Tamzin Merchant

There's nothing worse than a director who feels more like a cop than a comrade, so I try to never give orders or create an environment where it's 'my way or the highway,' because actually allowing talented people to bring their originality and insight always brings more depth and complexity than if everyone has to do what you tell them to!

We show our faces to demand human rights for everyone, everywhere.

When I directed my first short - 'American Virgin' - I had no idea if I could actually do it. Like, I might just get onto set, have everyone look at me and just completely freeze and have no idea what to do. But pretty much the opposite of that happened. I was like a fish diving into the sea.

I think the most rewarding part for me is kind of not knowing where the story's going next, and then finding out and being blown away by it.

We show our faces to support the billions of young people who suffer a lack of education. We show our faces to honour the potential of every young individual on this planet.

People say never work with children and animals. I actually like working with Oliver Bell, and working with a rat really opens possibilities to you because you don't know how it's going to be. It's just a rat, so you can just react to this rat being a rat, if that makes sense.

Looking forward, we see that it is the youth of today who hold the key to tomorrow. And we can help unlock it.

We show our faces to demand that politicians making promises stick to those promises. We show our faces to ensure that the youth of today will flourish tomorrow.

Writing and directing, to me, was the logical evolution from my life as an actor: going from telling someone else's story to actually creating my own. Perhaps one day I will do all three: write, direct, and act in the same production. That might get a little hectic, though.