In a remarkable coincidence two former pupils of Shene School – now Richmond Park Academy – are both vying for Oscars on Sunday.

Both are being recognised for their expertise in film and television with Simon Hayes up for his work on the recent Bond move, No Time to Die, and Denise Yarde nominated for Belfast.

Denise was in the year below Simon at the school and both are currently in Hollywood ahead of the star-studded event at the weekend.

The success of the two locals confirms south west London's pre-eminent role in the UK film industry.

Teams from Twickenham Film Studios, which are Britain's oldest film studios, also worked on the sound for both the Bond film and Kenneth Branagh's Belfast.

Simon already has an Oscar for his work on Les Miserable while the nomination for Denise, who dreamed of getting one of the famous gold statues from a young age, is a huge accolade.

The key role of both the Oscar nominees is to capture as much of the voices and sounds of the original performances on set, rather than having to re-record them later in a studio.

Simon, who is a regular cyclist in Richmond Park and also a black belt in Brazilian told jiu-jitsu, told Radio 4's Today programme this morning that Shene School, which became Richmond Park Academy in 2010, supported pupils.

'It was a local school and had a very liberal outlook. The creative of education was nurtured and we had a fantastic drama department.

'We weren't all being pushed into being lawyers and doctors; we did get support when we wanted to have alternative careers.

"They were very good in allowing us to explore what we were good at and we weren't pigeon holed and pushed into any normal career choice.'

Describing his work on Bond, he said: "It is my job to make sure that the actors' performances are primarily recorded fantastically on set and to make sure all of their emotions make it from the set all the way through post production to the cinema screen.

'It really is our job to record the very highest quality vocals and dialogue on the set; but also to start to collate all of the sound effects which will be blended with the score and put into a mix.'

Denise said: 'Shene School - Sheen and Barnes - was full of people in the entertainment industry. It was an environment where, because it is around and in the air it does not seem like a crazy pipe dream to try and work in film.'

Getting to very top of her profession involved many years of hard work. She said: "It takes a great deal of determination.

"There is nothing wrong with following your a dream.. If you want to do it, don't let anyone turn you away from that path."

She added: "I was a location sound mixer on Belfast. My role is basically to collect all the dialogue and all the sound effects that I can that are happening on camera – as cleanly and clearly as possible – so none of the actors have to come back later on and do lip syncing and revoicing.

'We did a wonderful job of getting everything on set live, all the emotions there.'

She said all of this hard work was enhanced during the post production process, which included experts at Twickenham Film Studios.