ACTRESS PROFILE: ISABELLA CHARLTON

Isabella Charlton loves acting in theatre all over the world. She has performed in theatrical productions in the UK, China and Taiwan. Her most recent theatre performance was a lead in a Chinese adaptation of Macbeth, which was performed at the prestigious Grand National Theatre in Beijing, as well as going on tour to Taiwan as part of the 2015 Cross-Strait Theater Festival. In the UK, she has performed in plays such as ‘All in the Timing’ and ‘The Government Inspector’ at the Burton Taylor Theatre.
Isabella Charlton grew up in Hong Kong and learned Mandarin Chinese at primary school, which stood her in good stead to take in film and TV productions in China. Her first major role came in a 30-episode TV comedy series called ‘Dragon Train’ set in the Qing dynasty and directed by Ying da, a well-known director in China. Playing a comic role came naturally to Isabella, as she has long done ‘cross-talk’ (a similar equivalent stand-up in Chinese but with two people on stage), first studying with Master Deng, a well-known cross-talk performer in China. From there Isabella switched to doing stand-up comedy in English, and has done comedy shows at the Hot Cat Club and Penghao Theatre in Beijing.
Isabella Charlton has since gone on to feature as Winston Churchill’s youngest daughter in “The Cairo Deceleration”, a movie about China’s role in World War 2, and secured the role in the series ‘The Circle’, directed by Jennifer Schwerin. The producer, Tess Liu, describes the show as a female version of ‘Entourage’, and indeed, one of the executive producers is Gary B. Goldman, who was one of the associate producers of Entourage as well as assistant director of the show and featured as a producer on the recently released Entourage movie.
Charlton adds that as she continues to grow as a performer she hopes to spend more time in the US, but would always come back to China to work on future projects. She also hopes to write more and perform her own works on stage or on screen. Isabella also loves directing. “I recently filmed a documentary about a young Italian stand up comedian’s struggle to find fame” she says.
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