OW Spotlight! Amy Morris

Since gracing Westholme’s stages, as a 9-year-old Lady Macbeth, or on the revolving stage of Les Mis at the Croston Theatre, Amy knew she loved performance. This passion and creative talent blossomed into a career where performance meets entrepreneurship, thus creating Pop Up Global. We recently had the pleasure of catching up with Amy, to discuss her pathway towards managing a global entertainment company, and the impact she is creating with her brand.

Entrepreneurship wasn’t a word that came up in conversation as much as it does today whilst Amy was in school. Yet, starting talent shows that got sponsored and ticketed whilst in year 11/ Sixth Form would suggest that Amy had the entrepreneurial flair from a young age, she just didn’t quite know it back then. Academia wasn’t her favourite, instead she sang, danced, did all the shows and choir trips, and fully immersed herself into the musical world of Westholme – which she notes contributed to such an enjoyable school experience. ‘So many people don’t speak about school the way I, or my friends from school do. Others hated it, I loved school- I never wanted to be off, or ill, I just wanted to be in school, they were my best years – especially Sixth Form, it was great.’

It was a pleasure to hear that Amy’s best friends from school, particularly from the stage, continue to be friends- including another notable performer Liz Long who performed on the West End and continues to share her creative talent at Westholme today.

Amy left Westholme and went on to pursue her passion, under a condition by her parents that it would start at a Red Brick University. A Theatre and Performance degree at the University of Leeds it was – though she states she hasn’t used her degree at all since graduating! Leeds did bring an exciting new job opportunity though, through a job advert for a cruise ship audition. A successful audition later and Amy set off sailing across the globe as a show team member in production shows for the next three years.

By 2014, Amy left cruise ships and took on a new role: an Elsa impersonator. What started as a quick career change doing parties and singing for small crowds, turned into a fast-growing business. The world of princess parties was still new, and requests for new characters, bigger parties and events meant Amy’s new venture developed rapidly…Until they received a Cease & Desist from Disney.

Rather than halting operations altogether, Amy took this as an opportunity to move into a different area of entertainment, focusing on creating shows – that’s where the business truly took off. By 2019, her business had won a contract onboard a cruise ship which – in a lovely full-circle moment – happened to be the cruise line she used to perform at. ‘This was a really big turning point, we really grew from there.’ With high standards and an eye for detail, the business thrived, and continued to go global, delivering shows at the Maldives, Cairo, Abu Dhabi, Oman and more.

Operations expanded to Dubai, where Amy now resides. A new market was present and waiting for Pop Up Global to have its impact, there were – and continue to be, a plethora of unexpected opportunities that wouldn’t be imaginable in a market as competitive and saturated as the UK. Pop Up Global won a contract at Ferrari World which has been a particularly notable experience for Amy. The lifestyle in Dubai has also been completely different and enjoyable for Amy, waking up in the sunshine, networking and developing connections and opportunities simply through conversations with other ex-pats.

Unlike many entertainment businesses which ended up at a stand-still during the pandemic, Amy was committed to adapt and grow in these times of unprecedented global change. Social media took off, and the brand image grew stronger, attracting thousands of followers – including new clients and performers. Pop Up provided entertainment for the first ever socially-distanced festival in Gisburne Park; they developed drive-in pantomimes and shows. ‘It was a good time to shine a light on how we were different to everyone else. We were youthful, agile and full of ideas. On the other side of Covid, we were a much bigger company.’

Having a team of performers requires careful selection through auditions – one of Amy’s favourite parts of the job. The sheer talent and dedication people demonstrate to work at Pop Up is evident. Auditions bring an array of memorable moments, like a notable audition by someone who had never danced before, who handed in his hand-written CV, and gave it his all to a choreography to Thriller. Oftentimes, Amy is met with a room full of people with pure drive and talent that’s been crafted over years of practice. ‘We have had our ‘golden buzzer’ moments singers blow us away to the point we offer them a job there and then. We have a choreographer we do auditions with, Dane Bates, in Manchester and London. The talent is unbelievably fierce. It’s like the Hunger Games, everyone is fighting for that 3 secs at the front. I have moments sat there thinking how I can’t believe all these people want to work for me, because they are so incredibly talented.’

‘We want talent and confidence, but we also want auditions to be enjoyable, and we want good people, not just talented ones. From the offset we tell those auditioning that us watching them dance is one small piece of the puzzle, we observe how they interact with everyone else in the room. Even in the sign-in room, we take notice on how kind or positive people are. The way that changes the energy in the room is profound as they know then they can’t be catty or selfish.’

Amy’s main focus for Pop Up Global is developing the strong sense of community and Brand. ‘We always say: we are the company that clients want to work with and performers want to work for. And so, I never plan now, opportunities like Ferrari World land on our desk in unpredictable manners. So now it is less about planning, but more about who we are as a company. The opportunities will be a by-product of that mission. We are careful about selecting opportunities that we align with as a company, in terms of budgets, creativity, and timelines.’

Alongside Pop Up Global, Amy is collaborating with a business partner focusing on luxury concierge, travel and events for the top 1% on the Creative Events Collective. This offers a luxury Christmas Experience in the Trafford Centre and Dubai, whilst expanding to new locations this winter. Pop Up provides all entertainment for the Grotto.

Pop Up Global has recently been awarded Best Employer of the Year at the Middle East Event Awards. When asked what Amy thinks made Pop Up Global stand out in this category she responded: ‘I think genuine authenticity and culture is what sets us apart. My time on cruise ships as a performer was very difficult, I struggled with my mental health a lot – I was very young and thrown into the deep end, working for companies that saw us as just a number. If you’re ill, they care more about needing to have numbers than performers taking time off to heal from injuries or illness. That shaped the culture I wanted to create as a business owner – I want Pop Up to be aspirational – a company you want to work for as you are valued, and respected in the way you should be treated. We did that from the beginning not to win awards but because that’s what we believe you should do. For example, Pop Up offers free, anonymous therapy for anyone who works with us. This should be the norm but sadly it isn’t, we are bending the curve and hopefully others will follow. We got recognised for that last year which was a nice added bonus. ’

In addition to supporting wellbeing whilst at work, Amy is driven to support and prepare performers for new careers. Post-performance planning is a key part of performer development at Pop Up, offering courses such as Elevate which is free for performers to attend to learn how to develop skills into new, managerial roles, or to plan for post-performance careers. They are also launching a community to help teach people how to implement skills they already have, and implement new skills to help plan for requirements of post-performance careers. ‘I have seen a lot of friends from my performer days affected by the lack of support and preparation offered at the time. As a performer you are so immersed in the present, in shows, looking for current opportunities, rehearsing, and doing so much. But some never think about the transition from stage into a different career, and they end up in jobs they don’t really want to do, this is something I really want to change with Pop Up, and I hope we have a positive impact on young performers as we continue developing it.’

Amy uses her brand to speak out about current struggles for those in industry, like post performance planning, tying in with this, a lack of women in leadership roles in the entertainment industry. ‘Dealing with a competitor/ co-contractor network of about 90% middle-aged men who rose in the ranks together from previous roles often proves frustrating. Whilst my colleagues can be ‘unapologetically themselves’ I have to switch between varying levels of ‘feminine’ or ‘masculine’ traits to cater to different crowds and conversations just to be taken seriously. Some men are cheerleaders for women in the business, but we shouldn’t need cheerleaders – it should be a given.’

Speaking openly about her experiences as a female leader in the industry, Amy sheds light on the challenges women continue to face at varying positions in entertainment. A particularly important cause she addresses are the pay-gaps for men and women – highlighting how men were paid significantly more than she was during her time as a performer, despite female performers often carrying much heavier workloads in shows. She also draws attention to pay disparities between singers and dancers. Amy is laying the foundations for monumental change in the industry, and Pop Up Global is a leading example empowering it.

‘I use my platform to share this and to raise awareness for these problems. I also launched a podcast for Pop Up, more to link to the community we have here. I want it to feel like a big sisters’ / friends’ page on Instagram. I want people to feel the sense of community, and get the vibe of who we are,and buy into the vision and the mission of our company in changing the entertainment industry for the better. The more people we have behind that, the more we can make a change.’

Amy finished our conversation with some lovely words of wisdom for our current students:

‘I remember feeling immense pressure whilst I was at school, feeling that by the time I left sixth form I’d have to have it all figured out. That is not a healthy approach for a child- because I was still a child then really. I felt like if I didn’t know what I was doing, that’s it, the rest of my life was messed up. That’s not the case.

We are living in a world now that’s so different to when I was at school. You can start a business tomorrow, with no money, just from some WIFI and a laptop. So if you’re struggling to figure out what you’re doing, or you’re not the most academic, and physics/biology/maths/Latin aren’t your forte, that’s okay. Even if there isn’t a single subject you are doing that you thrive in, that’s okay – you’ll be good at something else, like entrepreneurship. I think everyone should explore entrepreneurship if they want freedom, income, and an amazing life. There are so many ways in 2025 to do that.

But still work hard at school!!!!’