Acting grad has major roles in two huge TV shows

Acting graduate Alanah Bloor (2023) stars in two major TV productions that were released in the run-up to Christmas.

Alanah plays the pivotal role of Lady Marianne in the Italian epic Sandokan and Maddy, the daughter of Rowan Atkinson's character, in the Netflix comedy-drama series Man vs Baby.

We caught up with Alanah to find out more about the two contrasting shows and her time at LIPA. 

Sandokan and Man vs Baby - from the outside seem like very different productions - how did your work on them differ and which parts of your craft/discipline remained the same?

I agree, both had a completely different feel on set. Sandokan was a huge, epic-scale show, playing an already well known character. The stories are so loved, that I was very nervous about taking on this job. The atmosphere though couldn't have been more friendly and loving, and so enthusiastic about making this show. Soon I relaxed into life, living and working in Italy.

Man vs Baby was a whole other side I was not familiar with working on; scripted comedy. The biggest change I’d say in terms of my approach to each job was giving myself more time in Sandokan to find the voice of Marianne, doing my research on the location and time period, making really thorough notes in each scene of the things like ‘what does my character know?’ ‘Where has she just been?’ etc. For Man vs Baby, it was a more simple task of using what had been given to me by the previous actor playing Maddy, and knowing the script and journey really well. Also being open to offers from both the director and Rowan. Regardless of the job, what stays the same for me is that I will read the script over and over, there are always new things to be discovered in every read.

What's the reaction been to Sandokan in Italy?

Overwhelmingly positive, I really couldn't have hoped for a better response. It was a big deal for Lux Vide to adapt this series. Sandokan is like an Italian Poldark or Sherlock, it's huge and means so much to many generations, but so far, it's been the most popular TV show in Italy for years, which can only be a good thing. It's coming to the UK and US early next year, alongside being sold to many streamers globally, I'll be intrigued to see how Sandokan does over here!

What's it like to be part of a big Christmas show like Man vs Baby?

Being on a Christmas show is so lovely because everyone can watch it. I went home to visit my family so we could all watch together and my little cousins, who are only five and nine were so engaged, alongside older relatives in their 70s, that's a lovely feeling, to be entertaining whole families at Christmas time.

While working on these productions what part of your LIPA training did you use most?

There are so many parts of my training I was using on and off set, from grounding myself physically and vocally, using things I learnt with Matt Dudley and Rosemary Berkon, my facts and questions by Katie Mitchell, taught to me by the lovely Beth Vyse, and actioning and objectives from first year with Majid Luke Mehdizadeh-Valoujerdy. It was brilliant to have all these parts of my toolkit to help me along the way, but most importantly LIPA gave me the most playful platform, and some of my closest friends. I look back all the time and think how much fun I had every day. It was such a privilege getting actor training at such a high level and being a playful actor is worth its weight in gold. I’m still picking things up all the time, new things on every job. It's like a free drama school lesson just watching the other actors work.

Alanah in The Seagull at LIPA in 2023

Can you tell us what's next for you?

Not long ago I wrapped on a British independent feature called Yamas! directed by Harry Richardson and Rufus Love, also written by Rufus. I was working with some phenomenal talent and crew, so I'm excited to see what happens next with that. I have some things lined up which I can’t talk about yet but 2026 is going to be a very busy year. 

Find out more about our Acting courses