Past TEDx event
TEDxRoyalCentralSchool
restART
Speakers
Speakers may not be confirmed. Check the event website for the latest lineup.
Anna LaFrance
Actor, Yoga Instructor, founder of ‘The Act One Studio’ and student
Anna LaFrance is a trained actor and qualified yoga instructor specialising in the psychophysical aspects of yoga. She is the founder of ‘The Act One Studio’ which incorporates yogic principles into the actors training to implement physical and psychological balance for actors. She is a recent Acting graduate of Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance and is currently pursuing her Masters at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in Music Theatre. Her talk will consist of the methods you can use to strengthen your mind-body connection and control your nervous system to improve your mental and physical health and well-being.
Dr. Anu B.
Author, International Trainer and Coach, Owner of Digital Success Hub
In the wake of COVID-19, many women and girls are experiencing the deadly “shadow pandemic” of domestic violence. Dr. Anu B. is a survivor of domestic violence, and has personally experienced the physical, emotional, mental and financial damage that comes from it. She has also been able to find healing, and to reconstruct her life. She shares 3 factors affecting why people remain in toxic relationships (based on insights from behavioral finance and investment behavior), the 5 words that took her from near-death as a victim to life as an overcomer of domestic violence, and how we can collectively help others victims do the same. Dr. Anu B. holds a doctorate in Engineering. She is an Author, an International Trainer and Coach. She is the owner of Digital Success Hub and helps introverts succeed by embracing their super powers, thrive financially and live a freedom lifestyle.
E. Calin
multilingual writer, activist, and a first-generation Muslim immigrant graduate
E. Calin is a multilingual writer, activist, and a first-generation Muslim immigrant graduate. Growing up as an ethnic and religious minority in Germany, Calin developed a passion for writing about the immigrant experience, race, sexuality, and issues of social justice from an early age. Her talk “Too brown, too Queer and too Muslim? Or rather too white, and not Muslim or Queer enough?” features Calin’s experience of what it means to live in the ‘in-between,’ a third space marked by the intersectional layers of Queer Muslim immigrants’ identity configurations.
Harrison Gunn
Young presenter
Harrison is a 15-year-old Presenter and Content Creator from London. Harrison has been presenting since 2017 and since January 2020 has been podcasting on his hit podcast, It’s Good to Talk, currently reaching 20,000 listeners. The podcast is streamed in 60 countries and aims to spread positivity, much like his social platforms. Harrison is a BAFTA young Presenter presenting at Disney and Nickelodeon events at BAFTA HQ as well as being a Changemaker at Childrens Media Conference 2019. And now... a TEDx Speaker!
Jimmy Fong
CCO at SEON
Jimmy serves as CCO at SEON. Fraud fighters, an upstart to the fraud detection world, critical to keeping online merchants and financial institutions safe. He has over 13 years within the online payments and fraud space as part of fraud tech pioneers CyberSource (acquired for $2B by Visa), GlobalCollect (acquired by Ingenico for $1B and latterly InAuth (acquired by American Express for $250m). His passion is mixing nerdy obsession over technology and hyper commercial growth. Are you close to being an online fraudster? What happens in a world today where your personal data is floating around freely? The online world blurs the line of personal responsibility and real-world accountability, with that disconnect, let's look at how close you are to being an online fraudster.
Nicola Abraham
Lecturer in Applied Theatre Practices at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama
Lecturer in Applied Theatre Practices at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. She has most recently been working on a range of applied theatre, film and VR projects in NHS hospitals to develop new person-centred approaches to creating bespoke artefacts, including VR 360 videos, intergenerational augmented reality-based process dramas with primary school children and older adult patients living with dementia, and films to improve subjective wellbeing of patients in acute dialysis wards. She has published in Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance (RiDE), Applied Theatre Research, Contemporary Theatre Review and co-edited the 2nd Edition of TheApplied Theatre Reader (2020), and Applied Theatre with Urban Youth: Witnessing Change (forthcoming, 2020/2021).
Paula Garfield
Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Deafinitely Theatre
Paula Garfield is deaf from birth. She is co-founder and Artistic Director of Deafinitely Theatre since 2002. Paula’s production Love’s Labour’s Lost was first ever deaf-led & BSL-led production to performance at The Globe for the Globe to Globe festival 2012. In 2014, she directed another production at The Globe, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Her production of Contractions for Deafinitely won the off West End Award (Offie) for Best Production 2017. Her most recently production at N.D.T 4.48 Psychosis November 2019 & was nominated and shortlisted for Best Director by Broadway World Uk. Paula won the Tonic Award for her work in Deafinitely Theatre. She's passionate about sign language, having grown up with extremely limited language access. She hopes to influence the parents of deaf children of the future; providing an enriching and memorable association with signed language that will be remembered, guiding towards a bi-lingual upbringing and an acceptance and celebration of deaf culture.
Victoria Ruddock
Dementia Specialist Healthcare Support Worker, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust
Dementia Specialist Healthcare Support Worker for the Dementia Care Team within Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust seconded to Co-Project Lead collaborative Student Knowledge Exchange project for the partnership with Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. She qualified with a bachelor’s degree in Science: Nursing, in the Philippines and has extensive experience working with older adults living with dementia and experiencing delirium in both hospitals and care home contexts. Victoria has additionally undertaken team leadership support in a nursing home and a private Nurse for people living with dementia.

