Craig Jenkins is the resident storyteller of Vayu Naidu Company.

He graduated from the University of Kent in 2007 with a first class Bachelor of Arts in Drama and Film studies.

Craig is a consummate and charismatic storyteller, with a wealth of performance and teaching experience. He has performed, on behalf of Vayu Naidu Company, for high profile organisations, such as the BBC, the Barbican centre and the prestigious Somerset House (all to great acclaim) and delighted audiences at national festivals, such as the London Mela (three years running!).

Craig is also a stimulating educationist who has lead storytelling workshops for the Company in a wide range of community, outreach and education settings.

In January 2010, Craig took his storytelling skills to the South of India, where he represented Vayu Naidu Company at Hippocampus’ international storytelling festival: Hoo’s Tales. While there, he also took an artist in residency position at the Kattai Kuttu School (Tamil Nadu), as well as leading workshops for TULIKA publishers and SOS Childrens village, Chennai.

Emily Parrish is a storyteller passionate about creating innovative and inspiring storytelling work. Recent storytelling performances include the Essex Global Gala and the Monster Bass Festival in Kent to an audience of several thousand.

Emily is also Creative Director of Scandalmongers - a storytelling theatre company based on the Isle of Thanet dedicated to engaging with diverse audiences through playful and imaginative performance in both theatre and non-theatre spaces. Scandalmongers is associate company of Theatre Royal Margate. This year, Scandalmongers received Arts Council funding for Taking Flight; a storytelling and music project with the local Eastern European community which will culminate in a sonic installation for the Kent Cultural Baton. Scandalmongers has also been commissioned to create promenade storytelling events for the Folkestone Triennial festival and the launch of the Turner Contemporary gallery in Margate.

Emily graduated from the University of Kent in 2005 with a 1st class Master of Drama degree. She has completed a storytelling apprenticeship with Dr Vayu Naidu and is now a resident storyteller with Vayu Naidu Company.

An avid story collector as well as teller, her travels take her on adventures around the world. In 2008 she returned to the UK after nearly a year performing, teaching and researching storytelling tradition and technique in rural India, from the mountains villages of Ladakh to the Kattaikkuttu School in Tamil Nadu.

Emily is currently curator of ‘ScandalNights’ at the Tom Thumb Theatre; a vibrant monthly night of performance poetry and music which features some of the highest quality storytelling from around the UK.

Stephe Harrop was awarded a practice-based drama Phd (Royal Holloway, University of London) in 2008. In the same year, she became an apprentice storyteller with Vayu Naidu Company, and has since appeared on several Licence to Tell Tours(including High-Lights, Talking Spirits, Heroes and Tricksters and Midsummer Meltdown), as well as working with the company on the education project The Animals’ Lawsuit Against Humanity.

Originally from north-east England, she now works in London and across the UK, performing and leading workshops for people of all ages in schools, libraries, theatres - and almost anywhere else. For more information about her freelance storytelling see www.stepheharrop.co.uk.

Inspired by an affinity for borderlands, her performances explore the meeting points between then and now, landscape and dreamscape, history and fantasy. Her ever-growing repertoire includes many stories from England and Scotland, as well as European wonder tales. She’s also fascinated by medieval chronicles and popular ballads, and their distinctive slant upon the history of the British Isles. Her first full-length storytelling show, The Border Ballads, based on the traditional songs of the lawless lands between Scotland and England,premiered at A Bit Crack (Newcastle) in 2009. 

Stewart Melton is a writer, storyteller and theatre director. Much of his work involves collaborating with children, young people and adults from different communities to devise new stories and performances. His theatre directing projects includes T. S. Eliot's Sweeney Agonistes at the Arcola Theatre, Purgatory at the King's Head Theatre and a forthcoming production of Othello at The Space. He has assistant directed many productions including Daniel Kramer's revival of Hair at the Gate. Stewart is the Schools Programme Manager at Southwark Playhouse.

With Vayu Naidu Company, Stewart has performed at the Cambridge Storytelling Festival and Wandsworth Arts Festival and made regular appearances at the company’s License to Tell events. He has also facilitated storytelling workshops with children across Southwark for VNC and the Southwark Theatre Education Partnership Festival. 

Stewart’s poem ‘One Man’s Land’ was commissioned by rednile projects for their 'Factory Folk' exhibition at Newcastle’s Literary and Philosophical Society. He is currently composing his first collection of poetry and writing a play about his native Aberdeen.