Rikki Tarascas began acting, directing in the mid eighties when his work as Artistic Director with independent N.W.based companies Fusion & Theatre Totale were praised for their innovation & visual & physical style. NW Arts & ACGB funded both companies. After opening at the Edinburgh Festival Fusion toured extensively through out England & abroad to rave reviews. In 1984 Fusion merged with Kaboodle productions to become resident at The Wilde Theatre, South Hill Park Arts Center, where they continued to develop an ensemble style. Funded by ACGB the dual companies toured extensively as well as delivering a number of in- house productions. Choosing to concentrate on directing Rikki’s previous credits led him to work for a range of companies with different house styles and artistic objectives. Companies included M6 Theatre Co. Pitprop, Trickster Productions, Pentabus Theatre Co., The Royal Northern College of Music, Harlow Playhouse, Mummerandada Circus troupe with Angela del Castro and Contact Theatre where he directed the work of New Writer’s for The North West Playwrights Workshops. In mid eighties he was a director in residence for the large-scale site specific Events Company Welfare State International, responsible for the development of new writing. This led to the site-specific event The Clayman co – produced with writer Kevin Fegan with his own Company Inocente Art & Film.

Past work ranges from Stand Up to Shakespeare and includes devised productions, Cabaret, Shakespeare, Site-Specific Spectacle & Fashion shows. He’s directed show be for children for M6 Theatre Co, written a Rock & Roll musical, and been part of a double act called Tarascas & Walter's that opened the Brighton Festival of Comedy.

With a solid understanding of actor training Rikki has taught and directed for a number of drama schools these include Manchester Metropolitan School Of Theatre, Crewe & Alsager College in Cheshire & Salford University College.

From 1996 – 1998 he taught full time at ITALIA CONTI THEATRE ACADEMY for the B.A.Degree Course & Performing Arts Diploma Course. Specialising in Screen Acting.. Responsibilities also included applying the Stanislavski System, improvisation workshops, & stand up comedy.
From 1997-1999 – he taught MOUNTVIEW THEATRE ACADEMY. Evening & Summer School courses running practical screen acting workshops working with digital cameras and culminating the course in the production of a number of short 10 minute film’s shot with a full professional crew.

After training at Bournemouth Film School as a writer /director Rikki Tarascas completed the feature film development program at The National Film and Television School.
Previous to this he worked as a theatre director & producer and taught in a number of drama schools across the country.

Other past training includes a Creative Arts Degree in Drama with Photography and training with theatre aficionados Jacques Lecoq & Philippe Gaulier exploring a more European tradition of theatre. This led to later personal research into a variety of methods of actor training including Grotowski’s theatre laboratorium, practically exploring the roots of theatre with Zigmund Molik.