Freddie Kemp

A British Armed Forces Reservist (latterly an acting Lance-Sergeant) with 17 years' aggregate service alongside my civilian career that has spanned the Life Sciences (Human Genome Sequencing), Financial Services and Sales and more recently adding value as credited Military Advisor, Drill Instructor and Armoury Services to Film & TV. Now the proud owner and new custodian of the leading background & special action casting agencies (MFS Casting Ltd) in the UK since 2009, having served as a Supporting Artiste on their books for multiple productions and being put forward as Military Advisor to King's Man (2021) pre-pandemic, Sex Education S2 Ep 2 and more projects since that are in pos-production and to whom I am still under non-disclosure agreement. As such, am able to lead and place on to Set a disciplined, operationally experienced group of men and women who have served in the UK, US and NATO member country Services - both Military and 'Blue Light' emergency services, and translating Director's intent to well-executed, polished set pieces (from combat or high action to ceremonial duties, incl pall-bearing, gun salutes and state funeral duties across the ages) with minimal re-takes. Furthermore, proud to be able to train and deliver action across the full spectrum: from inexperienced non-military people as well as operationally experienced personnel from multiple nationalities. I am proud to have recruited a great training team with an array of experience across all the UK military and emergency services. The Services are a family and wearing (or being a veteran of) the King's uniform or equivalent inspires a sense of duty to story-telling. We serve and make sacrifices for our friends and families at home more tangibly than the greater good or the cause. Portraying that brother-and-sisterhood teamwork on "Action" inspires our best work; it may not be obvious on screen, but that sense of duty and quiet professionalism to the team above our differences is what delivers the best background capability: flexibility, co-operation, discipline. We are open of course for questions and advice and we have our own chain-of-command on-set, maintained and regulated by us. Ideally, you would probably not know we were even present. If we can deliver our contribution professionally, quietly to better enable you to complete your schedule and everything you need to do with minimal disruption, we hope you would only realise just how smoothly things had gone once you'd wrapped us. A father of one. I have a self-built customer-services business in the merchant services world, and am also a student Pilot and a volunteer engineer on the Catalina flying boat at Imperial War Museum, Duxford. I have a unique link to Operation Market Garden, Montgomery's bold airborne plan in September 1944 to end the war by that Christmas by outflanking the main defensive line and wheeling into the Ruhr, the industrial heartland of the Reich. My maternal Grandfather was an Airborne Artillery Officer who was flown in with 1st Airlanding Light Regiment Royal Artillery and befriended the local Dutch Civilian Kate ter Horst (portrayed by Liv Ullman in Richard Attenborough's A Bridge Too Far (1977)). He survived the fierce battle and subsequently named his daughter, my mother, after Kate. My sister and I now maintain that strong family friendship with Kate's descendants. I gave an interview for Channel 5's production Secrets of WW2 'Behind Enemy Lines' telling his story. On the annual pilgrimage to Arnhem every year I now wear my grandfather's medals in remembrance.