Our Team
Miranda Cooper
Music and Lyrics
Miranda Eleanor de Fonbrune Cooper is pop royalty – a British songwriter who has penned over 30 UK top 10 hits, including four #1 singles. Miranda began as a dancer, for artists such as Danni Minogue and Gina G, where she met Brian Higgins, founder of Xenomania, in 1997. They went on to find commercial success and critical acclaim writing songs for Girls Aloud, Sugababes, Pet Shop Boys, Franz Ferdinand, Kylie Minogue, Alesha Dixon, and many more. More recently, she has celebrated success with rising stars Griff and Maisie Peters, writing the songs “John Hughes Movie”, “There It Goes” and “The Last One” with the latter. Alongside her work in pop music, Miranda has also been focusing her talents on writing musicals. Billionaire Boy was the first show she co-wrote; it went on to win the ‘Best Show for Children and Young People’ at the UK Theatre Awards 2018. In 2021, Fantastically Great Women premiered with rave reviews and also picked up the ‘Best Show for Children and Young People Award’ at the UK Theatre Awards in 2022.Miranda has set up Tilted Musicals with theatre producer Sam Hodges. They plan to bring together the best writers from both the theatre and music industry to create exciting work. Current projects include a one woman show about motherhood, co-written with global pop writers Jon Shave and Jason Pebworth, as well as an adaptation of When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, and the cult indie film Son of Rambow - both written with her long term Xenomania collaborator Nick Coler.
Book and Lyrics
Richard is a playwright, screenwriter, lyricist, poet and actor. He wrote and stars in Yippee Ki Yay, a joyfully funny one-person retelling of Die Hard, which has so far played 200+ shows over three continents while celebrating and finding the heart in a 1980s action movie and seeing Richard lauded as a ‘genius’ and a ‘knackered dad in a vest.’Richard's one-man play Skittles was commissioned for Radio 4 as Love & Sweets, and won Best Scripted Comedy in the BBC Audio Drama Awards.Dirty Great Love Story (co-written and co-performed with Katie Bonna) won a Fringe First at the Edinburgh Fringe, before transferring to New York followed by the West End. Richard and Katie are currently developing it for TV.Edinburgh hit Wingman was picked up by Big Talk Productions for UK TV then developed by CBS Studios for US TV. It has yet to be on actual TV.Richard wrote the Radio 4 poetry comedy series Cardboard Heart, starring Phil Daniels, Olivia Poulet, Jemima Rooper, Rebecca Scroggs, Russell Tovey, Sam Troughton and Richard.Richard Marsh
Nick Coler
Music
Nick Coler is a UK based songwriter, producer, programmer and
multi-instrumentalist.
He started his career as a a chorister singing in St Paul’s Cathedral followed by the well-trodden path of playing in bands and subsequently a studio session musician playing all styles of music. Perfect for writing musicals!
Nick has worked with Artists, films and TV shows including: Girls Aloud, Sugababes, Alisha Dixon, Pet shop boys, KLF, Alice Cooper / Wayne’s World, The Tweenies, Starlight Express, Cher and many more.
He has been nominated three times for an Ivor Novello award and won various other accolades including the Yamaha music festival in Tokyo, Producer of the year and has recently won a UK Theatre award.
Sarah Dickenson
Dramaturg
Sarah is a freelance dramaturg and playwright. As dramaturg she is currently working on projects with Tilted, Shakespeare North, Bury St Edmunds, The Globe, New Perspectives and Jennifer Jackson. Her previous roles have included: Associate Dramaturg for Paines Plough, Associate Dramaturg for LAMDA. Associate Dramaturg for the RSC, Production Dramaturg for the Globe, Senior Reader at Soho Theatre, Literary Manager for Theatre503, New Writing Associate at The Red Room. She has been dramaturg on performance projects and artist development nationally and internationally for organisations and theatre makers including: The Minack, Nuffield Theatre Southampton, Theatre Centre, National Theatre, Bristol Old Vic, Theatre Bristol, Old Vic New Voices, Liverpool Everyman, Theatre Royal Bath, Plymouth Theatre Royal, Tamasha, Apples and Snakes, Almeida, Hall for Cornwall, The Fence and Churchill Theatre Bromley. Her play, The Commotion Time, will be produced later this year.
Sam Hodges
Direction
Sam is a theatre director, artistic director and producer with over 15 years experience across the not-for-profit and commercial sectors.
A few years after graduating from Cambridge University, he founded the HighTide Festival Theatre, which grew into one of the country’s leading new writing companies. He was Artistic Director for five years, during which time he produced early work by the leading writers and directors of his generation – including writers Nick Payne, Sam Holcroft, Ella Hickson, and Beth Steel and directors Mike Longhurst, Polly Findlay and Natalie Abrahami.
Between 2012 and 2014, he was invited by Stephen Fry to become the Creative Producer for the Criterion Theatre in London’s West End.
More recently, Sam was Artistic Director of Nuffield Southampton Theatres where he built on his reputation for commissioning new plays and musicals. Highlights include international award-winning tours of Fantastic Mr Fox the Musical and Billionaire Boy the Musical, London transfers for A Number to the Young Vic and SS Mendi to the Royal Opera House, and world premieres of The Shadow Factory by Howard Brenton and an adaptation of the Coen Brothers film The Hudsucker Proxy.
As a director, his productions for NST include The Audience (nominated Best Design & Best Actress, UK Theatre Awards), The Shadow Factory (nominated Best Design, UK Theatre Awards), Dedication and The Glass Menagerie (nominated Best Director, UK Theatre Awards).