Dr Robert Vesty (he/they) is co-chair of the LGBT+ staff and student network at Middlesex University where they work as a Senior Lecturer in Theatre. A white cis male, they were born in Luton in 1973 but quickly moved to Lancashire before moving again to Essex when he was ten. He grew up in a working-class household with two younger straight brothers and found himself hiding his queerness from those around him, including himself. In some ways, he found space and a potential outlet through theatre, which he studied at GCSE, A-level and then at the University of Birmingham where he graduated with First-class honours. He then went to the Welsh College of Music and Drama to complete actor-training before moving to London to work as an actor in theatre. Robert ‘came out’ as gay at 27 (he was kind of ‘outed’ by his dad one Christmas) and was lucky enough to be supported by a strong network of friends and, for the most part, family too as he got to know his sexuality. At work he has mostly felt supported too - at one point in his early 30s fearlessly holding hands with his partner at the headmaster’s reception on day 1 of a new job at a posh secondary school prompting more gay teachers to increase their visibility especially when it came to including their partners at social events. In 2009, Robert did an MA, moved into teaching in academia and developed his performance practice as an improviser before embarking on a PhD. Which he completed in 2020. These days, Robert most readily identifies as queer; uses both he and they pronouns and lives in East London with their genderqueer spouse who is Spanish. They were married in 2016 in a queer act of resistance against the EU referendum and then celebrated the marriage with a day-long queer festival of performance billed as ‘our very own European union’. In terms of work, he now specialises in teaching movement for actors. He writes about and practices improvisation and is interested in the topics of queerness and class. More at www.robertvesty.com

You can listen to Robert's queer anthem 'Do You Wanna Funk' by Patrick Cowley on our YouTube playlist here.