Meet the Team
David Gregan-Jones
Principal
David Gregan-Jones comes to the Academy with nearly two decades’ experience of the performance industry. A professional actor - starring most recently in Channel 4's 'It's a Sin' – and an award-winning playwright, David has years of training and a finely tuned knowledge of the industry. Students are in the hands of someone who has been already been in their shoes, determined to share with them the joy of performance.
Along with our permanent teachers and an array of associate artists from across the industry, David’s aim is to unlock talent and potential; nurture life skills and help each student realise their own personal success.
Ruth Carney
Managing Director
Ruth Carney is an experienced TV and theatre director who has worked both in the West End and on Broadway. Her TV credits include Casualty, Father Brown, Emmerdale and, most recently, BBC favourite Death in Paradise.
Ruth successfully completed the BBC Directors Scheme in 2016 with a placement on Doctors, where she was a regular director of the show.
Alongside her own successful independent work as a director, Ruth has also acted as Associate Director to Matthew Warchus on his West End/Broadway productions of Lord of the Rings, Our House and Ghost. Ruth was Associate Director in the inaugural season after the reopening of The Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.
Chris Hanlon
Chris is a freelance actor, stage manager and lighting designer. He has been involved in theatre for over 20 years. Making Theatre is his passion and he specialises in Theatre in Education. He studied Theatre and Performance at University of Sheffield and graduated is 2016.
He has performed in a vast amount of plays and musicals including 'Carl' in Ghost the Musical, 'LeFou' in Beauty and the Beast, 'Reecey' in Our House and is about to play 'Charlie Price' in Kinky Boots. Chris is a principal cast member in the largest amateur pantomime in the country performing to over 30,000 people at Sheffield City Hall every Christmas.
Acting Teacher
Rhiannon Morgan
Acting Teacher
Rhiannon has been performing since a young child, mainly through attending Steel Valley Beacon arts, a local amateur dramatics group where she grew up in Deepcar. She particularly enjoyed learning Shakespeare and played Hermia in A Midsummer Nights Dream and Feste in Twelfth Night. She also attended a theatre school where her love for musical theatre was ignited, her favourite role was a hotbox dancer in Guys and Dolls.
At the age of 19, Rhiannon performed in An Enemy Of The People at The Crucible alongside Sir Antony Sher. She then took part in The Laramie Project summer school there later in the year, where she met Ruth Carney and this lead to her becoming one of the original students at Carney Academy.
We also have a number of associates that work with Carney Academy - You can meet them here.