Jack Parris: Artistic Director
Jack (he/him) is a writer, performer, director, sound-designer, and musician. He co-founded Bunkum in 2020, creating work from live improvisation between musicians and physical performers. In 2023, he was awarded a DYCP grant, leading to The Unstoppable Rise of Ben Manager, which won the 2025 Charlie Hartill Fund. Jack became a FRESH artist at The Point and launched HONEY FUNGUS with ACE support. He’s Associate Director at Brighton People’s Theatre, co-creating with local communities. He wrote and co-directed Born and Bread for Brighton Festival 2024. His credits include BBC’s Holby City, Book of the Week, and songwriting for Boy Mandeville.
Jonathan Aubrey-Bentley: Founder Member
Jonathan trained at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance before completing an MA at RADA’s Theatre Lab, where he joined BUNKUM. Alongside performing, he directs and choreographs, premiering When Trees Fall and TIMOTHY at Resolution Festival 2023/24. In 2022, he co-directed and composed music for WALD/Forest with Bare Theatre Collective and Theatre Lindenhof in Germany. His performance work spans varied settings, including playing Banquo and Malcolm in Flabbergast Theatre’s The Tragedy of Macbeth at Edinburgh Fringe. A yoga teacher and Soft Tissue Therapist, he integrates holistic practices with performance. He recently co-founded NUNC., a dance theatre company exploring embodiment, movement, and collaborative creation.
Irina Kurbanova: Founder Member
Irina is an actress and theatre maker born in Germany with Russian and Ukrainian roots. She has performed in productions such as Bluthaus at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich (dir. Claus Guth) and was a member of the ensemble at the Volkstheater Rostock, appearing in productions including The 39 Steps and [BLANK]. In addition to theatre, Irina also appears in film and television productions, such as Gipsy Queen (available on Netflix). Alongside her acting training in Munich and at RADA in London, she holds a Bachelor's degree in Art and Multimedia from LMU Munich.
Aliki Stenou: Founder Member
Aliki is an Athens-born actor, director, and theatre-maker. She studied Architecture (NTUA, TU Berlin) and Acting (RADA, Athens). She has directed works in Greece and abroad, including *Oblivion* (2024, Barcelona), *Vita Nova* (2023), and *Dying as a Country* (2022–23). In 2025, she joins Piccolo Teatro di Milano as a director-in-residence, representing the National Theatre of Greece. In 2024, she developed *What Do We Leave Behind* in residence at MaMiMo, Italy. As an actor, she has collaborated with directors including Argyro Chioti, Vassilis Mavrogeorgiou, and Yagos Andreadis, performing at venues across Greece and Europe.
Teele Uustani: Company Performer/Maker
Teele (she/her) is a London based performer/puppeteer from Estonia. She trained at the Lecoq pedagogy based London International School of Performing Arts (LISPA) and studied puppetry at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. As an actress and a puppeteer she has worked with companies such as Old Trout Puppet Workshop, Theatre-Rites, Zou Theater (CAN), The Paper Cinema, Maison Foo, Significant Object, Strangeface, Dotted Line Theatre, Genius Sweatshop, Tête à Tête. She has collaborated with international groups and performed in several site-specific theatre productions both outdoors and indoors as well as been involved in several short films, music videos and theatre projects as a deviser, puppet maker and an assistant director.
Tomasso Giancomin: Company Performer/Maker
Tommaso is an Italian theatre-maker, director, and performer based between the UK and Italy. A graduate of École Jacques Lecoq and RADA’s MA Theatre Lab, his work blends physical theatre, new writing, technology, and visual languages to explore themes of identity, collective responsibility, and existential absurdity. His bold, multilingual approach often draws from real events and philosophical texts, creating politically urgent and formally experimental performances. He is the founder of TG WORKS, a new multidisciplinary theatre company dedicated to hybrid storytelling and international collaboration. His work has been presented across Europe, the UK, and India, with institutional support from Brighton Dome, RADA, and the Venice Biennale. Alongside his artistic practice, Tommaso teaches acting at Emile Dale Academy and facilitates workshops focused on Lecoq methodology and the Stanislavski approach.
Adam Boothroyd: Company Musician/Performer
Adam (he/him) is a Brighton-based musician, composer, and producer with a rich and diverse background. Trained in classical and jazz piano, his music weaves together a wide range of genres with a distinctive creative voice. A dynamic live performer, Adam has played in jazz ensembles, rock bands, electronic acts, and theatrical productions, bringing versatility and energy to every stage. His latest eponymous solo project, adam royd, explores an eclectic mix of styles, centered around piano and synthesizer. He is also one-half of Azedia, a pioneering Chillstep duo that emerged in the early 2010s, known for blending deep electronic textures with emotive composition. No stranger to the Edinburgh Festival, Adam was a musician for The Selfish Gene: The Musical (2011) and stage manager for Luggage Room (2012).
Jess Porter Langsom: Company Musician/Performer
Jess (they/them) is a modern, subversive multi-instrumentalist, composer, and performance artist whose work explores the edges of sound. Influenced by avant-garde, experimental, ambient, and classical traditions, they blur genre boundaries to create immersive, unconventional soundscapes. Balancing chaos and precision, their compositions span from the rawness of punk to the harmonic depth of classical music. Treating every sound, instrument, or unexpected noise as potential material, Jess challenges norms in both live and recorded work. Their art lives between structure and spontaneity, dissonance and resolution, tradition and rebellion—always pushing into the unknown. Jess is committed to sound as a tool for disruption, expression, and discovery.
Amelia Bird: Company Designer
Amelia is a Designer, Director and all-round theatremaker. Design credits include ‘Christmas Lights’ (Filskit Theatre/Z-arts), ‘Crumples Christmas Adventure’ (Oxford Playhouse), ‘Stella’ (Filskit Theatre, The Arc Stockton/Barnsley Civic), ‘The Great Odds’ (Macs Arcadian, the Lighthouse Poole) and ‘The Boy Who Never Grew Up’ (The Old Market/national tour). Amelia won a best design award at the Kotor Theatre Festival with ‘The Lost Things’ (Tortoise in a Nutshell, international tour), and a Scotsman Fringe First for ‘Feral’ (Tortoise in a Nutshell, international tour). Amelia has a passion for community theatre and worked with London Bubble for 8 years on their programme of socially engaged theatre. Prior to that she was the Artistic Director of touring theatre company Gomito Productions.
Michael Coxhead: Company Musician/Performer
Mike works in an office. He also performs with Bunkum Ensemble and in Interlaken. He's played in indie, punk, and metal bands. He was a songwriter and guitarist for Boy Mandeville (BBC1, BBC2, 6Music, Xfm), and he once played the lion in the Wizard of Oz.
Kate Mellors: Company Musician/Performer
Kate is a vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and facilitator drawn to creative, surprising spaces full of aliveness. Working often from a Hampshire woodland, she uses nature connection and vocal improvisation to explore joy, play, and rawness. She sings with @pollygonewrong_music, @oomsings, and @bbminiorchestra, and collaborates with theatre makers to compose and integrate voice into performance. She leads choirs and workshops for diverse communities, including a women’s choir in the woods, mental health singing groups, and an alternative outdoor stage school for young people (@join_tribe). A core organiser of the UK Vocal Improvisation Festival (@ukvocalimprov), she brings her particular brand of weirdness to the Bunkum Ensemble with delight.