About Us

Comedy, Cabaret, Creativity ...

UnderHand Productions is a fundamentalist production company formed by long-time collaborators Rohan Acharya and Matt Holt in May 2003, teamed with the entrepreneurial Mike Smith. The company aims to output a range of superlative comedy entertainment productions with a uniquely unassuming, collaborative approach, always putting the audience first. With a surprising amount of front line expertise for so fresh a company, UnderHand is one extremely capable crew - resourceful, friendly and genuine.

Find out about our extended family of fellow mischief makers here.

Ro
Rohan Acharya has done 7 Edinburgh Fringe Festivals in 10 years. Best known for his comedy cabaret events (60 Acts in 60 Minutes, Edinburgh 2001 & 2002 and London West End 2004), his directing work has always been well received by critics and audiences alike. Notably, he directed 3 highly acclaimed sketch shows for Ubersausage (1999-2001) and the innovative sell-out NewsRevue Xmas Special 2001. Ro came to prominence as artistic director of the renowned Canal Café Theatre in 2000, where he can still occasionally be found on box office (so if you see a distinctly tired-looking Asian fella there, say hello)! Here he programmed 18 months of phenomenal comedy and cabaret, including Mackenzie Crook, Daniel Kitson, Priorité à Gauche and countless more acts that have since risen in prominence. Having earned his stripes he founded UnderHand with Holt and Smith in early 2003 and ran 3 seasons of the celebrated West End cabaret, Comedy-a-JoJo, where he allowed his distinctive taste for variety run riot. At the same time he also spent ten months as the initial development director for Underhand's Edinburgh Festival-bound anarchic comedy, Nudge.

Since late 2001 Rohan has been developing his concept sketch show, The StickMen. In March of last year he implemented a massively collaborative process that culminates in this year's World Premiere of StickMen: Year One at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. He is thoroughly excited about it, considering the show to be a prize 'blend of comedy and theatrics.' (He's always up to theatrics). Recently Rohan began working for the BBC New Comedy Department as a part-time research-developer and has the great joy of programming Edinburgh's sell out comedy night, the prestigious BBC Stand Up Show Live! Running nightly at the Pleasance Dome throughout the festival he's been putting together some truly breathtaking bills. To contact Rohan regarding his work for Auntie Beeb please email rohan.acharya@bbc.co.uk.

Last year Ro was given an Outstanding Achievement in Fringe Award for Most Comedy Person of 2002-2003! Check out his bananas interview at fringereport.com. Ro also hangs out with his genius young son, Samuel, in Bournemouth every weekend.

Holt
Matt Holt made his first big splash in comedy at his second consecutive Edinburgh Fringe Festival, in the highly acclaimed hit show UberArmy (2001). Since then he has toured extensively with Fuse Productions in the sublime physical comedies, Somehow I Feel Dirty & Bedhead. Matt's also become an accomplished and versatile director in his own right, and is currently Associate Director on a modern feature film adaptation of Macbeth. His first love however, is affable banter with a crowd, and for 18 months he was resident MC and programmer at On the Funny Side in Blackfriars. Other MC credits include the last season of Comedy a JoJo's , it's little sister Comedy a OhOh at Edinburgh 2004, The (mighty) Hoxton Bark, and an upcoming residency for Electric Cabaret in the C Electric venue at this year's Edinburgh Fringe. A mercurial and fearless stand up, he has the uncanny ability to place audience mood and gig atmosphere before the need to simply rattle through material. In turn genial then furious, this charismatic fella once helped men everywhere by shamelessly admitting on terrestrial television that ET can still make him cry ...

In the UnderHand triumvirate he actively supervises all our production activities, hands-on, knackered but crucially, very hands on. Currently he is busy assisting Ro on The StickMen project - script editing and co-ordinating sketch writers and cast to generate brand-spanking new material for their next show . The lion's-share of Matt's energies are spent with his long-term double act partner James Lamont (co-stars in the much loved Nudge, featuring Charlie Chuck). They are currently busy skipping through some care-free adventures which will give them plenty more to talk about on stage, with their trademark glee.

Smith
Tech head, financial wizard, comedy writer extraordinaire, Mike Smith knows at least one of each of these. And they all owe him favours. Subsequently he's become an invaluable member of the team, and will remain so as long as he can keep on pulling off his magic. Mike first got involved in comedy at the tender age of 19 when he pootled off to Edinburgh in a Lada seeking fame and fortune. Neither were swiftly forth coming. and he quickly slipped back into the obscurity of computers. Spectacularly failing to cash in on the cash cow that was web development in the late 20th century, Mike remains chained to a computer for much of his waking life.

He has recently discovered the joys of the cameo role, which consists of all the fun of being a performer, but none of the responsibilities. Having been repeatedly killed in the Edinburgh production of The StickMen, and being lined up to die a gory death in Macbeth, he is beginning to wonder if someone is trying to tell him something. He's also hard at work trying to produce new material for the forthcoming StickMen sequel, and his own long term creative project which is so secret he won't even reveal its title (although that might be because all the ideas for a title he's had so far are crap). But for all that, his first love remains his greatest, which is why you'll find him in a pub for much of the rest of the time.

Find out about our extended family of fellow mischief makers here.