Nancy Oliver (born February 8, 1955) is an American playwright and screenwriter. Best known for her work on the successful TV series Six Feet Under, Oliver was nominated for an Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay in 2008 for her debut screenplay, Lars and the Real Girl.

Oliver was born in Syracuse, NY and raised in Framingham, Massachusetts. She began writing at an early age and earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst. During this time she was involved with the university's theater department as a performer.

While attending Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida for theatre, Oliver met director and screenwriter Alan Ball in 1976. Together they founded the General Nonsense Theater Company, a satirical ensemble for which the two wrote, staged and starred in subversive comical sketches. She was also a member of Alarm Dog Rep. A playwright whose work includes Office, Dreams Are Funny, Calypso" and "VW as well as several plays for young people, she twice won Florida's Individual Artist Grant for Playwriting. In addition to working previously as a teacher, columnist and newspaper editor, she studied Drama at the Banff Fine Arts Center in Canada and Trinity College, Oxford. She earned a Master of Arts degree in Acting and Directing from Florida State University.

Jodie Prenger (born 12 June 1979 in Blackpool, Lancashire) is an English actress and singer. She was the winner of BBC talent show-themed television series I'd Do Anything on 31 May 2008. She was also the winner of the second series of The Biggest Loser on Living in 2006. She is also a former panellist on ITV1's flagship daytime show Loose Women.

Prenger was educated at Elmslie Girls' School in Blackpool and Blackpool and The Fylde College before starting work in the area as an entertainer. She has performed extensively on the cabaret circuit in Northern England and particularly her hometown of Blackpool and Fylde coast where she has also worked as an agony aunt. In June 1998 she appeared in two different shows each night in two Blackpool theatres. First she had a solo spot in the Tiptoes Summer Spectacular at the resorts Opera House theatre before appearing 20 minute later in one of the main roles in a Blackpool and The Fylde College production of the musical comedy, Hot Mikado at the Grand Theatre.

Kerry Jane Ellis (born 6 May 1979) is an English actress and singer who is best known for her work in musical theatre and subsequent crossover into music. Born and raised in Suffolk, Ellis began performing at an early age before attending Laine Theatre Arts from the age of 16.

Ellis made her first professional stage appearance at 19. Her appearance in the 2001 revival of My Fair Lady as Martine McCutcheon's understudy in the role of Eliza Doolittle marked her West End debut. After meeting Queen guitarist Brian May in 2002, she originated the role of Meat in We Will Rock You and has since played lead roles in West End musicals Les Misérables, Wicked (which also took her to Broadway) and Oliver! as well as appearing in national tours like Miss Saigon and musical concerts such as Chess. Now a recognised musical theatre actress, Ellis has received several awards and nominations and been hailed as the First Lady of the West End. She has also worked sporadically in film and television.

Despite her misfortune on The Voice UK in 2012, Ellis had been expanding her repertoire as a solo artist in collaboration with May since 2002. With May, she has released an extended play Wicked in Rock (2008) and a studio album Anthems (2010); the latter peaked at number 15 on the UK Albums Chart and spawned her first headlining concert tour Anthems: The Tour. In addition to singing in concerts across the world, Ellis also appears as a featured artist on several albums and is featured on three cast albums. She is currently working on her second studio album with May.

Andrew James Matfin "Jamie" Bell (born 14 March 1986) is an English actor. He is best known for his roles in the films Billy Elliot (2000), King Kong (2005), Jumper (2008), and The Adventures of Tintin (2011).

Bell was born in Billingham, County Durham, England, where he grew up with his mother, Eileen (née Matfin), and older sister, Kathryn. His father, John Bell, a toolmaker, left before Bell was born. Bell began his involvement with dance after he accompanied his sister to her ballet lessons. He was a pupil at Northfield School and took performing arts classes at the local franchise of Stagecoach Theatre Arts. He was a member of the National Youth Music Theatre. In 1999, he was chosen from a field of over 2,000 boys for the role of Billy Elliot, an 11-year-old boy who dismays his working class widowed father and older brother by taking up ballet.

Bell served as Honorary Jury President of the 2001 Giffoni Film Festival. Since his film debut in Billy Elliot, he has appeared as the disabled servant Smike in an adaptation of Nicholas Nickleby, a young soldier in Deathwatch, a teenager on the run in Undertow, a gun-toting pacifist in Dear Wendy, a disaffected Southern California teenager in The Chumscrubber, and the young Jimmy in the 2005 film version of King Kong. He also appeared in Close and True, an ITV legal drama shown in 2000, which starred Robson Green, James Bolam and Susan Jameson. In 2007, he played the title character in Hallam Foe – for which he was nominated for the best actor award at the British Independent Film Awards – and appeared as himself in lonelygirl15 spin-off KateModern.