James Hyland

"James Hyland is a genius... No one ordinary could do what he did." 

---Everything Theatre

 

James Hyland is Artistic Director and Founder of Brother Wolf. He is also a multi award-winning stage and film actor as well as an award-winning writer, producer and director with more than twenty-five years' experience in the profession. James' work has been described by the press as "magnificent" (Plays to See), "highly accomplished" (The Stage) and "astonishing" (The Courier). Following his education at the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain and Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance, he made his professional acting debut in The North Pole, winning the Guardian International Student Drama Award in 1996. Since then he has appeared in over 70 professional productions, working with a variety of directors including Adrian Noble, Matthew Warchus and the late Michael Boyd, as well as acclaimed companies such as the Royal Shakespeare Company and Brother Wolf, winning a further 39 awards including Best Performance of the Year (The Actors Awards LA, 2022) for his performance as Mr Guthrert Vratrol/Narrator in the film The Impatient Man Who Made His Life Considerably Shorter, The Hamilton Deane Award (The Dracula Society, 2022) for his performance as Dracula in Dracula's Guest, an OffComm Commendation (Off West End Awards, 2023) for his stage production of Fagin's Last Hour, and Best Performer in Theatre (Fringe Report Awards, 2012) for his solo performance as Marley's Ghost in A Christmas Carol - As told by Jacob Marley (deceased). John Park, Director of the Fringe Report Awards, said "The award celebrates the work of James Hyland, actor, and in particular his creation and delivery of A Christmas Carol - As told by Jacob Marley (deceased). It reflects his fine work as an actor in film, TV, radio and theatre in a remarkable range of productions." In the same year, further honours were bestowed by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace in recognition of Dickensian Scholarship. By 2014, A Christmas Carol - As told by Jacob Marley (deceased) had been officially rated as one of "the top Christmas shows in London, Edinburgh and around the UK" (High 50 Culture). The show's unique presentation has even been discussed in best-selling books about the theatre. In 2018, during the 175th anniversary of Dickens' original novella, James performed his award-winning show at The Royal Albert Hall, selling out to capacity. The production was followed by two more award-winning one-man shows, Fagin's Last Hour and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, as well as his very latest solo drama, Silver & Gold (based on Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson).  James serves as actor, adapter and producer on all four productions. The shows have toured extensively, breaking box office records along the way, as well as his commemorative drama A Lesson from Auschwitz, of which he is the writer, director, producer and co-actor (commended by The Foundation of Memory Sites Near Auschwitz-Birkenau), reviewed as "one of the most powerful and most important pieces of theatre I've ever seen" (Centre Stage);  his double award-winning stage adaptation of Dracula's Guest, of which he is the adapter, director, producer and co-actor, described as "the most intense 55 minutes of drama you're ever likely to encounter" (Voices from the Vaults); and his fantastically original Theatre-of-the-Absurd interpretation of The Mad Hatter's Tea Party, of which he is the adapter, director, producer and co-actor, hailed as "an absolute masterpiece" (A Youngish Perspective).

 

Among his many screen credits is the acclaimed The Impatient Man Who Made His Life Considerably Shorter in which he plays the dual lead roles of Guthrert Vratrol and the Voiceover Narrator for which he recently won 31 international Best Actor awards including Best Performance of the Year at The Actors Awards LA, Best Actor in a Comedy at the Best Actor & Director Awards New York, the Made You Laugh BBC Comedy Award at The World Cinema Film Festival and Best Actor at The APEX Film Awards at which his performance was reviewed as "absolutely hilarious and played to perfection." To date, James has played the lead in five award-winning films.

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