Neil lives, loves (and tries to surf) in the coastal city of Durban. He began is career as an actor -  performing in productions of  ‘Twelfth Night, ‘Compleat Wks of William Shakespeare’, ‘Oedipus Rex’, ‘Dangerous Liaisons’,’ and “King Lear. Winning awards for his performances in ‘Hamlet’, ‘Proof’ and ‘Dracula’. For his sins ,he even dabbled in a bit of contemporary dance working with the Flying Fish Dance Company (flinging himself into a wall of bread loaves on stage wearing a pair of granny knickers and high heels) in Robin Orlin’s controversial “That’s the Way the Koekie Crumbles’. Amongst the other random yet enlightening jobs Neil has undertaken is as a teacher at a performing arts school in New York, Body double to actor Joseph Fiennes on the film ‘Man to Man’ and Dialect coach to actors Pete Poselwaithe and John Hannah on the B -grade Italian horror film ‘Ghost Son’.

More recently, Neil has hung up his thespian boots (and employment as some time corporate meat puppet) to work as playwright and free lance journalist for various South African publications.

Some of his highlights are hanging out with historical re-enactors ‘The Die Hard’s’ in the battle fields of Dundee, traversing the lemur (not to mention leech) infested jungles of Madagascar , surviving ordeals on Himalayan and Andean glaciers, enduring hellish donkey pilgrimages to attend Shaman ceremonies in North Peru and undertaking a (and somewhat miraculously surviving a head on collision)  a literary pilgrimage to track the life and work of Gabriel Garcia Marquez in Colombia.

Neil’s first play ‘Suicidal Pigeons’, about three young South African’s living in London, premiered at the Red Eye Art exhibition (2005) and he has more recently completed seasons of two award winning original works- a mangled Point Road version of Peter Pan ‘Two ..The Beginning of the End’ (co -written and performed alongside Clare Mortimer) as well as the mythical fable “Tin Bucket Drum’ featuring Ntando Cele in the lead role.

In 2009 ‘Tin Bucket Drum’ will travel to Chicago under an invitation from the Linsky institute.

Neil Currently runs an independent film initiative (alongside Karen Logan) called ‘The Kwa-Cinema’ and has had his short story ‘The Accordion Man’ published by Penguin .He is completing his forth play ‘Tree Boy’ while researching a documentary film project on Durban’s Grey Street Cinema’s.

The following Blog is collection of his musings, rantings, ravings, reviews, columns, articles, play extracts and short stories. Neil can be contacted on ncoppen@gmail.com