very different ages, abilities and levels of experience. I have also built departments from the ground up and consistently achieved exceptional examination and performance outcomes, including 100% A*–B results at IGCSE and 100% grades 6–7 in IB Theatre. More importantly, I have helped performers develop the resilience, discipline, curiosity and professionalism required to progress into further training and the performing arts industry. A selection of my work can be found on my YouTube page, see below for the link! That experience has also given me a particularly strong understanding of what happens on the other side of the audition room. I know how performers can be made to feel comfortable, how direction can unlock a better performance, and how important it is to listen, respond and remain open to adjustment. I understand the pressures of rehearsal rooms, auditions and live performance—and I genuinely come alive in the rehearsal room and love the collaborative nature of the work. I’m now looking to bring all of that experience back into professional theatre and screen work. I’m particularly interested in supporting roles and extra work, voice-over, theatre performance and directing, but I’m also very open to opportunities that allow me to use the breadth of skills I have developed throughout my career. I may not be the actor who has spent the last fifteen years pursuing a conventional career exclusively in front of the camera. What I offer instead is a slightly unusual combination: a trained and experienced performer, an accomplished director, an educator who has spent years analysing and developing performance, and someone who has lived and worked across several different cultures and environments. Fifteen years ago, I had ambition and enthusiasm. Today, I have those things plus experience, emotional maturity, resilience, versatility and a much deeper understanding of people and performance. I’m returning to the industry because I still love performing—and because I believe I now have considerably more to offer it. I’m ready to take the risk. I hope someone else will take one on me.