Jennifer Tan

I was born and raised in the North –West of England, just south of Liverpool. That’s the Northern part. My granddad was Chinese, but from Indonesia so even though I don’t look it, I’m proudly Eurasian.

After getting a “good degree” (in science) from a “good university” (UCL) and then a “proper job” (in the City) I finally escaped and trained as an actor at The Oxford School of Drama. Whilst at the OSD I played Puck in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ outdoors at Blenheim Palace, Dina Dorf in ‘Pillars of the Community’ indoors in a converted pig shed and a grandmother in ‘Plasticine’ under London Bridge station at Southwark Playhouse. Diverse? Yes. Brilliant.

Since graduating I’ve worked with young offenders at Feltham, playing Zoe in ‘Sam’s Story’ for TenTen theatre; performed a verbatim piece about radicalisation and terrorism at the Unity in Liverpool with Fuse Theatre; and given a voice to Jo Parsons, a character in an online game for Channel 4 for young people about online privacy. I’ve really seen how theatre can affect changes on audiences and provoke discussion and I’m proud of the conversations I’ve helped to start.

Ongoing development as a performer is very important to me. I’ve participated in workshops with Complicite, Shared Experience and Tamasha theatre companies as well as being involved in various play readings and peer-led skills sharing workshops. The late Howard Milner was my singing teacher, mentor and friend and his teachings continue to inspire and influence my work.

When I’m not acting you’ll find me cycling around London, practising yoga, picking blackberries, testing out new recipes in the kitchen and summing it all up in 140 characters on Twitter.