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WHEN AND WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO BECOME A CONTENT CREATOR, AND CAN YOU REMEMBER YOUR FIRST “OFFICIAL” VIDEO?
It actually was all a bit of an accident to be honest! I never set out to do it! I have been an actor for a long time now and always adored comedy. I was working as a production runner a few years ago, driving cast around in a massive van and the girl (who is now one of my closest friends, Jahannah) who was a content creator said, ‘Hey you’re funny’ and I jumped in a sketch with her. She showed me the ropes! It was great fun and had a good response. I have always been a rm believer in ‘making your own work’ - I saw the opportunity this had and I started making a few more and BBC 3 reached out to me and asked me to write and create some sketches for their online commissions called ‘Quickies’ - I brought my friend Jahannah in and we ended up making 8 for them as the rst one hit over 20 million views. My platforms then grew from there and I thought, ah, I’ll keep doing this! I stopped for a while but picked it back up again in the pandemic when acting and writing work had gone quiet, and from there it’s grown massively!
YOUR VIDEOS RESONATE WITH SO MANY PEOPLE - IT’S AS IF YOU SAY WHAT SO MANY PEOPLE ARE THINKING. WHO, OR WHAT INSPIRES YOU WHEN CREATING CONTENT?
Honestly, just humans. People watching and just picking up on certain behaviours. I call the sketches ‘observations of the human condition’ because that’s all they really are. We are so brilliantly weird and wonder -ful and unique, yet we all are so similar in so many ways and quirks.
DO YOU HAVE A PARTICULAR PERSON WHO A LOT OF YOUR CONTENT IS BASED ON?
No, I don’t haha! A lot of people think they are based on people, or on myself, (I’d like to think I’m a little more chill! haha!) but they are just genuine observations, and then just exaggerated a little. Sometimes I’ll catch myself doing something and I’ll think ‘I wonder if other people do that’ and sometimes that inspires a sketch but the sketches are based on everyone and anyone.
WHICH CHARACTER HAVE YOU MOST ENJOYED ACTING?
I played an alcoholic who shoots her husband. I was covered head to toe in tattoos and that was really fun! I loved playing Marian because it was so physical and I love ght scenes. I got to use tonnes of weapons and also portray her as the hero she was! She was an outlaw and it was nice to show that side of her!
WHAT WOULD BE THE PERFECT CHARACTER OR MOVIE YOU’D WANT TO STAR IN?
I have been really lucky over the last couple of years and had some great roles in lms and TV. In terms of my dream movie to star in, I honestly couldn’t say! I adore acting and am grateful for any character I get to play. I’d love something gritty to really sink my teeth into. My debut play - ‘I Love You, Now What?’ has a run in The Pleasance Theatre, London, April 25th-29th, and that is a dream come true.
CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT YOUR DEBUT PLAY ‘I LOVE YOU, NOW WHAT’ AND HOW IT FEELS TO HAVE REACHED THIS HUGE CAREER MILESTONE?
‘I love you, now what?’ was written after my Dad passed away. It’s about the e ect grief has on relationships. Can love survive when someone dies? Grief is something that has been covered before but not like this (to my knowledge) and I wanted to bring honest human humour into it and real truth. It really is a powerful play. It’s funny, heart-breaking and raw. I have quite bad imposter syndrome and I’m so nervous about it! My career is something I have to ght for every day. It’s a really tough industry and coming from a working class home, you have to work twice as hard. I wrote this after obviously losing my Dad and I was feeling really frustrated that I wasn’t being seen in this industry. It sounds crazy, but when my Dad passed there was this huge rainbow right over us. Two years later I was ready to quit the industry and I had this series, (ILYNW) that had been stuck in development with a production company. I literally said to my Dad as I was driving, ‘What do I do? Should I give up? Should I make this into a play and do it myself?’ and three rainbows appeared in the sky. So I was like, ‘right, ok! I can take a hint!’ So for me, it’s just been a labour of pure love and wanting to create something that was ultimately massively cathartic for me and hopefully others too. I’m just really excited and feel really proud... and very very nervous!
WHAT ADVICE CAN YOU OFFER SOMEONE WANTING TO GET INTO ACTING?
Put yourself out there and make your own stu . Trust your gut and don’t give up! Create :) We have an amazing platform now on the internet so use it to show your work. You’ll always be working if you’re working on your own stu .
WHAT’S THE BIGGEST PERK OF YOUR “JOB” SO FAR?
There are so many. Just doing what I love and working for myself is one of the best perks. The travelling around the world (sometimes) and meeting new people. I got to go to Budapest once with Jahannah and we interviewed Will Smith dressed as some of our comedy characters. That has to be up there!
I have written a few series and my goal is to get my own TV show made. WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS AS A CONTENT CREATOR AND COMEDIAN?
IN TERMS OF COMEDY, WHO MAKES YOU LAUGH THE MOST?
Mellissa McCarthy, Dawn French, Peter Kay, Jim Carrey, Sacha Baron Cohen, Diane Morgan, Will Ferrell. There are too many!
THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME AND EFFORT!
Thank you so much for having me. It means a tonne. :) xxx