I think I was always destined to have a career in the performing arts. As the son of a dance teacher who runs her own dance school I often ended up in her classes. So, for me, dancing and performing was ingrained in me from an early age and I’ve never really seen myself doing anything else.

Whenever I’ve seen someone getting paid to be a dancer or an actor, I’ve always thought ‘that looks like success to me, because you’re doing something that to other people might be a hobby and you’ve made it your job.’ As I’ve grown older I kind of see us as politicians in costume. We’re professional storytellers and it’s something we’ve been doing since the Stone Age with cave paintings, and for me it’s just awesome to be able to turn that storytelling into a profession.

But getting into that profession has arguably never been harder than it is now. Graduates struggling to find work is something we see up and down the country, and if we want to see young people thriving in the arts then we need to give them the chance to show what they can do and create more opportunities.

As a working-class lad from Leeds who’s benefited from people opening doors for me, I know how important this is. When I went to Leeds Conservatoire, I was among the first cohort of their new drama school. On the back of this I got my first professional acting credit with Tutti Frutti, and it’s the same with Dreamers, where Channel 4 did an open casting call. There’s a pattern there of doors being opened, and I wanted to do something similar with Rebel Roots Theatre.

When I founded Rebel Roots Theatre in 2024, the idea was to have a grassroots theatre company dedicated to creating opportunities for working class people, as well as graduates and unrepresented talent, that also supported local communities by going to unconventional theatre spaces. For our first show, Family First (which has just finished its first tour), we went to Leeds Conservatoire and were able to give one of the students, Scarlett Bennett, her first professional credit, which was just brilliant.

Family First – credit Kennady Faye Photography

I wanted to set up a theatre company like this for years and you reach the point where you think to yourself ‘right, I’m going to take the plunge and just do it.’ It’s been a steep learning curve, but I’ve had so much support and encouragement from other theatre companies in the city like Red Ladder, Wrongsemble and Tutti Frutti, which has helped me get a lot further a lot quicker than if I just sat and googled everything.

When you do something new it can feel a bit scary and yes, failure is always a possibility, but at the end of the day everything you do is a learning curve and that’s how you grow. I remember when Dreamers first came up, I wasn’t going to audition for it because ‘I thought Channel 4 aren’t going to hire me’, but a friend pushed me into it and thank goodness he did.

I’ve been very lucky in my career so far, but I believe more needs to be done to create opportunities for young people, especially those from working class backgrounds. I used to work with a woman in a supermarket and she told me that her granddaughter had been told not to go into the performing arts because it would never lead anywhere. She said, ‘but I’ve seen you in Dreamers, so we’ve encouraged her to go for it.’

I think so many young people are being pushed away from the arts because their families are worried there’s no career in it, which is such a shame. I really want to see it get the funding and support it deserves, because it’s not just about the art and putting on a show, it brings communities together. I’ve seen it myself. My mum’s dance school uses a little hall in Pudsey, and I was able to bring my show there and I got to see a completely different side to the town. We had people in who I’d never met before, which shows how theatre can bring people together.

I really hope Rebel Roots can show working class families, students and graduates that there are opportunities out there, and that you can follow your dreams. One of the ricochet effects has already been that people thinking about setting up their own company have come to us and I’ve been able to connect them to other organisations. My hope now is that we can offer a pathway for young creatives and that five or six projects down the line we’re seen as a place that gives people a chance. If that happens it would be beyond amazing.

Tyler Pickles, 23, is an actor, theatre maker and producer from Pudsey, near Leeds, and a Red Ladder trustee. In 2024 he founded Rebel Roots Theatre Company to help amplify working-class voices, support local spaces, and create work for graduates and unrepresented talent. He graduated from Leeds Conservatoire in 2023 and starred in the Channel 4 series Dreamers.

Main image: Tyler Pickles – credit Ruth Crafer