Performance and Media graduate Louisa Palmer is an agent for Shelley Norton Stage School and Management in Cardiff.

"I help Shelley manage the agency. We currently represent young actors from the ages of 3-26 and put them up for professional work in TV, film, theatre, radio and commercials. It’s been interesting for me as an English person to help find Welsh-speaking performers for Welsh language TV.  

We are also building our adult list so that’s going to be a new challenge this year and one I’m really looking forward to. It’s really rewarding when we get our clients jobs and see them on television. 

Part of my job is to assist with casting sessions, run casting searches, do administration and help out when our stage school puts on shows and performances. I’ll also be getting my chaperone license soon which means I’ll be on set looking after our clients and quite different to the office based work.

The Shelley Norton Stage School has a wide range of different classes ranging from musical theatre to acting and audition technique to dance classes. 

I always wanted to go into acting after deciding that film-making was more of a hobby. In my final year of university, I sent my CV round to companies in and close to Cardiff and did a couple of office days with Shelley learning what to do. After that she offered me a job. 

I always said I would never be sat in an office but this is different because I’m doing different things every day and I get to meet some really cool and very talented people. 

Everything I did on my course has helped me with this job, particularly as it taught us a variety of skills in different fields of drama and production. 

I’m able to give some acting advice and direction to some of our actors when they come in to do self-tape auditions. My knowledge of filming and editing has been very useful when filming the shows and Shelley has encouraged me to make short videos for social media that help promote the business.  

The best experience I had from university was making so many friends. We were a very close course, most of whom have stayed or moved back to Cardiff so we see each other as much as we can. Some of my friends are working in production so I get to work with them too.

I fell in love with Cardiff the first time I visited. It’s such a great city, everything is so close by and there are more and more opportunities available to drama and media students."