Jess Winfield wrote and performed with the company from its inception in 1981 until 1992, when he realized that he had played the title role in Hamlet more times than John Gielgud and Laurence Olivier combined, and suddenly felt old. He left the company and became a writer/producer at Walt Disney Television Animation, which made him feel young again – until he spent ten years there, when he felt old again.

After working as showrunner on the Lilo and Stitch franchise, he left Disney in 2006 to write My Name Is Will – A Novel of Sex, Drugs, and Shakespeare (Twelve Books). Depicting the immortal 18-year-old Bard in the Stratford-Upon-Avon of the 1580s made Jess feel young again, but his second novel was a failure, making him feel old again. He lives in Hollywood with his wife (and RSC costume goddess) Sa Winfield and is working on his third novel, which makes him feel like he’s in his forties (which he hasn’t been for over a decade).