Cast Set for MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING at Shakespeare's Globe

Shakespeare's Globe has announced the cast and creative team of Much Ado About Nothing in The Globe Theatre, running from 11 June – 24 October 2026, directed by Chelsea Walker (All's Well That Ends Well, 2024).

The cast will comprise Geraldine Alexander as Sister, Matilda Bailes as Margaret, Marlowe Chan-Reeves as Borachio, Fia Hadeed as Ensemble/Cover, Joshua John as Claudio, Assa Kanouté as Hero, Richard Katz as Dogberry, Kaffe Keating as Seacole/Messenger/Cover, Os Leanse as Verges, Adam Long as Don Pedro, Jonathan McGuiness as Leonato, Pippa Nixon as Beatrice, Ken Nwosu as Benedick, and Joseph Potter as Don John.

Director Chelsea Walker says: “I'm thrilled to be back at the Globe, this time in the wonderful outside space, to direct one of Shakespeare's best loved plays. And I'm particularly excited to be working with such a bold, talented and dynamic ensemble who I know will revel in its comedy, excavate its darkness and bring audiences along for the ride.”

Much Ado About Nothing's Assistant Director is Charlotte Vickers, Angus MacRae is the Composer, Jackie Orton is Costume Supervisor, Sami Fendall is Designer, Kev McCurdy is the Fight Director, Lucy Fennell is the Intimacy Director, Aline David is Movement Director, and Brenda Moore-Whaite is the Wellbeing Lead.

Much Ado About Nothing was cast by Becky Paris CDG, Head of Casting at Shakespeare's Globe.

Biographies

Geraldine Alexander will play Sister. Geraldine is best known for playing Mrs Wilson in the Netflix hit series Bridgerton. Her other television credits include The One, EastEnders, The Child in Time, Marcella, Father Brown, Shetland, Any Human Heart, Dance to the Music of Time, Extras, Miss Marple, and Poirot. Her film credits include Oslo, Messages, Fatal Passage, The Discovery of Heaven, and Merchant Garcon.

Her theatre credits include: The Maids Tragedy, Two Noble Kinsmen, Titus Andronicus, Midsummer Night's Dream, The Tempest, and Holy Warriors (Shakespeare's Globe); Here There Are Blueberries (Theatre Royal Stratford East); Wedding Band (Lyric Hammersmith); Sea Creatures and For Once and The Empty Quarter (Hampstead Theatre); The Contingency Plan (Sheffield Crucible); Persuasion, Breaking The Code, Hamlet, and Woman Of No Importance at the Royal Exchange and the UK tour of Shakespeare in Love.

Matilda Bailes will play Margaret. Matilda trained at LAMDA and graduated in 2021. Her theatre credits include Never Let Me Go (Rose Theatre Kingston/UK Tour); Shooting Hedda Gabler (Rose Theatre); Persuasion (Rose Theatre/Alexandra Palace/Oxford Playhouse). Her screen credits include Mr Bates vs the Post Office (ITV); Doctors (BBC).

Marlowe Chan-Reeves will play Borachio. Marlowe trained at Mountview. Their theatre credits include: Titus Andronicus (Hampstead Theatre & Royal Shakespeare Company); The Merry Wives of Windsor (Mountview) and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Mountview). TV credits include Doctor Who (BBC), Shetland (BBC), and I Fought the Law (ITV).

Fia Hadeed is Ensemble/Cover. Fia trained at Guildhall School of Music & Drama. Much Ado About Nothing at Shakespeare's Globe is Fia's stage debut. TV credits include: The War Between the Land and the Sea (BBC / Disney+), The Gathering (World Productions / Channel 4).

Joshua John will play Claudio. Joshua John trained under the Royal Shakespeare Company in the Young Company & The BRIT School. His theatre credits include Romeo and Juliet and Twelfth Night or What You Will (Shakespeare's Globe); Sappho and Phao, The Merchant of Venice, Prince Charles' Royal Gala, All Mirth No Matter (RSC); Cuffed (Theatre 503) and Alterations (National Theatre). His TV credits include Emmerdale (ITV).

Assa Kanouté will play Hero. Assa is a mixed-race actor from London. Her screen credits include Boarders (BBC), Deep Cover (Amazon Prime), and Break Clause (Channel 4).

Richard Katz will play Dogberry. Richard Katz is an Associate Artist at Shakespeare's Globe and an Associate for Complicité. Previous work at Shakespeare's Globe includes: Twelfth Night: For One Night Only, The Fir Tree, Bartholomew Fair, The Merry Wives of Windsor, As You Like It, Hamlet, Nell Gywnn, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and The Golden Ass. Other theatre credits include: Good Night, Oscar (Barbican); Mnemonic (National Theatre, a co-production with Complicité); War Horse, Measure for Measure, The Wind in the Willows (National Theatre); 1984, Cabaret (West End); The Fair Maid of the West, Blindness and Seeing, Peer Gynt, Romeo and Juliet, As You Like It, The Comedy of Errors, The Drunks, Pericles, Silence, The Winter's Tale (RSC); Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, The Encounter, The Master and Margarita, Measure for Measure, Strange Poetry, The Noise of Time, Mnemonic (Complicité); Love and Other Acts of Violence (Donmar); The Lorax, The Divide (Old Vic); The Soldier's Tale (Hallé). TV credits include: The Crown, Andor, MotherFatherSon, A Discovery of Witches, Taboo, The Honourable Woman, Ambassadors, Crossing Lines, Poirot: The Trials of Hercules, Green Wing, Hustle, Privates, Rome, and Nicholas Nickleby. Film credits include: Promenade, Gladiator 2, Dance of a Ziller, The Infiltrator, Guardians of the Galaxy, Measure for Measure, Sixty Six, and Enigma. Radio credits include: A Trespasser's Guide to the Classics and Marley was Dead, both of which he also co-wrote.

Kaffe Keating will play Seacole/Messenger/Cover. Kaffe trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Theatre credits include: Measure For Measure (RSC); Compositor E (Omnibus Theatre); The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (West End and World Tour for The National Theatre); The Secret Seven (Storyhouse, Chester); POSH (Nottingham Playhouse/Salisbury Playhouse); Johnny Got His Gun (Metal Rabbit Productions); Prince of Denmark (National Theatre). TV credits include: Gangs of London S3.

Os Leanse will play Verges. Os trained at Guildhall School of Music & Drama. Theatre credits include: Here There Are Blueberries (Stratford East); Cymbeline (Shakespeare's Globe); The Closeness (Park Theatre); Stranger Things: The First Shadow (Sonia Friedman Productions); Much Ado About Nothing (Sheffield Theatres/Ramps On The Moon). Television credits include War (Sky/HBO); Trigger Point S2 (ITV/HTM Television). Film credits include Artificial (Amazon MGM); The Peril at Pincer Point; Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning (Paramount Pictures); Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One (Paramount Pictures).

Adam Long will play Don Pedro. Adam's TV credits include Sherwood S3, Lethal White (BBC 1); Star City, Masters of the Air (Apple TV+); Film Club (BBC Three); Nine Bodies In A Mexican Morgue (Amazon MGM+); Protection, Platform 7, The Long Shadow, The Bay, Home Fires, Vera (ITV); The Day of The Jackal, Wolfe (Sky One); Bancroft Series 1 And 2 (ITV Encore); When The Streetlights Go On (Hulu); Don't Take My Baby, Happy Valley, The Passing Bells, The Thirteenth Tale, Father Brown, Moving On (BBC). Film credits include Peterloo (Film 4); Cherry (AGBO); The Kill Team (Temple Hill Entertainment); The Corrupted (Creativity Capital); Dunkirk (Warner Brothers); Spike Island (Bankside Film).

Jonathan McGuiness will play Leonato. His theatre credits include: I Do (Dante or Die), Macbeth (Tobacco Factory), Bodies (Royal Court), Animal Kingdom (Hampstead Theatre), Imogen (Shakespeare's Globe), The Oresteia (Trafalgar Studios), Love's Sacrifice, The Comedy of Errors, Twelfth Night, The Tempest (RSC), Four Minutes Twelve Seconds (Hampstead Theatre & Trafalgar Studios), The Ritual Slaughter of Gorge Mastromas (The Royal Court), Comfort Me With Apples (Hampstead), Fatherland (Gate), Alice, Richard III, Mojo (Crucible, Sheffield), 1984 (Royal Exchange, Manchester), Orphans (Traverse/Birmingham Rep/Soho), Love, Metamorphosis (Vesturport/Lyric, Hammersmith), Once in a Lifetime, Playing with Fire, The UN Inspector (National Theatre), Pyrenees (Paines Plough/Tron), Jeff Koons (ATC), A Midsummer Night's Dream, Rose Rage (Propeller/Watermill/West End), Twelfth Night, The Comedy of Errors, Henry V (Propeller/Watermill), Crazyhorse (Paines Plough), Two Weeks with the Queen (Leicester Haymarket), The Champion of Paribanou (Scarborough), The Knocky (Royal Court), Cornerboys (Royal Court). Television credits include: Holby City (BBC), Wolf Hall (BBC), Bletchley Circle (ITV), Silk (BBC), Casualty (BBC), Doctors (BBC), The Catherine Tate Show (BBC), Robin Hood (MGM+), A Touch of Frost (ITV), In Search of the Brontes (BBC), Sharpe's Gold (ITV), The Convicts (HBO), Have Your Cake & Eat It (BBC), Coogan's Run (BBC). Radio credits include: One Five Seven Years (BBC) and The Man With the Hammer (BBC). Film credits include: Nice Guy.

Pippa Nixon will play Beatrice. Pippa's theatre credits include The Ocean at the End of the Lane (National Theatre); The Importance of Being Earnest (Vaudeville Theatre); Sunset at Villa Thalia (National Theatre). Screen credits include Unforgotten (ITV); Angela Black (ITV); MotherFatherSon (BBC); Ransom (CBS); Cuffs (BBC).

Ken Nwosu will play Benedick. Ken's theatre credits include An Octoroon (Orange Tree Theatre and The National Theatre); White Noise (Bridge Theatre); Three Sisters (National Theatre); Ghosts (HOME Manchester) and As You Like It (National Theatre); The Alchemist, The Merchant of Venice, The White Devil, and The Roaring Girl (RSC); Othello (Shakespeare's Globe). TV credits include Black Doves (Netflix), Prisoner (Sky); The Winter King (Bad Wolf/BBC); Down Cemetery Road (Apple TV); Sticks & Stones (ITV); The Letter for the King (Netflix); Hollington Drive (ITV). Film credits include The Witches.