Our story…

Around a decade ago, two people from different professional backgrounds met at a community event: Louisa Lawrenson, actress, Megan Aspel, mental health charity worker and psychotherapist.

Louisa and her actor husband performed a scene highlighting men’s mental health. Megan saw how the power of drama brings alive the realities people live with and experience. A synergy of skills and ideas came together. Acting Out Productions was born.

Today we are a Surrey-based company of professional actors, writers, facilitators, mental health, health and social care and business leadership experts and consultants. Our clients across the UK and beyond trust us to deliver exceptional, powerful drama-based training programmes and workshops that achieve immediate and long-term results and impact.

We remain specialists in mental health and emotional wellbeing. However demand has also led us to diversify into a much broader range of subjects and situations impacting work, education and life.

Executive & Creative Directors

  • Concepts, writing / scripting, casting, acting, directing

    Louisa has over 20 years’ experience as a professional actor, role player, presenter, writer, director and facilitator working with a wide range of companies and organisations in both the private and public sectors. She creates whole training packages featuring interactive drama-based learning; scripting scenarios and incorporating different tools in innovative and memorable ways that embed the learning experience.

    Through this course creation, development, roleplay and facilitation work, Louisa is familiar with and has experience of working with a wide range of training models. Specialist work includes breaking bad news, difficult conversations, mental health awareness, personal resilience, conflict management, communication skills and unconscious bias. She is also a mental health first aider.

    Louisa’s work with Acting Out is incredibly important on a personal as well as professional level. Her husband lives with early on set Parkinson’s disease and dementia. So sadly, she has first-hand experience of some of the challenges that can be presented when dealing with mental wellbeing. Louisa knows how tough it can be navigating the world when life is not as simple as it once was!

    Clients that Louisa has worked with include: KBR, Mott MacDonald, NHS, County Councils UK wide (Social care, OTs, physios and other front line staff), Police, Prison Service, Armed forces, Time To Change, Sir Robert McAlpine, Lifebuild, KPMG, Langley House, The Fire Service, BMW, Toyota, Nesta, Vauxhall, Swarovski, Street angels, Crime Reduction Initiative, Homestart, Nestle, RSPCA, CCGs (nationwide), DMH Stallard, Simons and Simons.

    Louisa, who has appeared in the West End, on film and TV, is a highly skilled professional with a wide range of experience in different drama mediums. Louisa lives in Surrey with her husband (and full-time carers), her son and rescue dog Sparky.

  • Operational, research, concepts, writing, financial, mental wellbeing

    Megan’s career is broad and in the past, a little arbitrary she admits! It encompasses the glossy world of Vogue magazine, the down to earth (and muck) world of milk recording and the gritty world of mental health and psychotherapy.

    She began her career in copywriting and journalism at Vogue magazine.

    Wanting to bring up her son in the country Megan left full time employment at Vogue. She began freelancing, writing for Vogue and other glossy magazines. She was editor for an in-flight magazine and advertising copywriter for various blue-chip fashion and lifestyle companies.

    To supplement the variables of freelancing, Megan took on part time work a million years away from Vogue and the fashion world. Ever up for a challenge, she became a district nursing auxiliary and milk recorder for the milk marketing board!

    A move into the charity sector began in the early 2000s working in mental health and allied areas. Within that front line and strategic role, Megan initiated projects, strategies and campaigns to raise awareness around mental health. She produced two Surrey wide magazines, co-created with graphic designer Tom Aspel. One focused on women’s mental health, the other on drug and alcohol services – Sanctuary and Paraphernalia respectively.

    Whilst working full time, Megan studied for a BSc (Hons) degree and became a fully qualified, accredited (British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapist) counsellor / psychotherapist. She works with a range of clients from young people and adults, survivors of childhood sexual abuse and currently provides counselling for employees in the construction industry.

    CPD certification includes Mental Health First Aid – adults and young people; Suicide Prevention First Aid; Stress in the workplace; Unconscious Bias; personality profiling.

Associate Artistic Directors

Guy Oliver-Watts

Sarah Oliver-Watts

Michael Gilroy

Our Associate Directors are all professional actors. Their combined experience spans TV, film and stage, corporate and public sector training. They each have exceptional skills in acting, facilitation, course creation, role-play, directing and theatre training techniques.

Their work has taken them into many and varied fields and includes clients such as:

Foreign & Commonwealth Office, Home Office, NHS, Thames Water, Shell Shipping, BBMV Crossrail, Vodafone, Barclays Bank, Three Mobile, Roche, General Electric, Health Education England, Royal Mail, Education First, Munich Re Group, BP, MoD, National Crime Agency, Open University, Nat. Maritime Agency, The Royal Navy, Eurostar, Channel Tunnel Rail link, National Air Traffic Control Service, county police constabularies + Met police, St George’s / other hospital Trusts, Lloyds Bank, HMP Service, Multiple County councils, Probation Services, RC of Surgeons, RC of Psychiatrists, R.C. of Physicians, BAE Systems, Sellafield Ltd, Mace, Heathrow Airport Ltd, UK Power Network, KPMG, Tesco, BAA, British Transport Police, Royal Military Police, Sir Robert McAlpine, Prison Rehab services, UK Counter Terrorism, FBI and USA Homeland Security, Interview training in child protection units of UK Police Forces.

The team

Emma Howard-Allen
Young people lead

(contact us in the first instance)

Debbie Brown
Business consultant

enigma-insights.com

Will Chitty
Film / Video Consultant and Lead

(contact us in the first instance)

Tom Aspel
Graphic design consultant

aspelcreative.com

Our actors, trainers, facilitators and partners:

All our actors are self-employed professionals. This gives us a rich ‘pool’ of talent and experience that ranges from theatre, TV and film to specialist areas of focus for corporate and public sector training. Actors are cast according to subject matter and the demands of the scenario and characters we create to fulfil the client brief. Drawing on a wealth of experience and skills across age, diversity, gender, ethnicity and culture ensures we meet all clients’ expectations and requirements.

This is also true of our trainers and facilitators. Alongside the skills and expertise within our core team, we bring in other experts where the brief demands.