BIOGRAPHY
Photo by Remy Hunter
Early Life
Carl was born in Sheffield, the youngest of two brothers. He lived in South Yorkshire until the age of 8 when the family moved to North Norfolk. He attended the local state school and spent his youth avoiding academic work and focussing more on learning the guitar and performing in the youth theatre group in Norwich where his interest in the arts began.
Although he failed many of his GCSEs his interest in theatre was noticed and he was offered a place doing Theatre Studies at Paston Sixth Form and his decision to become an actor was made.
At 18 years old he moved to Peckham in London to live with his maternal grandparents whilst auditioning for drama schools. He became a London tour guide on the open-top busses before being offered a place at The Central School of Speech and Drama.
Career
Carl’s career began in 2001 when he won the BBC Carleton Hobbs Award upon graduation, leading to a year’s contract as a member of the BBC Radio Drama Repertory Company which is where his love of audio-drama began.
In 2007 Carl decided to expand his knowledge of the industry as a whole and took up the position as the Production Assistant to West-End producer David Pugh, working on box office theatre hits Equus, God of Carnage and Brief Encounter.
As a Director
Carl moved into directing audio drama for BBC Radio in 2009 with Suzanne Heathcote’s (The Walking Dead and Killing Eve) debut radio play Taken.
After directing a series of successful productions for BBC Radio 4, including The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner by Alan Sillitoe) he joined Almost Tangible as Artistic Director in 2018 and received the 2019 New York Festivals Gold Award for Best Director for his adaptation of Macbeth, which also went on to win Best Drama Podcast, Best Sound Design and The Grand Award for Best Digital Drama.
The Covid Lockdown era was an opportunity to develop remote-recording possibilities for Carl to keep creating work for himself, sound-designers and actors who were all confined to their homes. In 2021, four titles that Carl directed during lockdown for Almost Tangible took home four NYF Awards in the Best Audio Book Children’s category.
Charlotte Melen, Carl Prekopp, James Robinson and David Chilton celebrating the success of Macbeth
Location Recording of Hamlet Noir in Gilleleje, Denmark
In 2022, Canadian production company Reflector Entertainment approached Carl to direct Seasons Two and Three of the paranormal podcast drama Out of Sight co-produced by West End Media. Part remote recording and part studio recording, this saw Carl directing actors all around the world simultaneously, from Hong Kong to New York, London to Montreal.
In 2023 Carl travelled to Denmark to direct Charlotte Melen’s Hamlet Noir, a Scandi-noir, detective re-imagining of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, produced by Almost Tangible for BBC Radio 3 using an entirely Danish cast and recorded on location outside Copenhagen. Hamlet Noir went on to receive Best Use of Sound at The BBC Audio Drama Awards, Best Director, Best Drama, and Best Sound Design at The NYF. Won the Bronze Award for Best Drama and Best Creative Innovation at the ARIAS.
As an Actor
Carl has a huge number of radio dramas, audiobooks and video games under his belt and has also worked extensively in theatre, from London’s West End to the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford upon Avon. He has also toured the UK, Ireland, Budapest and the USA.
Carl has appeared in various TV dramas and films, including Riz Ahmed’s Oscar-winning short The Long Goodbye.
Highlights in his acting career include performing at The Maida Vale Studios and The Barbican alongside the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and BBC Symphony Orchestra in Neil Brand’s re-workings of Wind in the Willows, A Christmas Carol and The Hound of the Baskervilles.
In 2019 Carl was nominated as Audio Performer of the Year at the Audio Production Awards for his Narration of Harper Collins’ title The Binding by Bridget Collins.
In 2020 Carl received the Silver award for Audio Performer of the Year at the Audio Production Awards for his narration of The Little Match Girl, produced by Almost Tangible which also won 2020 NYF Gold for Best Children’s Audiobook and the Bronze Award for Best Narration.
In 2024 he won the ARIAS GOLD AWARD for Best Reading for his narration of Open Throat by Henry Hoke for BBC Radio 4.
Carl Prekopp in The Provoked Wife at the RSC
Neil Brand’s Hound of the Baskervilles at The Barbican
As a Tutor
Carl is passionate about working in education with young people. He is a visiting tutor at many of the leading UK drama schools including The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Guildford School of Music and Drama and The Oxford School of Drama.
Carl directs Restoration Comedy for the stage at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and in 2021 he wrote and directed the 3rd year production of ALICE based on Lewis Caroll’s Alice’s adventures in Wonderland..
He has worked with students at the Southwark Playhouse’s Youth Company (YoCo) in London, Stalham High School in Norfolk, Bedales School in Hampshire, Archangel University in Russia and Universities across the USA (including Vassar College, New York, Notre Dame in Indiana and Brigham Young in Utah).