The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 different shows in 322 venues. Established in 1947 as an alternative to the Edinburgh International Festival, it takes place in Edinburgh every August. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe has become a world-leading celebration of arts and culture, surpassed only by the Olympics and the World Cup in terms of global ticketed events. As an event it "has done more to place Edinburgh in the forefront of world cities than anything else" according to historian and former chairman of the board, Michael Dale.
Ivan Heng is a Singaporean actor and theatre director of Peranakan descent. He is the founding artistic director of W!LD RICE, a theatre company in Singapore, and an outspoken advocate for respect for diversity and freedom of expression.
Raza Jaffrey is a British actor and singer. He is known for his roles as Zafar Younis in the BBC One spy drama series Spooks (2004–2007) and Neal Hudson in the CBS medical drama Code Black (2015). He also had a recurring role as Aasar Khan in season 4 of the Showtime series Homeland (2014). More recently, he appeared in the NBC series The Enemy Within (2019) and the Starz series The Serpent Queen (2022–).
The Necessary Stage is a Singaporean non-profit theatre company with charity status. Formed in 1987 by Alvin Tan, The Necessary Stage was established with its own mission to create challenging, indigenous and innovative theatre that touches the heart and mind. The Necessary Stage is a recipient of the National Arts Council's Major Grant FY2014-2016, and is also the organiser of the annual M1 Singapore Fringe Festival. It is currently located at the Marine Parade Community Building.
Gallimaufry Performing Arts is a theater and dance company founded in 2004 in Laguna Beach, California by Steve Josephson, the current Executive Artistic Director.
Peter "Pete" Firman is an English magician, comedian, television presenter and actor.
Poppy Jhakra is an English actress from West Yorkshire. She is best known for her roles in Waterloo Road and Coronation Street.
Jonathan Holloway is an English theatre director and playwright. He founded and directed two professional companies in British fringe and touring theatre in the 1980s and 1990s, notably Red Shift Theatre Company. His work has won three Edinburgh Fringe First awards, the Shakespeare Prize at Chile's World Festival of Theatre in 1993, and in 2013 his BBC version of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four won a First Prize at the Prix Italia. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and in 2005 he was made an Honorary Fellow of St Mary's University, Twickenham.
Belt Up Theatre was a British theatre company based in the north of England. Company directors Dominic J Allen, Jethro Compton, James Wilkes and Alexander Wright met whilst attending the University of York. The foursome set up the company in 2008 in the city of York.
Red Ladder Theatre Company is a national touring theatre company, funded by the Arts Council England and Leeds City Council. It is based at the Yorkshire Dance Centre, Leeds.
Peshkar Productions is an intercultural theatre and multimedia art company based in the Northwest of England. It engages in participatory projects and professional productions.
Katie Cariad Lloyd is a British comedian, actress, writer, and podcaster. A member of the improvisational comedy group Austentatious, the host and creator of Griefcast, and an improv teacher, she has been performing since 2007.
Ningali Josie Lawford, also known as Ningali Lawford-Wolf and Josie Ningali Lawford, was an Aboriginal Australian actress known for her roles in the films Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002), Bran Nue Dae (2009), and Last Cab to Darwin (2015), for which she was nominated for the AACTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role.
Saikat Ahamed is an English actor and writer based in Bristol. He is best known for his role of Vince Arya in Monday Monday.
Mohammed Tehzeeb Ilyas, popularly known as "Tez" Ilyas, is a British Pakistani stand-up comedian. He is best known for starring in BBC Three comedy Man Like Mobeen and presenting satirical comedy programme The Tez O'Clock Show on Channel 4.
Rosie Fleeshman is an English actress. She has worked as an actress since the age of 10, beginning her career in the Peter Pan stage play at The Lowry Salford. In addition to an extensive stage experience, she has regularly recorded radio plays for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 7.
Paul Lucas was an American playwright and producer based in New York City. He was best known for his play, Trans Scripts, Part I: The Women, which won a Fringe First award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and a High Commendation from Amnesty International for Freedom of Expression, and was performed by the American Repertory Theater at Harvard University.
Morag Shepherd is a Scottish-American playwright, screenwriter, producer and director.
John-Luke Roberts is a British stand-up comedian, writer, actor and performer.
Iqbal Khan is a theatre director. He is associate director at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre and Associate Artist of Box Clever Theatre Company.
