West Sussex actor graduates from Juilliard drama school in New York

Rory, aged 27, originally from Southbourne and a former student at Portsmouth Grammar School, is now based in the Big Apple – and loving it.

“I was an undergraduate in Manchester, doing drama and theatre studies but it was more of an academic programme. And then I went to New York. It was a strange set of circumstances. I was just amazingly lucky.”

Rory was in a pub with friends and they were discussing the possibility of drama school: “I got home and I went online and thought I would have a quick look at Juilliard. I googled the best drama schools in the world and Juilliard was number one. But it turned out that the application deadline was the next day!

“I was five pints in and I had to write a 2,000-word essay about my relationship to my art. I did it and I submitted it. I had to write it pretty quickly but in truth it had been in the back of my mind for a while.

“And then with the audition process I was even luckier because it was all on zoom. Usually you would fly over and then you would fly back if you're invited back for a final weekend. But I never had to do that because of the pandemic. I did it all on zoom and I did it on zoom again when they invited me back for the weekend. I did that, and it was great. On zoom it went from 1,800 applicants down to 50 and then it went from 50 down to 18. It meant that my first time ever in New York was turning up at Juilliard.”

Rory arrived in New York in 2021 and graduated last year from the acting programme.

“It has been great. It has been testing. It is hard to summarise in a couple of words. But it pushes you and it pushes your boundaries of what you're capable of. But I do feel different and what Juilliard also teaches you is to analyse what that means. It's about communicating. It has tested me well and I have come out still enthusiastic about everything.

“Upon graduating I booked a job understudying the lead in a play called Prince Faggot where I played a theoretical Prince George if he grew up to be gay. It was a crazy play that turned out to be a big, big hit and sold out almost every night. It was a crazy time where I met a whole bunch of celebrities – Remi Malek and Alexander Skarsgard.

“I would love to continue to work here. There is a vibrancy to New York, and coming out of school I think there are two great things. I feel like I've got something that I want to offer in a New York or America but also I love the community of Juilliard. It's a tiny community. There are really not many alumni but I find that I'm stumbling into Juilliard alumni all the time. I would love to stay here.”