OUR TEAM

Good Chance was founded by playwrights Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson in 2015 and joined in 2017 by Executive Director Naomi Popli, and now has a team of 12 core members (full and part-time). 

Since our first days in Calais we have developed a Good Chance Ensemble of artists and Artistic Associates and, alongside the core team, Good Chance collaborates in the UK and internationally with an extended network of artists, producers, project managers and volunteers. We also run the Stage Door work placement programme for people who have been displaced to develop their professional experience. The team is supported by the Good Chance Board of Trustees led by Chair Stephen Daldry, and all our work is strategically informed by an advisory board made up of people with lived experience of displacement.

Together we make up the Good Chance family.

Amir Ibrahimi

PRODUCTION & DIGITAL MEDIA COORDINATOR (Full time)

  • Amir is a human rights activist, photographer, filmmaker and theatre administrator. He joined Good Chance via the Stage Door programme in June 2022 during Fly With Me, and has worked off and on stage with the company since. Amir is also a public speaker, media contributor with IMIX and Safe Passage International, and a recognised leader within the UK migrant community.

Cindy McLean-Bibby

PRODUCER
(Full time)

  • Cindy is a Producer & General Manager with over ten years of experience across theatre, artist development and community engagement. She has previously worked with organisations including Little Angel Theatre, Omnibus Theatre, Theatre503 and the Production Exchange. She joined Good Chance in 2024.

Dina Mousawi

CREATIVE PRODUCER
(Part time)

  • Dina's career spans theatre, film and television as an actor, director and producer. She produced the BAFTA nominated short film Yellow, which was also shortlisted for an Oscar in 2024, and her theatre work has taken her on tours across Europe, America and the Middle East. She joined Good Chance as Creative Producer in 2018, having previously worked at Complicité, where she visited the Calais refugee camp to lead a workshop in the Good Chance dome. Dina is also co-author of the critically acclaimed cookbook Syria Recipes from Home and a Trustee of Makani.

Elias Matar

DEPUTY ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
(Full time)

  • Elias is a storyteller, playwright, director and dramatherapist. With 10 years experience leading organisations and programmes across the arts and charity sectors, his practice is rooted in trauma-informed and rights-based approaches. Elias founded Ibillin Theatre in his village in the Galilee and El Bayet Centre in London, his plays Olive Jar and A Grain of Sand have been performed across the UK and internationally, and he is a Trustee of Kazzum Arts.

Emily Webb

INTERIM DIRECTOR & HEAD OF PROGRAMMES (Part time)

  • Emily has over 15 years’ experience in arts that have an impact on the world: at Southbank Centre, leading programmes and as executive director of national writing charities First Story and Ministry of Stories, including spearheading the now annual National Writing Day, and as co-founder of social-change incubator Take Note. She joined Good Chance in 2018 to run the Domes and then our projects and programmes - and it changed her life forever. She is also a poet, and is a Trustee of Cheltenham Welcomes Refugees.

Hannah Harding

COMMUNICATIONS & MARKETING MANAGER (Full time)

  • Hannah is a poet and storyteller who started at Good Chance in 2021, a job only dreams are made of, and has since worked her way up through the company to now managing Good Chance’s hope-fuelled communications and advocacy messaging. Her skills and experience span graphic design, video editing, website development, social media platform curation and comms strategy.

Christabel Holmes

SENIOR PRODUCER
(Full time)

  • Christabel is a theatre producer working across both subsidised and commercial sectors with a focus on new writing and talent development. Formerly Development Producer for Francesca Moody Productions, her experience spans fringe to West End and everything in between. She has additionally held producing roles at the Young Vic and Paines Plough - where she commissioned over 100 writers for the small and mid scale.

Joe Murphy

CO-ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
(Part time)

Joe Robertson

CO-ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
(Part time)

Mardin Mahmoudpour

Finance Assistant
(Full time)

  • Mardin is an actor, arts administrator and refugee justice activist. He joined Good Chance in 2024 via the Stage Door programme, and has since performed in From Here On and The Wish Tree. He also supports programmes at Our Second Home, has performed with Phosphoros Theatre and served on the Migrants' Rights Network Advisory Board. He's currently studying Global Politics and International Relations at Birkbeck.

Melanie Bafitis

General Manager
(Part time)

  • Melanie is a Producer & General Manager with over 15 years’ experience in commercial and subsidised theatre across the UK and US. Credits include Ain’t Too Proud on Broadway and Chess at the Kennedy Center, and she’s worked with leading organisations including Playwrights Horizons, New York Stage and Film, Shakespeare’s Globe, and SiriusXM Radio, developing new work and championing emerging artists. She has a background in music composition/vocal performance and joined Good Chance in 2022, a dream job bringing together her passion for the arts and social justice.

Naomi Popli

Executive Director
(Full time, maternity leave)

  • Naomi is a theatre producer and charity executive with over 15 years’ experience, including with internationally renowned theatre company Complicité, Rose Theatre Kingston and Oxford Playhouse. She first volunteered in the Calais refugee and migrant camp with Good Chance in 2015 and joined the company in 2017 as its Executive Director, bringing together her commitment to the arts, humanitarian work and social justice. Naomi is also a Trustee of Play for Progress.

Philip Cowell

Head of Fundraising
(Full time)

  • Philip has over 23 years' experience in the arts (Arvon, English PEN, Good Chance, The Walk) and sustainability (Abel & Cole, Here Design, Futerra), working on amazing projects that bring people together with wonder and joy to tell another story.

Şule Karakus

Finance Assistant
(Part time, maternity leave)

Good Chance Ensemble and Associate Artists

Amy Reade (Associate Artist) | Connie Treves (Associate Artist) | Girum Bikele | Justin Martin (Associate Artist) | Majid Adin | Milan Tajmiri | Mohamed Sarrar | Yasin Moradi

Recent Collaborative Artists

Andrea Ling | Ammar Haj Ahmad | Basel Zaraa | Elaha Soroor | Elham Ehsas | Faïza Guène | Hamed Moradi | Lester Gómez Medina | Mardin Mahmoudpour | Rachid Sabitri | Sanjar Qiam | Sarah Ardizzone | Sarah Orola | Stephen Daldry | Tom Tegento

Good Chance Board of Trustees

Good Chance has a committed Board whose members work in the fields of the arts, law, politics, finance, strategy, fundraising and human rights.

The board is chaired by Stephen Daldry with trustees Hiran Abeysekera, Majid Adin, Jeffrey Culpepper, Sonia Friedman, Natalia Kaliada, Anirudh Mathur, Phoebe Reith, Gemma White KC and Susan Witherow.

  • Stephen Daldry (Chair)

  • Hiran Abeysekera

  • Majid Adin

  • Jeffrey Culpepper

  • Sonia Friedman

  • Natalia Kaliada

  • Anirudh Mathur

  • Phoebe Reith

  • Gemma White KC

  • Susan Witherow

Good Chance Advisory Board

Since the birth of Good Chance, authentic voice has been at the heart of everything we do. As part of our commitment to a participatory, lived-experience-led approach, our Advisory Board is a key strand of Good Chance’s work and governance. It brings together people from diverse backgrounds and areas of expertise including theatre, art, advocacy, policy-making, communications and community development, all with lived experience of displacement, migration and diaspora, to help inform Good Chance’s decisions, direction and vision. Find out more here.

  • Soria Hamidi

  • Atta Khaled

  • Rasha Obaid

  • Aryan Sanghrajka

  • Sule Selin Cicek