Staff of Brand X

JAMES WINTER – Director

James graduated from the Centre for the Performing Arts (Adelaide) in 1993. As a Theatre Director, James has worked for the State Opera Company of South Australia, State Theatre Company of South Australia, Restless Dance Company, D Faces of Youth Arts, Urban Myth Theatre of Youth, AIT Arts, Shopfront, Ashfield Youth Theatre, Belvoir Youth Express and The Studio at the Sydney Opera House. James co-founded Brand X in 2005 and since then has worked on 17 re-purpose projects with the company and consulted for the private and public sectors on cultural infrastructure. He currently sits on the City of Sydney Cultural and Creative Sector Advisory Panel.

SAM JOHNSON – Operations Manager

Sam is an experienced operations lead with an active interest in arts and performance. He is a participant in NIDA’s 2023 Actors Studio and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Government and International Relations from the University of Sydney. Sam comes to Brand X from a consulting background and most recently worked with Deloitte for over four years in the firm’s specialist operations practice. Prior to Deloitte, Sam worked for several years in various roles within financial services, non-profit, government, and start-up organisations. When he’s not working you’ll find Sam at a gig or his inner west local.

TARA MORELOS – Executive Administrator 

Tara is an artist, curator and cultural producer with a Master of Visual Arts from Sydney College of the Arts. In her 10 years at dLux MediaArts, as Program Manager and later, Director she was responsible for the design and delivery of a national touring program of exhibitions and socially-engaged art and technology workshops with young people in regional and remote Australia. Also the Creative Director of Sculpture in the Vineyards, an outdoor sculpture exhibition and community cultural event in Hunter Valley for 13 years, she currently curates an eco-art prize celebrating the GreenWay, an inner west, sustainable transport corridor.  

PASH OSTOVAR – Facilities Manager

Pash is a DJ and house music producer who graduated from Bretton Hall College of Arts & Education in the UK in 2000 with a BA(Hons) in popular music studies. By day he worked in the music industry in London from 2001-2015 specialising in music publishing for PRS for Music, Chrysalis Music Ltd, BMG-Chrysalis UK, & BMG Rights Management UK. By night he has worked professionally as a DJ since 1996 and has toured northern Europe, central America and Australia. He also has a long working relationship with Freerange Records in London and as a deep house producer has released solo EPs and remixes on multiple UK and US record labels.

AESHA HENDERSON – Program Manager

Aesha is a visual artist, freelance theatre designer, and project manager. She holds an honours degree in Visual Arts from Sydney College of the Arts and has spent over 10 years working extensively in theatre and events as a lead artist, installer, project manager, creative director, and community artists. Her speciality has become making large-scale puppets, puppeteering and installation-making for performers. Aesha has created work for Force Majeure, ERTH, Studio A, Tropfest, Cementa, MCA, Sydney Mardi Gras, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Sydney Opera House, National Theatre of Parramatta and Redline Productions. Her passion is in creating and facilitating creative projects that enrich community experiences and support artists practice and ability to experiment.

IAN SINCLAIR – Program Coordinator

Ian Sinclair is an experimental artist, playwright and curator. Spanning immersive and participatory installations, antidisciplinary collaborations and large-scale, worldbuilding artworks. His projects consider queerness, kinship and the ethical quandaries of cultural spectacle. Sinclair’s Live Art partnership Pony Express, lampoons soft and hard power structures, to create immersive alternate realities in which audiences explore post-sustainability and ecological futures. Sinclair has exhibited and toured, nationally and internationally, from major contemporary art institutions to non-traditional venues. His most recent live artwork presentations include The Queer Woodchop (MONA FOMA, 2023); Extreme Forces (The Art Gallery of NSW, 2023) and Ecosexual Bathhouse (The Overkill Festival, Netherlands, 2022).

CHRISTINA MISHELL – Marketing Coordinator 

Christina has an interest in photography, film, and set building. Having studied art and completed her Masters in film, she'll talk your ear off about films. On the side, she runs an open mic short film night called Kino Sydney, which showcases a diverse range of films in a non-competitive setting, building on film community and inclusivity. When she gets the chance she enjoys creating short film claymations to screen, combining her interest in set building and still life photography. 

SOPHIE DAVIS – Marketing Coordinator

Sophie Davis is a Northern Rivers bred, Sydney based stage and screen writer. She has a bachelor’s degree from QUT in stage and screen production and a Masters degree from the National Institute of Dramatic Arts in Writing for Performance. Since graduating she has written and produced new works with NIDA, Old 505 and Sydney Fringe and she has recently been commissioned by Fruit Box Theatre and NORPA to create new Australian stage shows. Her masters thesis Silly to Think and never question the Absurd: integrating the female heroine in Absurdist Playwriting is published in Etudes journal for theatre practitioners and emerging scholars. She’s a bit of a nerd, but like a cool nerd.

JAMIE EXWORTH – Theatre Technician

Jamie has been kicking around theatre and live events for a good part of two decades.  He fell into the tech side of events while studying Theatre Studies and English Literature at UNE, Armidale. In addition to working on countless student and community productions in Armidale, Jamie also gained a Diploma in Film and Media from the Armidale Film School. From there it was a blur jumping into the Sydney Community Theatre scene working a range of productions from Short n Sweet to Technical Managing the Tamarama Rock Surfers Theatre company and their venues at The Old Fitzroy and Bondi Pavilion. Since then he has worked just about every role across a range of theatre and live events from theatre, festivals, exhibitions and TV Award shows. Jamie is a qualified rigger, lighting technician, mech, and Technical/Production manager.                

DOUG WALKER – Audio Technician

Doug graduated from the Australian Institute of Music during which time he became involved with BalconyTV Sydney as Audio Recording Engineer from 2013–2019. During his time with this team he helped local musicians from all over Australia in reaching a wider audience for their music via social media platforms. After BalconyTV, Doug continued recording live music in many of Sydney’s most well known venues including Manning Bar, Crowbar, and The Vanguard, for local and international acts such as We Lost The Sea, Phantogram, Stick To Your Guns, and Dee Snider.

JACK BERRY – Technician

Jack Berry graduated from the New York Film Academy in 2015, majoring in screen and media. Jack has a history in set building having worked on Alien:Covenant, Pacific Rim Maelstrom and with Belvoir as well as working on live shows as a resident Senior Technician in the lighting and audio departments including Carriageworks, Seymour Centre, Capitol Theatre, Lyric Theatre and Sydney Opera House. When Jack isn’t working with us here at Brand X you can find him in his studio working on his two hat labels.

JOHANNES MULJANA – IT Technician

Johannes Muljana graduated with a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Hon) from Sydney College of the Arts in 2010, majoring in Electronic Arts. He has worked as a visual and installation artist producing media, transmission, sculptural and interactive works over the past 15 years. He has also been working as an educator, mentor and lecturer in the fields of programming, app and web development, and project management. 

JOHN PALMERI – Facilities Coordinator

John is a creative/dramatic individual. Having graduated with a Bachelor of Performance from AIM Dramatic Arts, he developed a rounded education of theatre-making, both on and off stage, then going on to both work with and take various short courses at other schools and companies around Sydney. With a background in live events, design, improv, stage, screen, film, tech, crewing, theatre, performance, customer service and sales… He has a strong work ethic. A passion for the arts all while making himself and others laugh or smile. When he’s not working you’ll find John dancing to the beat of his own drum or laughing extremely loud to some kinda film or show.

DAN GRAHAM – Access Consultant

Dan is a theatre director and disability rights and LGBTQ+ activist. His directing credits include Sam I Am, an autobiographical solo show co-created with deaf actor/performer Sam Martin, Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and Hilary Bell’s Wolf Lullaby. He is on the Board of Arts Access Australia and Co-Chair of Artists With A Disability Committee for the Media and Entertainment Alliance (MEAA). His particular passion is access to employment opportunities for artists with a disability.