Joel is a lecturer in Theatre and Drama Education at Bishop Grosseteste University College, Lincoln. He has recently been researching the role that museums play, through their visitors, promoting human rights and creating acts of citizenship.

Joel read English and Anthropology as an undergraduate at Gonville and Caius College , Cambridge. He subsequently trained with Jacques Lecoq in Paris and in Classical Acting at LAMDA. After graduating from there, he worked with a number of theatre companies, principally as an actor but also as a director.

Television and film credits include: Keen Eddie (Paramount Pictures); Mail Gaze (Laughing Buddha); Bonsai (Mercenary Films); and Song of Songs (Wild Horses Productions).

Joel has also been a regular workshop leader with a number of theatre companies