My Neighbour Totoro West End casting announced for the Gillian Lynne Theatre in London

VICTORIA CHEN
MEI
RSC DEBUT SEASON: My Neighbour Totoro (West End).
TRAINED: School of the Arts, Singapore, and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Victoria has worked in her native Singapore, as well as the UK, USA, China, Australia and even Iceland, specialising in devised and interactive theatre. Recent credits: Amber in The Night Before Christmas (Polka Theatre); Celia/Silvius in a child-friendly adaptation of As You Like It (Orange Tree). Victoria starred in sketch comedy Fat Kids are Harder to Kidnap from 2013-2022 (international tours/digital. Nominated for Best Theatre Production at the Melbourne Fringe 2020); solo show Charlie (Melbourne Fringe/Edinburgh Student Arts Festival. Melbourne Fringe Best Emerging Artist and Edinburgh Student Arts Festival Best Performing Artist award); The Amazing Celestial Race, Fair Play (W!ld Rice Productions); The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) (Singapore Repertory Theatre); Aladdin (Perth Theatre); A Dream Under the Southern Bough (Toy Factory Productions); Eat Duck (Checkpoint Theatre).
FILM INCLUDES: Shorts: Gold Paper; Earthbxund; The Sunday Afternoon Running Club; Night’s Dream.

AMI OKUMURA JONES
奥村 英衣未
SATSUKI
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (West End/Barbican, London 22-23 and 23-24).
TRAINED: East 15 Acting School.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Scandaltown (Lyric Hammersmith); Wendy & Peter Pan (Leeds Playhouse); As You Like It, Hamlet (Watermill Theatre); Treasure Island (Bolton Octagon); WITCH WITCH WITCH (Camden People’s Theatre).
TELEVISION INCLUDES: The Choice, Kitti Katz (Netflix); Rebus, EastEnders (BBC); Midsomer Murders (ITV); Art Detectives (Acorn TV).
FILM: Shorts: Shrike, Passenger, Round Round Baby Round Round.
VIDEO GAMES INCLUDE: Assassin’s Creed Shadows; Baldur’s Gate III; Rise of the Ronin.
RADIO: Fukushima (BBC).

DAI TABUCHI
田渕 大
TATSUO/KAZEGO PUPPETEER
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (West End/Barbican, London 22-23 and 23-24).
THEATRE INCLUDES: Usagi Yojimbo (Southwark Playhouse); The Over Coat (Geck/world tour); Paradise: Ruhr Triennale Project (Theatre Rites); The Over Coat (Gecko/Lyric Hammersmith); Twin Stars (Unicorn Theatre); Tin Tin (West End/tour); The Long and the Short and the Tall (Sheffield Theatres); Cymbeline Closed Up (Shakespeare’s Globe).
TELEVISION INCLUDES: Industry (Bad Wolf/HBO/BBC); Invasion (SDTA/Apple TV+); Giri/Haji (Sister Pictures/Netflix); The Crown (Left Bank Pictures/Netflix); Nazi Megastructures (National Geographic); The Feed, Good Omens (Amazon Studios); You, Me & Them (Hat Trick Productions); Cloud Upon the Slope (NHK/Japan); Mr Yamaguchi.
FILM INCLUDES: Blade of the 47th Ronin, The Phantom of the Open, Tomoko, Spectre, The Scopia Effect, All That Remains, The Angel’s Share, 47 Ronin, Shanghai, Basho, Chosyu Five, Munich, Kizuna.
VOICE WORK INCLUDES: Hanzo in Chuggington (CBeebies/Disney in UK and US); Hiro and Kenji in Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go– Race for the Sodor Cup (UK).

PHYLLIS HO
YASUKO/KAZEGO PUPPETEER
RSC DEBUT SEASON: My Neighbour Totoro (West End).
TRAINED: Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Life of Pi (West End); The Tempest (Shakespeare in the Squares); The Mozart Question (Barn Theatre, Cirencester); Giraffes Can’t Dance (Curve, Leicester); The Vagina Monologues (Ugly Duck); Gary’s Not Well (Ragged Trouser Theatre); A Weekend Near Madison (Island Productions); Beggar’s Opera (Seven Tyrants Theatre).

STEVEN NGUYEN
KANTA/KAZEGO PUPPETEER
RSC DEBUT SEASON: My Neighbour Totoro (West End).
TRAINED: The Academy of Live Recorded Arts (ALRA).
THEATRE INCLUDES: The Rise of Hermit (Omnibus); A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction (Headlong /Barbican, London); Lady Lessons (Theatre503); Helium (The Space Arts Theatre).

JACQUELINE TATE
藤井 夢華
GRANNY OGAKI/KAZEGO PUPPETEER
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (West End/Barbican, London 22-23 and 23-24).
THEATRE INCLUDES: Murder on the Orient Express (Chichester Festival Theatre); Les Misérables (Queen’s); South Pacific in Concert (Cadogan Hall); Allegro (Southwark Playhouse); Avenue Q (national tour/Lyric Hong Kong); South Pacific (Barbican/national tour); Avenue Q (Gielgud/Wyndham’s/national tour); The Phantom of the Opera (Her Majesty’s); My Fair Lady (Esplanade, Singapore); The Pirates of Penzance, The Merry Widow (national/international tours); Bernstein’s Mass (London Symphony Orchestra/Barbican); Evita (Zouk Mikael, Beirut).
TELEVISION INCLUDES: East Mode, EastEnders.

JAMIE ZUBAIRI
HIROSHI/KAZEGO PUPPETEER
RSC DEBUT SEASON: My Neighbour Totoro (West End).
TRAINED: LAMDA.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Witness for the Prosecution, The Letter (West End); Guy Fawkes (Theatre Royal York); Burmese Days (53e53 Theater NYC); In The Weeds (Mull Theatre); Diary of a Somebody (Seven Dials); Parliament Square (Manchester Royal Exchange/Bush); A Doll’s House (Theatre of Europe); When Mountains Meet, Wolf (Authentic Artist Collective); Cinderella, Hansel & Gretel (Theatre Royal Stratford East); Little Bears Christmas Dream (Play On Words); Why the Lion Danced, Dogs (New Earth); Cheese (Fast Familiar); Counted (LookLeftLookRight); Beauty Sleeps, Where’s Ali? (Young Vic); Immigrant Song (Mainbrace/Albany); Merlin The Magnificent (Unicorn/Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Man Is Man (Finborough).
SCREEN INCLUDES: EastEnders, Silent Witness, Grange Hill (BBC); Cucumber (Channel 4); Tides (film, Open Palm Productions).
RADIO AND AUDIO INCLUDES: Inspector Chen in Inspector Chen Mysteries, Lek & Mrs Miller, The Disappearance of Mr Chan (all BBC), Doctor Who The Early Adventures, The Eighth Doctor Adventures: Connections (Big Finish).
WRITING: Alongside co-writing the feature film Tides, Jamie has written and produced three plays: Skylarking (North Devon Festival); Unbroken Line and Expectations (both Ovalhouse).

DEANNA MYERS
TSUKIKO/KAZEGO PUPPETEER
RSC DEBUT SEASON: My Neighbour Totoro (West End).
THEATRE INCLUDES: Shutters (Omnibus Theatre. Offie nomination). US theatre includes: The Good John Proctor (Trinity Repertory Theatre); Enough to Let the Light In (Contemporary American Theatre Festival); The Great Leap (Steppenwolf Theatre); King of the Yees (Goodman Theatre); The Scene, Smart People, Tiger Style! (Writers Theatre); The Gulf (About Face Theatre).
SCREEN INCLUDES: Chicago Med, Empire, Chicago Fire, Sebastian, The Drunk.

MATTHEW LEONHART
布文龍
KAZEGO PRINCIPAL PUPPETEER
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (West End/Barbican, London 22-23 and 23-24).
UNDERSTUDY: Tatsuo.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Invisible Cities (59 Productions/RAMBERT/global tour); Mountains: The Dreams of Lily Kwok (Manchester Royal Exchange); Peach Blossom Fan (REDCAT, Los Angeles, directed by Chen Shi-Zheng).
PUPPETRY INCLUDES: Invisible Glass (REDCAT, Los Angeles); The Lost Dreamachine (HK Fringe Club); Aurora (Greenpeace Project); Sinkin’ Soon (Norah Jones MV); Out of the Rain (The Duhks MV); Protagonist (Sundance Film); Too Loud a Solitude (Tuck & Go Films). Puppetry design: Sick to My Bones, May You Never Die.
TELEVISION: Tim Terkel in Berlin Station (season 2).
FILM INCLUDES: An Enemy Within, Man of the Cosmos, Wyrms, As I Am, The Accidental Spy. Matthew has performed in award-winning short films such as May You Never Die and Emily, both directed by Guy Davies.
OTHER: Matthew’s voice can be heard in over 20 cartoons such as Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Darker Than Black, Eureka 7, and video games including the main villain Yang in the critically acclaimed game Sifu. In 2024 his voice will be heard in three major video game series. He’s also a former VJ for the popular Asia music TV show Channel V.

ANNAKANAKO MOHRI
KAZEGO PUPPETEER
RSC DEBUT SEASON: My Neighbour Totoro (West End).
TRAINED: The Ailey School, New York.
Annakanako is a dancer, actor and puppeteer. She was born in Windsor, UK, and grew up in Tokyo, Japan.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Swing/Cover Bo in Spirited Away (London Coliseum, Imperial Theatre Tokyo); Dance Captain for Othello (Theatrical Company Shinkansen); The Lion King (international tour/Hamburg, Germany); Message in a Bottle (Zoonation/Peacock Theatre); Falling Family, Sayonara Tokyo (Wintergarten Variete Berlin).
SCREEN INCLUDES: Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Ich War Noch Niemals (New York); Tokyo 2020 Paralympic close ceremony, KOHAKU Uta Gassen (Japan National TV NHK). Adverts: American Express (AMEX), Loewe × Studio Ghibli (TikTok), Amazon Music, Google pixel, Minecraft.

HEATHER LAI
黎曉瑩
KAZEGO PUPPETEER
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (West End/Barbican, London 23-24).
TRAINED: The Curious School of Puppetry.
THEATRE INCLUDES: As Performer/Puppeteer: The Cat and the Canary (Chichester Festival Theatre); Die Zauberflöte (Glyndebourne); World Factory (Young Vic/New Wolsey/HOME/Attenborough Arts Centre/Cambridge Junction); Dr Faustus (St Sepulchre’s Chapel).
TELEVISION: Knuckles (Paramount+).
OTHER: Assistant Director for the Hans Christian Andersen Museum audio tour (Odense Denmark).

GABRIEL S JANORAS
KAZEGO PUPPETEER
RSC DEBUT SEASON: My Neighbour Totoro (West End).
TRAINED: Rose Bruford College.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Wishmas (Secret Cinema); A Little Rain in Monaco (Sober Riot Theatre).
OTHER: Adverts for Waitrose, World Remit and Meta.

KUMIKO MENDL
KAZEGO PUPPETEER
RSC DEBUT SEASON: My Neighbour Totoro (West End).
UNDERSTUDY: Granny Ogaki.
TRAINED: Jacques Lecoq Theatre School in Paris.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Cyrano (National Theatre); Top Girls (Royal & Derngate); Onigoro Valley (Royal Court); Blue Remembered Hills (New Earth/Ustinov, Bath); Play to Win (New Earth/Soho Theatre); The Bourgeois Gentilhomme, The Tempest (Tara Arts); Tongue Tied (Young Vic); The History of Water (The Gate); Magic Paintbrush, Snow Lion, No Worries (Polka); Tales from Old Japan, Paper Washi Wish, Me and My Cat (A Thousand Cranes/artsdepot); Lysistrata (Rose Theatre); Small Poppies (Byre Theatre); Hey Nicaragua!, The CIA Cabaret (Assembly Rooms); Macbeth (New End).
TELEVISION INCLUDES: The Many Cinderellas (Channel 4); A Migrant’s Heart (BBC2); The Day of Reckoning (BBC).
FILM: Frog in the Well.
RADIO: From Telford… (Radio 4).
OTHER: Kumiko is a founder member and former Artistic Director of New Earth Theatre (previously known as Yellow Earth Theatre) 2011-2024, the UK’s foremost British East and South East Asian (BESEA) Theatre company. She is co-Artistic Director of A Thousand Cranes.

VICTOR ITANG
KAZEGO PUPPETEER
RSC DEBUT SEASON: My Neighbour Totoro (West End).
TRAINED: East 15 Acting School.
THEATRE INCLUDES: The Magic Flute/Die Zauberflote (Glyndebourne); The Road to Happiness (Nonsuch Studios); Monkey and the White Bone Demon (Red Dragonfly Productions); Tom Jones (Rotunda Theatre); The Comedy of Errors (The Dell, Stratford-upon-Avon).
SCREEN INCLUDES: Sweetpea (Sky Atlantic); Bite (Amazon Prime); Alo (BFI Network); #SWIL2 (Big Deal Films).

This is Victor’s West End debut.

SABRINA PIU YEE CHIN
KAZEGO PUPPETEER
RSC DEBUT SEASON: My Neighbour Totoro (West End).
TRAINED: East 15 Acting School.
THEATRE INCLUDES: endings (Young Vic).
SCREEN INCLUDES: DI Ray (ITV); You Don’t Know Me (BBC).

RACHEL CLARE CHAN
KAZEGO PUPPETEER
RSC DEBUT SEASON: My Neighbour Totoro (West End).
TRAINED: Royal Academy of Music.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Tsubaki in Your Lie in April (Harold Pinter Theatre/Theatre Royal Drury Lane); Cover Bet, Oliver & Dodger in Oliver! (Leeds Playhouse); Sayu in Death Note: The Musical in Concert (London Palladium/Lyric Theatre); Cover Kim in Miss Saigon (Raimund Theatre). Theatre while training: Louise Bigelow in Carousel, Colored Lights: The Songs of Kander and Ebb (Royal Academy of Music).
TELEVISION: The Crown series 6 (Netflix).

CHLOE RAGRAG
KAZEGO PUPPETEER
RSC DEBUT SEASON: My Neighbour Totoro (West End).
TRAINED: The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Three Musketeers (New Vic); Hermia’s Dream (McLellan Arts Festival); [Going] Nowhere Fast (Off Kilter Festival); [BLANK], Glory on Earth, Coriolanus/Macbeth double bill (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland).
SCREEN INCLUDES: Only Child (BBC); Fear (Amazon Prime); Toy Library (Cromeans Productions); One Last Tear (Pixeleighted Productions).
RADIO INCLUDES: The Farewell Glacier (Naked Productions, BBC Radio 3).

SALLY CHENG
KAZEGO PUPPETEER
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (West End), A Christmas Carol, Twelfth Night.
TRAINED: Guildford School of Acting.
THEATRE INCLUDES: The Sound of Music (Pitlochry Festival Theatre); Twelfth Night (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); The Wizard of Oz, Macbeth (Watermill Theatre); Tony! The Tony Blair Rock Opera (Leicester Square Theatre/UK tour); Richard II, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Robin Hood (Guilford Shakespeare Company); The Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 and 3/4 The Musical (Queen’s, Hornchurch); The Play that Goes Wrong (West End); A Christmas Carol, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Scoot Theatre); The Wind in the Willows (Jermyn Street/GSC); The Last of the Pelican Daughters (The Wardrobe Ensemble/Complicite/Bristol Old Vic); A Christmas Carol,The Emperor and the Nightingale (Theatre by the Lake); For Services Rendered (Jermyn Street); Shadowlands (Chichester Festival Theatre); Footprints on the Moon (Finborough Theatre); Singin’ in the Rain (Bolton Octagon/Salisbury Playhouse/New Vic).

SHAOFAN WILSON
金小凡
KAZEGO PUPPETEER
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (West End/Barbican, London 22-23 and 23-24).
UNDERSTUDY: Tsukiko.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Pool (No Water) (Royal Court); Wonder Winterland (Soho Theatre); The Welkin, All of Us, The Ocean at the End of the Lane (National Theatre); The Secret Love Life of Ophelia (Greenwich Theatre); Oh for F*ck’s Sake (I’m in Love with You) (Nottingham Playhouse);
Girls (The Old Market Brighton); Pappyshow Cabaret (Battersea Arts Centre).

RICHARD PERALTA
KAZEGO PUPPETEER
RSC DEBUT SEASON: My Neighbour Totoro (West End).
UNDERSTUDY: Hiroshi.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Richard is a Deaf, neurodiverse, Filipino-American multidisciplinary artist. Originally from Missouri, Richard grew up performing in the St. Louis Muny (Roman Holiday, Singin’ in the Rain, West Side Story, Grease, Bye Bye Birdie, Miss Saigon). Recent credits: Sherlock Holmes and the Poisonwood (Watermill Theatre); Much Ado About Nothing (Sheffield Theatres/UK tour); Galatea (Wildworks); Wendy & Peter Pan (Leeds Playhouse); originating the lead role of Riz in Hilmi Jaidin’s musical, Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading; developing their new play Goldfish (Graeae Theatre/Nottingham Playhouse/New Earth Theatre/Theatre503). Richard contributed as a playwright to Titilola Dawudu and Tamasha Theatre’s Hear Me Now, Volume 2: Audition Monologues for Actors of Colour, and was chosen to participate in BBC Writersroom Access Group 23-24.
OTHER: Richard has a M.Ed. in Counselling, Education and an M.S. in Psychology. They continue to serve the creative sector as an educator and consultant in EDI (Equality, Diversity & Inclusion) with a passion for social justice, decolonisation, and disability access; having also worked for Inclusive Arts UK and as Sheffield Theatres’ Agent for Change.

ANNA KATO
KAZEGO PUPPETEER
RSC DEBUT SEASON: My Neighbour Totoro (West End).
TRAINED: MA in Acting, East 15 Theatre School
SCREEN: Web series Defy.

RONNIE LEE
KAZEGO PUPPETEER
RSC DEBUT SEASON: My Neighbour Totoro (West End).
TRAINED: Laine Theatre Arts.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Ocean at the End of the Lane (UK & Ireland tour/Noël Coward Theatre); Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Palace Theatre); Cinderella (Trinity Theatre, Tunbridge Wells); Sleeping Beauty (The Capitol, Horsham); Dick Whittington (Yvonne Arnaud). Theatre while training: Just So, The Laramie Project.
TELEVISION: Gangs of London series 2.

LUCY PARK
KAZEGO PUPPETEER
RSC DEBUT SEASON: My Neighbour Totoro (West End).
TRAINED: MA in Musical Theatre, Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Lucy Park is an actor/singer/writer, born and raised in South Korea. She studied pop/jazz singing and worked as a professional singer in South Korea before moving to the UK. Credits include: Your Lie in April, Priscilla: The Party, Come From Away (West End); Peter Pan (Hall for Cornwall); Play AI (Riverside Studios); Tokyo Rose (Southwark Playhouse/UK tour); Game Face, The List (Tristan Bates); The Lightning Road (Actors’ Church).
SCREEN INCLUDES: Can I Just Say Something? (short film).

AI NINOMIYA
二宮 愛
KAZE NO KOE/SINGER
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (West End/Barbican, London 22-23 and 23-24).
THEATRE INCLUDES: Les Misérables (Japan tour); CHESS the Musical (Japan tour).
TELEVISION INCLUDES: WILD HEROES (Nippon Television Network Corporation); UTAGE! (Tokyo Broadcasting System Television, INC).

BOAZ CHAD
陳政樺
SWING KAZEGO PUPPETEER
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (West End/Barbican, London 22-23 and 23-24).
TRAINED: Guildford School of Acting.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Death Note (Lyric Theatre); Sasha Regan’s all-male production of The Pirates of Penzance, The Land of Might Have Been (Buxton International Festival/Norwich Theatre); Fiddler on the Roof, La Cage aux Folles (HK Repertory); Fame, Melodía (HKYAF); La Bayadère (Bavarian State Ballet); Otello, The Land of Smiles, Faust
(Opera HK); The Tsar’s Bride (Bolshoi Opera).

NATHANIEL TAN
SWING KAZEGO PUPPETEER
RSC DEBUT SEASON: My Neighbour Totoro (West End).
THEATRE INCLUDES: Sun Gan in The Chinese Labour Corps (Blue Orange Arts); Navy Guard in Billy Budd (Royal Opera House); Rory in Squirm (Theatre503/Edinburgh Fringe); Isaac in Modern Romance (Southwark Playhouse); Bardolph in The Merry Wives of Windsor (The Principal Theatre Company).
SCREEN INCLUDES: FBI: International, Spar (pilot episode), The Contract (Short), Love Online, Todd Sloane (short), Adieu Marx.

AMBER LIN
胡洵琳
SWING KAZEGO PUPPETEER
RSC DEBUT SEASON: My Neighbour Totoro (West End).
Amber Lin is a London-based Singaporean Chinese non-binary actor. Alongside their acting credits, they also possess experience in facilitation, spoken word, puppeteering, stunt work and game writing.
THEATRE INCLUDES: A Play, A Pie and A Pint (Òran Mór, Glasgow); performing in both English and Mandarin as Miranda in Dinosaur World Live (Nicoll Entertainment/China and Australia tours. Olivier Award Best Family Show).
OTHER: Amber owns a TikTok account dedicated to anime.

WEN HSIN LEE
SWING KAZEGO PUPPETEER
RSC DEBUT SEASON: My Neighbour Totoro (West End).
TRAINED: Chinese Culture University.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Wen Hsin Lee is a dancer, actor and performing artist from Taiwan, now based in London. Theatre includes: The Burnt City, Sleep No More (Punchdrunk); Rhythm & Ruse, Bacchanalia (Sleepwalk); Priceless (Random Trigger). She recently created Mola ‒ a puppetry theatre show for young people (Grand Boat Culture, China).
DANCE INCLUDES: Layers (Eyal Dadon x Xie Xin Dance Theatre); From In (Xie Xin Dance Theatre); Mi Casa Tu Casa (Les Petites Choses Production). Wen Hsin has worked as rehearsal assistant for Xie Xin Dance Theatre.
TELEVISION: Blossom (Wong Kar Wai).
OTHER: Wen Hsin is also a make-up artist, photographer and magician.