Mixalis Aristidou (BA, MA, PGCert, FHEA) is an actor, movement specialist, and theatre educator from Cyprus. He trained at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London, completing both his MA in Actor Training and his PGCert in Performance Teaching. His teaching and directing work have taken him across Europe, including collaborations with the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), the Guildhall School (GSMD), and other leading drama institutions and theatre companies.

Over the past decade, Mixalis has worked with actors and students from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds across the UK, Germany, Greece, Spain, and Cyprus. At RADA, he teaches on the BA Acting and Short Courses programmes, serves on audition panels, works as a movement director for public productions, and contributes to access initiatives supporting underrepresented and neurodiverse students. He has also led the movement department at the University of Northampton, mentored emerging educators at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, and collaborated with institutions such as the Cyprus Theatre Organisation (THOC) on professional productions.

Mixalis’s approach to actor training begins in the body, helping actors find grounding while letting the breath move freely. He invites trust in the body’s intelligence, in the impulses that arise before thought, and supports actors in releasing tension and habits that interfere with authenticity. From this state of awareness, they can meet the text with honesty and clarity. His work moves between precision and play, using technique as a way to free rather than fix the actor. Whether working on classical text, contemporary writing, or improvisation, Mixalis treats the rehearsal room as a space of discovery, one of listening, attention, and truthful connection.

Mixalis is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Cyprus, researching multilingualism and code-switching in actor training. His work examines how language hierarchies shape identity in Cypriot theatre and explores how multilingual practice can open more authentic and decolonial approaches to performance and education.