Bring Your Training to Life With Role Play

Stand out from the crowd with your difficult conversations training.

Add value to your training programmes with one-to-one skills practice.

How it works

As an improv actor applying 20 years experience in business, I play the role of the other person in a real-life, high-stakes conversation, giving your training programme participants the chance to put your learning into practice. I draw on my unusual background in genomics, software development, design, leadership and improvised theatre to portray realistic characters and scenarios.

Benefits

Deepen the impact of your training by offering experiential learning.
Practice more effective conversations with an improv actor.
Opportunities for your clients to experiment with handling challenging conversations.

Clients

Examples

I’ve helped:

ARM give technical leaders and customer service staff practice in handling difficult conversations (in partnership with The Geek Whisperer)
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust give medical leaders practice in handling difficult conversations with staff (in partnership with Wild Monday)
RICOH Europe give internal entrepreneurs practice in interviewing customers for product development (in partnership with service design and digital product development agency Unboxed)
Solutions Academy create coaching simulation videos for training in handling difficult coaching situations.

Testimonials

Antony was superb at putting himself in the persona of the challenging people the training attendees had to practise talking to. It was so realistic, I personally found his ability to change from one character to the next in minutes absolutely astounding!

Adelina Chalmers Owner, The Geek Whisperer

Antony and I collaborated on creating coach training videos together – it was a joy working with him! He picked up the role very quickly and played very convincingly. As coach, I could not detect a difference to a real client. Organizing the session was also very easy and Antony is a lovely person to work with!

Kirsten Dierolf Owner, Solutions Academy

Antony worked with us during an "Innovation weekender" we were running for a large corporate client. We needed someone to role play a number of different customers who were being presented with new business propositions, for example the finance director of a manufacturing company in the Midlands. I was amazed by Antony's ability to understand the role with just a moment's notice and assume a highly convincing character with great detail and nuance. It provided enormous value to our participants and I'd highly recommend Antony in this capacity.

Martyn Evans Head of Product, Unboxed

Antony is an excellent facilitator with an in-depth knowledge of the design process and user experience.

Paul Kenny Owner, Ocean Learning Ltd

Facilitation

I also design and facilitate creative leadership training and events for organisations in science and technology, drawing on theories and practices from agile software development, applied theatre, design thinking, coaching and cultural intelligence.

I’ve worked with medical leaders at a global pharmaceuticals company in support of award-winning learning and communications agency Acteon, with startup founders at Anglia Ruskin University, and with social entrepreneurs at innovation incubator 50th Generation.

I’ve run public workshops on interpersonal communication for The School of Life and the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, and workshops on creative collaboration for engineers and designers at Agile Cambridge, UX Cambridge and Agile in the City.

Let's talk

About me

I became a role-play actor in 2016 after a long career in software development, design and genomics. I specialise in bespoke role-play, a fully improvised technique that draws on participants’ real-life experiences to practice challenging and often high-stakes conversations.

I studied economics in France, computer science and interaction design in London, genetics in Cambridge, and improvised theatre with the legendary Keith Johnstone.

Alongside my native English, I speak French, Spanish and Italian.