This week, Signature share more about Julian Peedle-Calloo, a British actor and writer who has been deaf since birth. Throughout the blog, Julian expands on where his passion for acting all began and rewarding moments from his successful career. Alongside this, Julian offers invaluable advice to those who are navigating themselves through the television industry. Carry on reading to find out more!
- Hi Julian, please could you introduce yourself to our Signature weekly readers.
I am Julian- most people in the sign language community will know me as the presenter of See Hear (for which I have won the first ever ‘Best Presenter’ award at the Remark Awards! What people often don’t know is that I only work for See Hear ONCE per month. Additionally, I work for the BSLBT as a Commissioner, and I have been involved in the creation and commissioning of lots of BSLBT’s factual programmes such as Sign2Win. I am also an actor, and I have been in BBC programmes such as Holby City and New Tricks. I have a passion for history, and I express this through writing short films about the lives of Deaf people in past times. You can see some of the films I have written on the BSLZone, including ‘Confessions’ and recently ‘The Letter’.
- Can you expand on some of your experiences growing up as a deaf child in a hearing world?
I did grow up in the hearing world- my hearing parents were told not to allow me to sign, and medical professionals were certainly obsessed with my hearing levels and speech, but fortunately for me a deaf family- the Bells- lived a few streets away from where I grew up. They introduced me to sign language and helped me to develop my identity as a deaf person. The Bell family were the ones who suggested I apply to Wolverhampton University, and going there completely changed my life. I was lucky that my parents never actually tried to stop me from using sign language and I always had good communication with them.
- As a successful actor across many shows, can you tell us more about where this passion for acting all began and did anyone in particular inspire you?
Part of it definitely came from being a deaf child in a hearing family- I did impressions and entertained them with my acting skills as a way to get over the communication barrier. I vividly remember watching an episode of ‘Sign On’ when I was young, in which John Wilson signed a poem called ‘Whale’- the story was so detailed and gory, and alongside there were drawings! I remember realising as I watched that I was following the story and understanding his signing. Poor whale!
The actors who influenced me the most were probably the cast of The A-Team- I was completely obsessed with that series!
Another person who helped me to discover my passion was my amazing Teacher of the Deaf at primary school, Mrs Jezzard. She would arrange for the children in the PHU to do performances every year, and she sent us to do drama workshops which were where I met Sarah Scott and Raymond Harrison Graham when I was very young. That’s when I realised I wanted to be an actor. Afterwards, I attended the FYD drama weekend, Deaf Drama Workshop with Fifi Garfield, and Paula Garfield when I was a teenager. Continuing on, I attended Shape Deaf Theatre on two occasions for their Deaf Summer Course.
- What is it about acting, presenting, and producing that you find the most rewarding and why?
A very good question- I think I have had to fight for what I have achieved and now I feel some satisfaction. Being mixed race has also been a significant factor in my career. I was not picked to appear in a BBC drama called ‘The Count of Solar’ in the early 90s because of my skin colour (there was no colour blind casting back then!). I have often felt that See Hear, which is such a valuable resource for the deaf community, is not properly recognised by the mainstream world so I missed lots of mainstream opportunities to take part. But the barriers I have faced have made me stronger and more determined. Everything that I have learned in my TV production career, starting as a Researcher, and climbing to where I am now, has broadened my mind and helped me to understand my deaf identity and the politics that surround us as a community. I am proud to create art and content that is relevant and important to the deaf community and knowing that they get value from anything I am part of is the most rewarding thing. I also was the first Deaf reporter for BBC news- regional and nationally- I was honoured to do these reports.
- What advice would you give to aspiring deaf actors who are navigating their way through the industry?
It’s a tough industry. Be proactive, make films on your smart phone with your friends and upload them to online platforms such as YouTube and Instagram to start to build your profile- look at Jazzy Whipps and Danny Murphy’s amazing careers. It’s also a helpful thing to do some work as a runner on TV/Film sets as this is a great place to meet people and build your network of contacts, but also to see for yourself that acting is only one part of the world of production.
- Here at Signature, we are incredibly excited about the prospect of a BSL GCSE. What are your thoughts on this and how will it positively impact those who are deaf and those who are hearing?
I am so excited about the BSL GCSE! It’s about time- it’s been many years since 1880 and decisions were made in Milan that removed sign language from education. Now people have the chance to learn and open up the world so deaf people don’t face any barriers in shops or ordering things! I believe the BSL GCSE will change all our lives over the next few years. I understand there’s a shortage of qualified BSL teachers, but hopefully more deaf people train to become BSL teachers.
- Have you faced any challenges within the entertainment industry as a deaf individual, and if so, how have you overcome them?
I am certain that I have been limited because the industry still doesn’t fully embrace signing actors; I know I could have been more successful if I had been hearing or even if I had clear speech, but it just means I have to be as good or even better than other people to prove myself.
When I was younger and hoping to train as a professional actor, I became aware that there were not many opportunities for me as a deaf BSL user to do this. I applied to several drama schools, but they told me it wouldn’t be possible for me to be on their courses as I would need to use voice for speech, accent work and singing. It was hard to be rejected for this reason, and it made me decide to go to university to do a Media Studies course, but I never gave up on acting. Mountview, finally gave me a scholarship to take part in one of their courses. I was delighted, but it frustrated me that so many drama schools couldn’t see that I had talent, only because I don’t use my voice. I wanted to fight this attitude, and so I secured a bursary to pay for another drama school, the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts, to run a summer school for BSL actors to prove that we can act without needing to use speech. After this, lots of drama schools started to change their attitudes, and slowly over time more and more deaf people have had the chance to access professional acting training.
Aside from acting, I worked in production for the BBC for 15 years. I fitted right in at See Hear, but I wanted to prove that I could work on other productions like all the other production staff did. I certainly had some success- I have worked on The One Show, Children in Need and Crimewatch Roadshow, but every time you join a new team you have to educate the people there about being deaf, BSL and prove that you can do the job, because hearing people are often unsure whether you can. It’s a relief in many ways to bring the skills and talents I gained into the deaf media world where I can be myself and share everything I have learned.
There will always be challenges for deaf people working in the entertainment industry when things are sound/speech based, but there are ways to get round these barriers. One major aspect of presenting that people don’t realise doesn’t work for BSL users is autocues- when a hearing presenter is on screen, they are usually reading a script from an autocue. Because the script is in English, that’s easy, but for a deaf presenter working in BSL it can completely throw you off because the English will influence your BSL production! So deaf presenters need to have great memories and the ability to take an English script, translate it and sign it to camera in a way the audience can understand. That’s at least three times the work!!
- Finally, do you have any exciting projects or future aspirations that you would like to share with our Signature readers?
I was honoured to be cast in a big series for the BBC recently, The Reunion, which was written by William Mager who is hugely talented. I’m not allowed to say too much about this project, but I know it will be a fantastic series for the whole of the community to enjoy. I have noticed that there are very few roles for men of my age in television- TV producers seem to be more comfortable casting deaf children or young people, so I don’t always feel the whole of the deaf community is represented on screen, but I have faith in talented writers like William and Charlie Swinbourne, whose work is gaining more exposure in the mainstream, to reflect on us in our diversity. So come on William and Charlie and all you writers out there- more roles for BSL- using mixed-race older guys in your scripts please!
Here at Signature, we would like to thank Julian for sharing his personal journey into acting and for opening up about some of the discrimination he has faced along the way. It has been great to learn about all the wonderful things Julian has done in his career so far! We look forward to his role in The Reunion, alongside Deaf actors, Rose Ayling-Ellis and Matthew Gurney.