At over two meters tall, Peter Brooke Turner may well be the tallest ukulele player in the world – he is certainly the tallest in the Ukulele Orchestra. He was born in Portugal and grew up in the Soviet Union, Brazil, U.S., Finland and Italy. After false starts on the violin, trumpet and guitar, he finally discovered the ukulele and joined the Ukes in 1995. He has released three albums under his pseudonym Tony Penultimate and has worked with many well-known showbiz names in the U.K. He fronted his own Ukulele Kings rock group in the 1990s. Turner started the world’s first high-altitude drama company – the ATTC (Airline Toilets Theatre Company) which has subsequently produced over 20 high-quality, low-budget songs, sketches and shows (all on Turner’s iPhone) from this oft-neglected performance area. They can be viewed online.

The youngest member of the orchestra, Laura Currie was born in Dumfries, Scotland, and studied English Literature at the University of Edinburgh. She started playing the ukulele at the age of fifteen after seeing the Ukes in concert and used the instrument to front her first rock band at sixteen years old. She began performing with the Ukes in 2019, and has since toured with them across China, France and Switzerland. When not touring with the orchestra, Currie performs under the solo stage name Ra. She writes and releases original songs and covers, and one of her collaborative singles was recently featured in a Netflix show. Currie has garnered an active online following for her eclectic mix of elaborately self-produced YouTube videos. During the COVID-19 lockdown in the U.K., she used these video editing skills to produce the Ukulele Lockdown series that the Ukes released weekly on YouTube. Currie also plays piano, bass and guitar.

Dominic Howles grew up in Jamaica, Hong Kong and Somerset. He is a very experienced bass player, using double bass and electric bass, and has worked with many well-known jazz names and in classical ensembles. He has worked with Tommy Chase, Stacey Kent, Bobby Wellins, Don Weller, Julian Siegel and many others. He studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and has performed in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, and on television, radio and theater. He has undertaken, directed and written multimedia work, and is well respected as a composer and arranger. His own groups have performed successfully for many years. He is a first-class bass soloist and has an engaging sense of humor, which is – ahem – always useful when working with ukulele players. He lives in London.

Leisa Rea has a background in theater, comedy, writing and music. She’s worked as an actor and director, written for stage, television and radio, and has played with the Ukes for the past 15 years. She has taught stand-up comedy, written for the BAFTA-nominated series Miranda (BBC), performed in her own critically-acclaimed shows and was the winner of the inaugural Musical Comedy Awards in 2009. Away from orchestral duties, Rea brings her considerable experience as a performer and artist to people all over the world through her online ukulele teaching and workshops. Recently, she won an Arts Council of England grant to allow her to train as an audio digital producer.

Ben Rouse was born in Cornwall but grew up in Hampshire. At the age of 8 he began playing the drums, turning to the guitar at age 11. At 23, Ben formed the rock band Purple Monkey, which became a popular band along the south coast of England. At 25, he decided to learn the violin and mandolin and formed the folk duo Teapot Junkies, releasing two albums of original material. He went on to teach himself the saxophone, flute, trumpet and banjo. At 30, Ben decided that a proper job might be necessary and earned himself an HND in electronics, but in 2007 was drawn back to music when he saw the Ukulele Orchestra perform on Jools Holland Hootenanny. The next day he bought a ukulele and began performing and teaching workshops at festivals around the U.K. until, in 2014, he was invited to play with the orchestra. He has since toured the U.S., China, Europe, Scandinavia and the U.K. with them.

Chris Walker studied drama originally but has worked as a musician for many years, including giving a huge number of performances with his own skiffle group. He is an experienced ukuleleator, singer, raconteur, administrator and tea-chest bass player. Walker’s experience in theater and in venues of a bewildering variety means that he is comfortable bringing both a seriousness and a devil-may-care lightheartedness to performances with the orchestra. Walker has performed on radio and television, at the Cambridge Folk Festival, Singapore International Arts Festival, Glastonbury Festival, Linz International Street Festival and many other venues in the U.K. and Europe. He lives in Cardiff, Wales – which, usefully for the orchestra, and like Scotland, is still part of the U.K. and Great Britain.

Ewan Wardrop started playing the ukulele in 1998 but also plays mandolin, guitar and the penny whistle. Wardrop trained as a ballet dancer and appeared in a record-breaking run of Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake on Broadway. He has a long history of working in theater on an international stage, and has worked with companies such as the The Royal Shakespeare Company and Kneehigh Theatre. He also has an experimental Morris dance group called the Bo Diddlers.