Dr Alex McSweeney

I am module leader for The Actor and the Text (DA4003) and An Actor Prepares (DA5008). 

I am an actor, lecturer and acting teacher with an extensive range of credits on stage and television including Steven Berkoff's productions of Oedipus at the Liverpool Playhouse and On The Waterfront at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, Cornielle's Horace and What you Get and What you Expect, both at the Lyric, Hammersmith.  My TV work includes Endeavour, Call The Midwife, Primeval 3, Silent Witness, Commander ll, EastEnders as well as films including Hellboy ll, Gangster No1. And Secrets. 

I teach Drama at Kingston University and another London university, and have taught at a number of drama schools, including Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in screen acting. I am also a playwright and director. Recent productions include: A Hero of Our Time at The Rose Theatre and Zoo, Edinburgh; Out of the Cage at The Park Theatre; Distance at The Rose; and Script Accelerator at The Park.

My play-cycle on female safety – The Next Girl – premiered at the FUSE festival in 2022. This was a companion piece to At The River's Edge which premiered at IYAF at The Rose Theatre, Kingston in 2021.

My play – Distance – ran at The Park Theatre from 5–29 September 2018 and is published by Playdead Press.

Writing/directing credits include: Out Of The Cage (Park Theatre), A Hero Of Our Time (Rose Theatre Kingston and Zoo Edinburgh) and Between Women (Hen and Chickens), The Heart of Everything (Pleasence Theatre, London), Kaleidoscope (The Tabernacle). His play/collaboration Crossing Borders/Fragments with Velina Hasu Houston premiered in June 2018 (Martin Massman Theatre, Los Angeles and Ryerson Theatre, Toronto).

• PhD, English, King's College, London.
• MA, Text and Performance Studies, King's College, London.
• BA (Hons) 2:1, English Literature, University of North London.
• Diploma in Acting, London Academy of Performing Arts.