Alison graduated with a BA Hons in Drama & Theatre Arts from Birmingham University in 1983.

She has worked in theatre and non-theatre contexts as a performer, deviser/writer, director over the last 40 years. Companies include Birmingham Rep, Women & Theatre, Sante, Hearth, Foursight, Red Ladder, Moving Hands, Theatre Centre, Moby Duck, Pentabus, Big Brum, Bold Text, The Playhouse, Other Way Works, Tea and Tenacity, Something and Nothing and Cheltenham Everyman. As a workshop leader she has worked in schools, residential and community settings, mental health settings and probation.

TV experience includes Maggie in ‘Doctors’ (BBC), ‘The Cure’ (Channel 4) and ‘Switch’ (BBC). She has been in many radio plays and won a Norman Beaton Fellowship in 2016 leading to a 6 month contract with BBC’s Radio Drama Company where her credits included Mrs Morland in ‘Northanger Abbey’ and Dolly in ’Clare in the Community’. She plays Beverley Hanson in ‘The Archers’.