Miguel Hernando Torres Umba
Miguel Hernando Torres Umba is an accomplished creative director known for his exceptional talent in creating immersive theatre. He has been instrumental in shaping and delivering the creative vision of several highly acclaimed immersive productions, including Secret Cinema Presents Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Saturday Night Fever, Dirty Dancing, Back to the Future, and Moulin Rouge, among others. Miguel honed his immersive theatre expertise over 12 years at Secret Cinema, where he started as a performer and rose to become a performance director, associate creative director, and a member of the in-house pool of creative directors. His work spanned over 20 of the company’s productions. In addition to Secret Cinema, Miguel has collaborated with other leading immersive theatre companies, including Immersive Cult, Immersive Ensemble, Les Enfants Terribles, and The People Pile. With this extensive experience, Miguel has established himself as a prominent figure in the immersive theatre domain.
As an artist and creative director, Miguel focuses on creating safe, inclusive, and playful environments while conveying intricate and touching narratives that inspire and engage artists, audiences, and communities, leaving a lasting impact. His creative practice is founded on inclusivity, playfulness, and a celebration of the joy of discovery, encouraging everyone to have a voice and explore openly. In addition to his immersive theatre work, Miguel is a highly skilled devising physical performer and theatre practitioner, he has toured extensively across the UK with the acclaimed Gecko Theatre Company’s productions of Missing and the Wedding and is currently part of the cast of KIN, a Gecko & National Theatre co-production.
He has also made significant contributions to the Carnival arts industry as a choreographer and associate creative director for the carnival arts company Mandinga Arts, bringing his passion and skills for immersive environments and theatre to the streets where audiences can engage in a more democratic and inclusive manner. Miguel’s personal work under Umba Arts, his creative production company, focuses on human and sociopolitical issues, creating intricate and dynamic work in media, film, theatre, and live events that tell profound stories. Notable productions include ‘Puente Bridge Podcast,’ ‘S.O.S. Colombia,’ ‘Until I Find You’ Podcast,’ the online docu-series ‘Usme: Nido de Resistencia’ (which won the Memory, Peace, and Reconciliation award in Bogotá-Colombia), and ‘Stardust,’ a multimedia solo production that explores the human cost of the global cocaine industry on communities in Latin America (**** “Using a mix of animation, movement and monologue, the storytelling is beyond impressive” The Guardian.) Through Umba Arts, and along with Community art project and The Working Party, Miguel co-founded LYT, The Latinx Youth Theatre, a platform for young Latin American people in London to connect with the creative industries.