Unlocking
potential.

Jason York

Artistic Director

As Artistic Director of Kestrel, Jason is responsible for artistic vision, strategy and leadership across the charity. He is also an actor with television and film credits including BAFTA award winning series Mood (BBC3), Wild Cherry (BBC ONE, Paramount +), House of Spoils (Blumhouse), Dreaming Whilst Black (A24) and Van Wife (Merman)

Helen Morley

Executive Director

As Executive Director, Helen is responsible for development, producing and strategy. She is also a professional director who has presented work at venues including The Bunker Theatre, The Yard, MAC Birmingham, Bristol Old Vic and BBC Sounds.

Simon Longman

Associate Artist

Simon Longman is a playwright from the West Midlands, operating across multiple Kestrel projects as playwright, workshop leader or dramaturg. His plays include Gundog (Royal Court) and Island Town (Paines Plough). He was awarded the 49th George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright.

Molly Taylor

Associate Artist

Molly Taylor is a playwright from Liverpool who makes bold, original theatre through collaboration. Working across co-creation, youth and large-scale contexts, she builds work with participants from the ground up. Her work has been staged across the UK and internationally, including plays for the Young Vic, Theatre Royal Stratford East, Storyhouse, Bush Theatre, Almeida Theatre, Dundee Rep, and National Theatre of Scotland. She is Associate Playwright on the National Theatre’s New Views programme and an Associate Artist with Kestrel Theatre.

Dorothy Allen-Pickard

Associate Artist

Dorothy works across narrative, documentary and theatrical modes of filmmaking, and her collaborative approach is often inspired by her protagonists' lived experiences. She was awarded the Arts Foundation Film Fellowship in 2026 and currently her projects focus on state systems of control and the possibilities of collective resistance. She’s developing a feature documentary on Spycops and a feature drama with Ken Loach’s Sixteen Films.

Martha Watson Allpress

Associate Artist

Martha Watson Allpress is an award-winning writer from the East Midlands. Her play Lady Dealer premiered at Paines Plough in Edinburgh before transferring to The Bush Theatre. Her first screenwriting credit, Big Winners, aired on Channel 5 in 2025.

Lauren Connolly

Associate Artist

Lauren is a multidisciplinary designer and producer, working across theatre, film, immersive experiences, and live events. With a background in Theatre Design, her collaborative practice spans set, costume, props, and production. She is a regular designer with Kestrel, creating work for productions at HMP Springhill and New Diorama Theatre. Her design credits include *The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui* (Royal & Derngate), *Rave New World* (Tangled Feet), *Fantastic Foxes* (Leicester Curve), and *Magnify* (New Diorama Theatre). Alongside her theatre work, Lauren produces immersive and commercial experiences, with clients including Casio, Amazon, Sky, The Body Shop, and The Crown Estate.

Jim White

Chair

Jim White is a long-serving newspaper reporter, author and broadcaster who has been involved with Kestrel for over 15 years. A passionate advocate of improving educational opportunities within the criminal justice system, he is convinced of the particular educative power of drama and film.

Simon Tennant

Finance Director

Simon Tennant is a qualified accountant and management consultant. Over thirty years as a Director at PricewaterhouseCoopers and Partner at PA Consulting Group, he has worked with clients across industry and government to improve financial performance.

Holly Race Roughan

Trustee

Holly Race Roughan, Artistic Director of Headlong and board member of theatre-in-prisons charity Kestrel, has directed works including The New Real (Royal Shakespeare Company), Metamorphoses (Shakespeare’s Globe), Prurience (Southbank Centre, Guggenheim New York), and Eye of a Needle (Southwark Playhouse). For Headlong: The House Party (Chichester Festival Theatre & UK Tour), A View from the Bridge (Bolton Octagon & UK Tour), Henry V (Shakespeare’s Globe & UK Tour), Corrina Corrina (Liverpool Everyman), Hedda Tesman (Chichester Festival Theatre), People, Places & Things (UK Tour), and Unprecedented (BBC).

Mek Mesfin

Trustee

Mek is a barrister specialising in domestic and international commercial dispute resolution, practising from 4 Pump Court in London. He has been involved in prison-oriented initiatives for a number of years and has provided debating training and mentoring to inmates across London.

Peter Watson

Trustee

Peter Watsons career spanned marketing, information systems and fundraising across private and public sectors. He worked for many years in higher education fundraising for the universities of Oxford and Warwick, and was elected an Emeritus Fellowship at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford on his retirement.

Michael Balogun

Patron

Star of Netflix Top Boy and You Dont Know Me, Michael is best known for his shattering performance in Death of England: Delroy at the National Theatre. He has extensive lived experience of the criminal justice system, having been discovered as an actor while working on licence in RADAs kitchens, making him an inspiring patron.

Rob Clare

Founding Patron

Rob Clare founded Kestrel in 1998. Originally an actor with the RSC then a Staff Director at the National Theatre, he completed a doctorate in Shakespearean texts at Oxford and has since become an internationally recognised Shakespeare specialist. He now lives and works in the USA.