Meet the Team: Lost and Found

Meet the team ↓

Black and white photo of Oliver Jeffers sat on a black leather chair

Oliver Jeffers – Writer

While investigating the ways the human mind understands its world, Oliver Jeffers’ work functions as comic relief in the face of futility. His latest book, Begin Again, is a powerful and thought-provoking visual examination of the state of the world, building upon his artistic exploration of humankind’s impact on itself and on our planet. Featuring Jeffers’ bold and iconic art, Begin Again follows humankind on its journey through history, sharing profound, sometimes poignant, commentary on our present, and then offers a challenge: where do we go from here?

Jeffers’ engagements and practice are truly international in scope. His critically acclaimed picture books have been translated into over 50 languages and sold over 14 million copies worldwide. His original artwork has been exhibited at such institutions as the Brooklyn Museum in New York, the National Portrait Gallery in London, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.

Jeffers has been the recipient of numerous awards, including a New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Books Award, BolognaRagazzi Award, an Emmy Award for Studio AKA and Apple Original’s adaptation of Here We Are, and an MBE from Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for services to the arts. Begin Again was published in October 2023.

Will Brenton – Adaptation and Direction

Will Brenton was born in Leeds but grew up in Liverpool. After 18 years without any real idea of what he wanted to do, he started bunking off art college to do local theatre shows and decided to try drama school. This decision led Will to being expelled from art college, an event which he claims has always made him ‘curiously proud’. They actually let him back in, but this doesn’t sound as ‘rock and roll’, he says.

As a professional actor, Will starred in Godspell and Lark Rise to Candleford (Nottingham Playhouse), The Meg and Mog Show (Unicorn Theatre and National Tour), and in the West End’s Blood Brothers (playing Sammy opposite Kiki Dee and Stephanie Lawrence). TV included Inspector Morse, Flying Lady and presenting on the BBC’s Playdays.

Whilst at Playdays, Brenton trained to direct and went on to direct more than 100 episodes before directing the location-based art show Bitsa, after which he moved into a two-year stint directing Coronation Street and Emmerdale. That’s when, Will says: ‘I really understood that it doesn’t matter what age group our audience is, what is important is always the story, character and relevance. We don’t change much as we grow up…’

Since then, he has co-created, written, produced and directed some of the UK’s best-known programs for children, including Tweenies, Jim Jam and Sunny, Boo!, Fun Song Factory, BB3B, Wibbly Pig, Mighty-Mites, and Florrie’s Dragons. He has also won a BAFTA, a Royal Television Society Award and had six BAFTA nominations and another 14 awards and nominations.

As well as TV, Brenton has also written, co-written and directed over 30 live shows, from traditional pantomimes to huge arena shows, including seven CBeebies Live tours, seven Tweenies Live! tours as well as the Dr Who Live: The Monsters are Coming! arena tour, starring Matt Smith (via video) and Nigel Planer, which opened at Wembley Stadium.

Most recently, Brenton has adapted Oliver Jeffers’ Lost and Found for Factory International, partnering with Gruff Rhys, a fantastic solo artist and frontman of Super Furry Animals.

‘The trick is not just telling the story’, Will says, ‘but finding it in the first place. Where does the story really connect with an audience and why? After all, the most important part of any production, be it TV or theatre, is the audience because, in the end, it should be all for them.’

Black and white photo of Will Brenton with a pen in his mouth

Gruff Rhys – Music

Gruff Rhys is a songwriter and musician from Wales who has consistently explored the potential of the song as an opportunity for wider cultural chaos. Starting out as a teenage songwriter in fuzzy Welsh language outlaws Ffa Coffi Pawb, he then formed Super Furry Animals – a band able to achieve that rarest of mixes, artistic adventure with popular devotion on a global scale. As half of electro duo Neon Neon, Rhys has documented the lives of maverick car maker John DeLorean and Italian activist and publisher Giangiacomo Feltrinelli in high-concept widescreen biographical albums and shows. His 20-year solo career has seen him follow a variety of musical and thematic paths that combine melodic richness and intricate guitar playing subverted by questioning lyrics and wordplay.

Over the past decade, he’s seen his Candylion album adapted into a successful stage play, while his 2014 album American Interior was conceived jointly as a feature film and book. He has conceived and soundtracked multiple films, most recently 2022’s The Almond and the Seahorse starting Rebel Wilson and Charlotte Gainsbourg. His seventh and most recent solo album, Seeking New Gods, became his most commercially successful solo album yet, reaching the top 10 in the UK charts, with follow up album Sadness Sets Me Free out in early 2024. Whether through his music, collaborations or multimedia projects, Rhys continues to inspire audiences worldwide with his boundless creativity and unwavering commitment to artistic exploration through the medium of song.

Jean Chan – Set and Costume Designer

Jean Chan studied at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, graduating in 2008 with a BA (Hons) degree in Theatre Design. She went on to work as a resident designer as part of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Trainee Design Programme 2008–2009. In 2009, she won the Linbury Prize for Stage Design.

Her theatre designs include: The Meaning of Zong (Barbican and Bristol Old Vic); Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare’s Globe); Reasons You Should(n’t) Love Me and The Darkest Part of the Night (Kiln Theatre); Pinocchio and The Garbage King (Unicorn Theatre); Open Mic (online; an ETT and Soho Theatre co-production in association with HOME); Wild Goose Dreams and Plastic (Theatre Royal Bath); This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing (UK Tour); Dick Whittington and Jack and the Beanstalk (Lyric Hammersmith); Ticking (Trafalgar Studios); The Witches, James and the Giant Peach and The BFG (Dundee Rep); Jumpy and Hedda Gabler (The Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh); The Season Ticket (Northern Stage); Cyrano de Bergerac (Royal and Derngate and Northern Stage); Petula, Mother Courage and Her Children, Bordergames and Tonypandemonium (National Theatre Wales). Her opera designs include La Calisto (Longborough Festival Opera).

Her costume designs include: Miss Saigon (Folketeateret, Oslo); Legally Blonde (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Knight’s Tale (Toho Theatre, Japan); The Grinning Man (Trafalgar Studios and Bristol Old Vic); Aladdin (Lyric Hammersmith); and Lionboy (Tricycle Theatre, UK Tour). Her associate designs include: Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Theatre Cocoon, Japan); The James Plays (Edinburgh Festival Theatre, National Theatre); Lionboy (Tricycle Theatre, UK Tour); Five Guys Named Moe (Underbelly and Theatre Royal Stratford East); and Monsters (Arcola Theatre).

Jean Chan wearing black rimmed glasses and a grey t-shirt

Olly Taylor in a blue t-shirt with greenery behind him

Olly Taylor – Puppetry Director

Olly is a highly sort-after puppeteer, puppetry consultant and puppetry director. In the theatre he has worked for various pantomime producers, Fierylight, Little Angel Theatre and the BBC. Olly has directed many puppetry and stage shows for Merlin Entertainments.

As a producer and director for his own company, Olly has originated many of his own productions: The Ho Ho Ho Christmas Show, The Ho Ho Ho Mrs Christmas Show, Dr Ranj’s Teddy Bear Hospital, and The Spooky Magic Show.

He was Puppet Captain for Apple TV’s Lovely Little Farm and was a principal performer in the epic production of Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance for Netflix. Other TV and film credits include Asteroid City, Sky’s Cinderella: After Ever After, Spitting Image, Star Wars: Episodes VI and VII, Solo: A Star Wars Story, Muppets Most Wanted, Teletubbies, and Get Well Soon. Recently Olly has been performing the principal puppet character for the forthcoming Netflix series Eric.

In commercials Olly has performed and acted as puppetry consultant for many UK and international campaigns for brands including Mars, Nestlé, Travelodge, Churchill Insurance, Halifax and many more.

Jess Williams – Movement and Associate Director

Jess Williams works as a Movement Director, Director and performer. She trained at the London Contemporary Dance School and Trinity Laban. Most recently, Jess has been working at the National Theatre on The Boy with Two Hearts and Ocean at the End of the Lane, and at Theatre by the Lake on Around the World in 80 Days. Jess works closely with Frantic Assembly as an Associate Director and Creative Practitioner. Her credits for Frantic Assembly include I Think We Are Alone and The Unreturning as Associate Director and for the National Theatre’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time as Associate Movement Director. Jess is also a Creative Associate of ThickSkin Theatre, based in Manchester.

Her other recent credits include: Dracula: Mina’s Reckoning (National Theatre of Scotland); Celebrated Virgins (Theatr Clwyd); Blood Harmony and Petrichor (ThickSkin Theatre); Sorry, I Disappeared (Derby Theatre); Beginning (National Theatre, Queens Theatre, Hornchurch); A Walk is Not Just a Walk (Lyric Theatre Belfast); One flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (English Theatre Frankfurt); Constellations (National Centre for Performing Arts, Mumbai); and Merched Caerdydd (Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru). As an experienced workshop leader and teacher she has led workshops and masterclasses all over the world in devising and physicality.

Photo by Ben Wulf.

Jess Williams wearing a green shirt against a grey background

Jordan Li-Smith wearing clear rimmed glasses and a grey shirt

Jordan Li-Smith – Musical Director

Jordan Li-Smith is an award-winning musical director, conductor, writer and composer/lyricist. He made his West End debut conducting the Donmar Warehouse revival of City of Angels. His musical direction has been hailed as ‘impeccable’ (The Stage), and elsewhere it’s been described that he conducts ‘with a ferocity, an impassioned clarity, that reminds one of Leonard Bernstein’ (Live Theatre UK). He recently finished conducting the 2023 China Tour of Titanic The Musical. He is currently music supervisor for the development of a new cult musical, Starry, based on the life of Vincent van Gogh.

His other music direction credits include: One Man, Two Guvnors (Octagon Theatre Bolton, Liverpool Playhouse and Theatre By The Lake); The Lion (Southwark Playhouse); Berlusconi: A New Musical (Southwark Playhouse); Michael John LaChiusa’s Queen of the Mist (Jack Studio Theatre, transfer to Charing Cross Theatre – winner, Off West End Award for Best Musical Director); Ragtime (Charing Cross Theatre – winner, Off West End Award for Best Musical Direction and Best Musical Production); and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Manchester Cathedral).

Jordan recently made his debut as a writer and composer with The Boy Who Sailed the Ocean in an Armchair, adapted from the novel by Lara Williamson, at Curve Theatre, Leicester in August 2023 and produced by the National Youth Music Theatre, where it was noted that his ‘vision and ability cements himself as one to watch for future new musicals’ (All Things Theatre). Jordan studied at the Royal Academy of Music, supported by the Sir Elton John Scholarship and Help Musicians UK. He is from Wrexham, North Wales, and is based in London.

Jai Morjaria – Lighting Designer

Jai Morjaria trained at RADA and won The Association of Lighting Designers’ ETC Prize 2016. His theatre design credits include: Macbeth (International Tour); Accidental Death of an Anarchist (Theatre Royal Haymarket, Lyric Hammersmith and Crucible, Sheffield); Cuckoo and Graceland (Royal Court); Othello (National Theatre); The Real & Imagined History of the Elephant Man (Nottingham Playhouse and UK Tour); Birthmarked (Bristol Old Vic and Assembly Rooms – Ballroom); The Magic Finger and Anansi the Spider (Unicorn Theatre); My Son’s A Queer, (But what can you do?) (Ambassadors Theatre, Garrick Theatre, Underbelly and The Turbine Theatre); The Trials (Donmar Warehouse); Chasing Hares (Young Vic); Wuthering Heights (St Ann’s Warehouse, National Theatre and US Tour); For Tonight (Adelphi Theatre); Uncanny: I Know What I Saw (UK Tour); Scissors (Sheffield Theatres); Cruise (Duchess Theatre); August in England, House of Ife and Lava (Bush Theatre); WORTH (Arcola Theatre and New Earth Theatre); The Cherry Orchard (The Yard and HOME Manchester); Cherry Jezebel (Liverpool Everyman); Big Big Sky and The Hoes (Hampstead Theatre); The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (Northern Stage); Out Of The Dark (Rose Theatre); Shuck 'n' Jive and Whitewash (Soho Theatre); I’ll Take You To Mrs. Cole! (Complicité); Glory (The Dukes); Cuzco (Theatre503); Losing Venice (Orange Tree Theatre); 46 Beacon (Trafalgar Studios); Out There on Fried Meat Ridge Road (White Bear Theatre and Trafalgar Studios 2); and Acorn (Courtyard Theatre; Off West End Award nomination for Best Lighting).

Jai Morjaria wearing a bright purple shirt in front of a green hedge

Alexandra Faye Braithwaite in a black beanie, glasses and striped t-shirt

Alexandra Faye Braithwaite – Sound Designer

Alexandra Faye Braithwaite’s recent credits include: Sound of the Underground (Royal Court); The Good Person of Szechwan (Lyric Hammersmith and Sheffield Theatres); The Wonderful World of Dissocia (Theatre Royal Stratford East); Bloody Elle (Lyric Theatre, Soho Theatre, Traverse Theatre, and Royal Exchange Theatre); Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Wuthering Heights and Light Falls (Royal Exchange Theatre); The Narcissist (Chichester Festival Theatre); Endurance (HOME Manchester); Anna Karenina, Operation Crucible and Chicken Soup (The Crucible, Sheffield); Groan Ups (Vaudeville Theatre and UK Tour); The Snow Queen (Polka Theatre); Uncanny: I Know What I Saw (UK Tour); How Not To Drown (Traverse and Theatre Royal Stratford East); The Cavalcaders (Druid Theatre); Good Luck, Studio (Mercury Theatre); Kes (Bolton Octagon); The Climbers (Theatre By The Lake); Things of Dry Hours (Young Vic); A Christmas Carol (Theatr Clwyd); My Name Is Rachel Corrie (Al Madina Theatre, Beirut); Cougar, The Rolling Stone and Dealing with Clair (Orange Tree Theatre); Dublin Carol (Sherman Theatre); Hamlet, Talking Heads and Rudolf (Leeds Playhouse); The Audience and Juicy and Delicious (Nuffield Theatre); The Remains of Maisie Duggan (Abbey Theatre); Toast and Enough (Traverse Theatre); and When I Am Queen (Almeida Theatre).

Keyframe Studios – Animation

Established in 2009, Keyframe Studios is an award-winning London-based animation studio with a small team of 20, producing broadcast content for pre-school audiences through to adult comedy as well as interactive media, theatre, and events. Keyframe has over a decade of experience producing story driven content that aims to complement and transport audiences.

Studio founder Asa Movshovitz is a recipient of a British Animation Award, and creative producer Matthew Freeman's work with video and projection content started with the Menier Chocolate Factory's much-lauded production of Sondheim's Sunday in the Park with George in 2005, going onto successful transfers in London's West End and on Broadway. Asa and Matthew first worked together on projection content for corporate client Proctor and Gamble in 2010, for Hairworld staged at the Porte de Versailles in Paris.

Recent credits for which Keyframe Studios has provided projection content for theatrical productions include Baby Shark Live the touring production, the pantomime Aladdin directed by Will Brenton (Wolverhampton Grand Theatre, 2023), and multiple theatre shows for new productions staged on P&O’s flagship cruise liners Iona and Arvia.

Recent broadcast credits include Series 1 and 2 of Dead Pixels for Channel 4, created and written by multiple Emmy and BAFTA recipient Jon Brown and Bea’s Block, a pre-school series for Sesame Studios/A Productions Ltd launched in the UK on Sky in October 2023.

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