Interviews from History – Pioneering Women: Nellie Bly Cast and Credits

Written by Richard Hodder

Richard graduated from Keele University with a dual honours in Law and Economics, later reading for an MA in Economics from Leicester.

He worked in William and Glynn’s Bank in Manchester and Peugeot Talbot, before lecturing in Business Studies (Law and Accountancy) rising to Head of Department at Loughborough College.

He then retrained at Guildford School of Acting and worked in the profession for over thirty years working in Repertory, Touring and the West End stage. As well as a variety of commercials and TV credits (ranging from ‘Morse’ and ‘Foyle’s War’ to ‘The Chuckle Brothers’). He also has a bank of work in corporate videos mainly in Management, Legal or customer roles, most recently for JLR, Toyota, BP and the Barrister’s Training course.

He has also directed a range of theatre shows from Ayckbourn to Shaw and Shakespeare.

As a radio / voice artist, he works mainly in corporate voiceover and does a daily slot for ‘theviewpod’ as a newsreader, so Whisky Wars comes like any good single malt - delightful and refreshing.

The Interviewer was Kimberley Lim

Kimberley has 20 years of experience working as a broadcast journalist around the world. She started as a reporter in New York on breaking news stories before moving to London where she helped found and lead the division at Reuters television providing custom content for broadcasters in Asia, the Americas, Europe and the Middle East.

Over the years, Kim has covered financial markets and investment, and industries including autos, pharma, media and technology. She has attended events including the Paris and Geneva auto shows, the Group of 20 leaders’ summits and the World Economic Forum. Her catalogue of business interviews include Donald Trump, George Soros, Bill Clinton, Boris Johnson, Laskhmi Mittal and Richard Branson.

Kim is a graduate of Cambridge University and with an MA from New York University.

The Nellie Bly was played by Laurel Parker

Laurel Parker is an award-winning producer/director born and raised in California.  She studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts before earning a bachelor’s degree in Broadcast Communications from California State, LA.  She made her first films while earning an MFA in directing at Columbia College, Chicago. 

Laurel returned to LA and worked at Disney Studios and then MGM.  On the weekends she produced sound for the Sunday Show at the infamous Groundlings Theatre, working with Melissa McCarthy and Maya Rudolph.  In 2002, Laurel established Mobley Street Productions to produce her own projects and to provide a full spectrum of video and audio production services.  She launched the UK arm, Mobley Street Productions Ltd., in 2011.  With Mobley Street, Laurel has produced and directed stand-up comedy features, featurettes for high profile DVD releases such as Robocop and American Gods, corporate promos and sizzle reels for major corporations including Microsoft and Colgate, numerous music videos, and award-winning comedy shorts.  She’s also worked as head of business development for a mutli-national subtitle and dubbing company.  She’s directed dubtracks for feature films and series television. 

During lock-down, Laurel began producing and directing radio drama podcasts.  To date, Laurel and her partner, John Paul Chapple, have recorded over 20 shows for Towton Audio and Horror Lab Aural.  Last year, Laurel was honoured to produced and directed a Bafta award-winning video for Prince William’s Earthshot Prize.  Laurel wraps this year having produced and directed a media campaign for a leading accounting software.  In addition to her production work, Laurel is also senior lecturer at Ravensbourne University where she teaches film studies and film directing.