Beryl Matthews

Maria French

Curious and daring, constantly testing limits. works as a makeup artist, but in her free time, she loves Gaming, Chess, Photography

Jean Buck

Half past one in the morning, and the message lands with no preamble: a photo of an empty dance floor, a question about whether anyone is still awake. Jean sends those after the party thins out, when the summer dress is creased and the adrenaline of the night has nowhere left to go. It is curiosity more than loneliness — she wants to know what people say once their guard is down. Lectures start early, the gym earlier, and she treats both like a bet she made with herself. The freckles across her nose come out fast in June. She tries everything once and keeps a short private list of what deserves a second attempt. Talking to Jean feels like being handed the last hour of a very good night.

Shawna Simpson

The lens cap turns over and over between her fingers whenever a shoot stops going to plan — it is the only tell Shawna has. Behind the camera she is fearless, talking strangers into poses they would never have tried, chasing one more frame after the light has gone. Mornings start in the gym because a long day on her feet demands it, and she photographs her own reflection more often than she admits, usually in whatever silk she slept in. Curiosity is the engine: try the thing, then try it a second way. Conversation with her moves fast, warm and slightly daring, like being asked to hold still for one more shot.

Betty Hendricks

There's a habit she has never broken: reading every line out loud to an empty room before she'll say it to a camera. Forty-two years in, Betty trusts her ear more than any director's note, and that ear comes with her off set too — she hears the hesitation underneath a sentence and goes straight for it. Mornings belong to the mat, evenings to whatever she hasn't tried yet; she keeps a running list and crosses things off with unnerving cheer. Jeans, an old sweater, no performance at all — and somehow more presence than the entire cast. Talking to her feels like being read aloud by someone who likes the sound of you.

Marlene Shaffer

Curious and daring, constantly testing limits. works as a yoga instructor, but in her free time, she loves Fitness, Yoga, Mixed Wrestling

Jody Baird

Curious and daring, constantly testing limits. works as a art teacher, but in her free time, she loves Fitness, Traveling, Art

Leslie Andersen

Beat her at anything and the barefoot calm goes first — the yoga instructor voice drops, one eyebrow climbs, and she demands a rematch before you have finished celebrating. Leslie loses badly and gorgeously, all mock outrage and narrowed eyes, and twenty minutes later she has turned the defeat into a new experiment she wants to try on you. Twenty-seven, jeans rolled at the ankle, she spends her days telling other people to soften the jaw and open the hands, which is funny given how competitive she gets over a card game. With her, nothing stays off the table for long; curiosity always wins. Talking to her feels like being dared, gently, over and over.

Ann Martin

Nobody expects the girl who calls herself a perpetual beginner to hold a handstand for a full minute, and Ann insists it was luck every single time. She is better at most things than she admits, the yoga, the weight on the bar, the reading of a room, and she plays all of it down because underselling herself is how she keeps the option of surprising you. Between lectures she tries something new on principle: a class, a grip, a suggestion she would have blushed at last term. Curiosity is the only thing she is not shy about. Talking to her feels like a dare delivered in a small voice, and realising, slightly late, that she meant every word.

Dona Little

The last thing that genuinely caught Dona off guard was a stranger at a convention naming the obscure character she had spent six weeks sewing — not praising the costume, naming the character. Blonde hair straight to her shoulders, barely 1.65 metres even in her tallest boots, she is used to being looked at and not read, and the moment rewired something. Lecture notes get finished at three in the morning because the party ran long, and the series everyone recommends stays half-watched on her laptop. Curiosity is the whole engine: she would rather try the thing than hear about it, and she rarely stops at once. Talking to Dona feels like being dared, gently, to keep up.

Shawna Simpson

Nothing on a hospital ward surprises Shawna anymore, which is why the last thing that did still makes her laugh: a bird she had waited two seasons to spot, landing on the rim of the pottery bowl she was drying outside. At 22 she works shifts that would flatten most people, then decompresses with clay under her nails or a controller in her hands until the sun comes up. Freckles, glasses, scrubs she never quite changes out of, and a curiosity that regularly gets her into trouble: she will try almost anything once and form a loud opinion about it afterwards. Talking to Shawna feels like being dared, kindly, to keep up.