Who were the main actors in the medieval period?

Answer 1

Most medieval actors were members of the local populations for whom plays were performed. Professional actors produced and directed the performances, but nearly all the names of these people are lost to history. In fact, the only name of a medieval stage performer I can think of is Empress Theodora of the Byzantine Empire, which is a matter of historic record only because it was considered a scandal that the empress had been on stage.

The actors of the Middle Ages are sometimes said to have been all male. This may have been true in some places and at some times, but was clearly not universally the case, as can be seen from the example above. My suspicion is that this idea is a matter of supposition being taught as history. If we look at the record for such people as minstrels, for whom there is better historic record than there is for actors, we can easily see that large numbers of women performed music in public professionally, and this happened in the very times and places where women are believed to have been excluded from theater.