David Witts, the actor best known for playing Joey Branning in BBC soap EastEnders, has opened his own acting studio in Manchester. The studio, named Work MCR and based in Ardwick, teaches students from their teens up to their 80s, and has built a community of nearly 100 actors.
Witts, who is originally from Southend-on-Sea in Essex, chose Manchester as the home for his studio after living in various places, including Los Angeles. He told the Manchester Evening News: "It has everything you could possibly need without there being a pretension to it. I've lived all over. I spent three or four years in LA filming some TV shows out there, and when I came back to England post-COVID, I wanted to live in a city and thought I'd check out Manchester."
He added: "I didn't know much about it, but I came up for a weekend and thought, 'Yeah, I want to stay here!' It just has such a nice, welcoming vibe. Speaking to my desire for authenticity in myself and in the work I see in others, Manchester has authenticity built in. It feels like less of a pretence here than in other cities I've lived in. I just really enjoyed that."
Manchester's growing screen reputation
Manchester's appeal as a filming hub is well established. Greater Manchester is home to Coronation Street and has been a filming location for major productions, including Marvel's 2022 film Morbius and 2011's Captain America: The First Avenger. Netflix has also filmed several adaptations of Harlan Coben's books there, as well as the recent series House of Guinness, which has been confirmed for a second run.
The BBC broadcasts flagship shows from the region, and kept its summer World Cup coverage in Salford rather than following ITV to New York. Entertainment game shows such as University Challenge and The Voice UK are filmed at MediaCity UK.
An 'acting revolution' in Ardwick
Witts, 35, said Work MCR grew out of his teaching work. "Work MCR is basically an acting studio that, like many things, it's something that sort of just got out of hand," he said. "I had been doing some teaching for other studios before, like a lot of actors do in between jobs. I realised the way I teach became larger than teaching within somebody else's business framework."
He explained his approach: "I wanted to have small classes. I wanted to prioritise people sharing their real experiences rather than getting better at pretending, which is typically what acting is. My interest was to get people to actually stop acting—and by that, I don't mean give up the career, I just mean stop pretending."
The studio started with just ten actors he knew well. "Suddenly, almost two years in now, we've built a community of probably near 100 people who do regular classes with me. We've built this community, and it feels a bit like a revolution in Manchester in terms of actors who genuinely care about authenticity and being open, available people in their work," he said.
Bridging the North-South divide
Witts, who has also appeared in films The Beekeeper and A Working Man, both opposite Jason Statham, said he wants to give local actors high-level training without needing to travel to London. "No one really wants to watch someone doing their 'acting' at them. We want to watch people be honest, real, and authentic. Therefore, the training historically passed down from coaches 100 years ago is no longer as relevant when what we want in 2026 is to see real authenticity in people," he said.
He also acknowledged the importance of northern soaps: "Northern soaps are really respected up North; people love them and really get behind them, probably because they're seeing people like themselves on TV. Coronation Street alone generates so much work for Manchester actors. It's about time some of these Manchester actors actually got that opportunity rather than, you know, casting agents using their London actors."
