Ian has been a professional actor since he was twelve and won a scholarship to RADA at the age of sixteen.

He acted with the Royal Shakespeare Company for three years, has appeared often in the West End and toured extensively. His many TV appearances include four years as D.C. Skinner in Z Cars. In 1998 he created the role of Angus Hart in the C5 soap Family Affairs and played him for two years.

His most recent appearances have been in Harbour Lights, Badger, both for the BBC, and the film Gabriel and Me with Billy Connolly.

You can see the trailer for Ians' latest film, Paladin - dawn of the dragon slayer here.

He has written more than forty scripts for radio, television, film and theatre. Ian can be seen each Christmas at Hatchlands Music Museum in Guildford where he provides the words in the annual Christmas concerts performed by words & music group, Ayres & Graces.

In addition to his professional activities Ian is in demand as a theatre director and teacher. He is Artistic Director for The Surrey Heath Young Actors’ Company and teaches acting in several schools and colleges. He has performed his ‘Living Shakespeare’ in Paris, Hamburg, New York and throughout the U.K.

"I was classically trained as an actor at one of the best drama schools in the world. I have attended classes and taught all over the world. Ian Cullen taught me so many things the experts failed to teach me. Absolutely enlightening, utterly useful and fascinating."

Steven Morley ( The Director of Drama at the City of London school for girls )


For further information, photographs etc go to www.iancullen.com.

Shakespeare and his fellow actors were expected to perform on demand and at short notice a play they may have not looked at for months or years. As an aide memoir he hid clues in the layout and punctuation of his scripts. These hidden guidelines also enabled new plays to be staged with very little rehearsal.

The clues have been handed down through successive generations of professional actors and formed the basis for Sir Harley Granville-Barker’s definitive “Prefaces to Shakespeare.

With audience participation “Living Shakespeare” explains Shakespeare’s end word discipline. His reasons for changing from prose to verse and back again. How he used alliteration, tongue twisters and other verbal conceits to guide his actors. Mid-line full stops, colons, semi-colons and commas, hard or soft words long and short words, unexpected verbosity, terse dialogue, half lines, spread dialogue and perfect or fractured iambic pentameters all play their part.

The workshop is guaranteed to make Shakespeare more accessible and enjoyable and prepares the way for participants to perform selected scenes before an invited audience.