Tiana Harper is a Senior Lecturer for the BA (Hons) Acting for Screen course. Tiana’s performing career started in her teens and early 20’s in local theatre and as a touring member of bands on Virgin and EMI records. She later wrote and performed as one half of London-based musical comedy cabaret duo Pearl and Dede, and performed with the influential loungecore institution Club Montepulciano, including residencies at Cafe de Paris and the Rivoli Ballroom, and a live performance on Radio 4’s Loose Ends. A love of writing for visual storytelling led to a career in TV and film, where she wrote and directed shorts and promos for companies including Discovery Channel, and received an Emmy citation for production on The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (HBO/BBC Films.)

Tiana trained in Actor Training and Coaching at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, in Screenwriting at Royal Holloway, University of London, and Filmmaking at the Northern Film School. Since 2013, Tiana has taught and led courses in performance and filmmaking at leading UK conservatoires and universities including London Film School, the University of the Creative Arts and The Royal Academy of Music and she has written and delivered performance and writing workshops for companies including Skyros Holidays.

In 2022, Tiana graduated as a professional and guild registered Feldenkrais practitioner and delivers classes in the UK and Europe and online. She is currently a PhD candidate at York St. John University where her practice-based methodology explores embodied walking arts.