Film and TV stars you may not know are from our region

FROM HOLLYWOOD STARS TO AWARD-WINNING ACTORS, THESE FAMOUS FACES ALL HAVE LINKS TO OUR AREA

HULL and East Yorkshire may not be renowned as a hotbed of television and film talent, but you may be shocked by the wealth of stars with links to our area.

The city has boasted for years the considerable talents of the likes of Tom Courtenay and Maureen Lipman. And of course there is comedian Lucy Beaumont who not only talks of her links to Hull but much of her comedy is inspired by the city, including Hull Raisers which she co-wrote and aired on Channel Four earlier this year.

But we take a look at some of the established and rising stars of film and television who have been less vocal about their links to the area. Some you may be well aware come from East Yorkshire but other home-grown talent may come as a pleasant and proud surprise.

Some have stronger links than others but all these actors have grown up or were born in the city or the East Riding. We take a look at nine stars who are making waves at home and in Hollywood.

1 Rob Aramayo

Since starring as the young Ned Stark in Game of Thrones, Hull actor Robert Aramayo has not looked back.

Rob, grew up in Pickering Road, west Hull, and remains best known for his recurring role as young Eddard Stark in the sixth season of Game of Thrones. He began his professional career with a role in the Italian-american film Lost in Florence, after attending the prestigious Julliard School in New York City.

He is next due to appear on our screens in the autumn when he plays half-elf Elrond in the

Amazon Prime series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

2 Anna Maxwell-martin

Anna was born in Beverley in 1977. Her father was managing director of a pharmaceutical company and her mother was a research scientist. She attended Beverley High School and got a taste for acting by appearing in school plays.

Ms Maxwell-martin first came to prominence on the London stage playing the leading role of Lyra in the National Theatre’s production of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials. Since then, she has had a prolific career and is one of the hardestworking actresses out there.

She returned to her East Yorkshire roots in February 2011, playing Sarah Burton in a three-part BBC adaptation of Winifred Holtby’s novel South Riding. That same year she played Kay Langrish in a BBC Two dramatisation of The Night Watch while in 2012 she starred in the drama mini-series The Bletchley Circle and Jimmy Mcgovern’s Accused.

In March 2015 she got the role of

Mary Shelley in Independent Television (ITV) drama series, The Frankenstein Chronicles. She then landed a very prominent role in Line of Duty and was a key character in the finale of the hugely popular BBC One series.

She has also turned her hand to comedy featuring in BBC Two show Motherland for which she received a BAFTA nomination in 2018. She most recently starred in ITV drama Hollington Drive which aired last year.

3

Best known for his major role in the Netflix hit series Stranger Things, Heaton was born in Bridlington in 1994 and moved to

Charlie Heaton

London when he was 16.

Heaton cut his teeth with cameos in some of the best British television dramas including ITV crime drama series DCI Banks and ITV detective series Vera. He guest starred in BBC One’s medical drama series Casualty as Jason Waycott and made his movie debut in 2016 thriller Shut In, starring Naomi Watts and Oliver Platt.

The 28 year-old also landed a number of film roles in 2015, including parts in The Schoolboy, Rise of the Footsoldier Part II, and Urban & the Shed Crew.

But Heaton is best known for his role as Jonathan Byers in the Netflix supernatural drama series Stranger Things. He has returned to prominence with season four having not long been released on Netflix.

It was also announced in 2018 Heaton was set to play Joseph Merrick (The Elephant Man) in a new two-part BBC drama but the programme has yet to air.

4 Eleanor Tomlinson

Beverley actress Tomlinson rose to prominence playing Jas in the comedy Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging. Tomlinson’s best known film role was playing Princess Isabelle in Jack the Giant Slayer (2013), starring alongside Nicholas Hoult.

She starred in the TV series, The White Queen, as Lady Isabel Neville and as Georgiana Darcy in the BBC adaptation of Death Comes to Pemberley. But people will best know Tomlinson as Demelza in the BBC One television series Poldark.

She also starred in the 2019 BBC television series The War of the Worlds—based on the HG Wells novel of the same name—playing Amy, a role expanded from that of book.

In 2021 she played Lady Gabby in Stephen Merchant and Elgin James’ comedy drama for BBC television, The Outlaws. Season two of the comedy has just been released this week.

5 Reece Shearsmith

One of comedy’s best talents, Shearsmith was born and brought up in Hull, attending Andrew Marvell High School. He has featured in a number of television shows during his career but is best known for his work with Steve Pemberton, Mark Gatiss and Jeremy Dyson.

League of Gentleman, first aired in 1999, has proved a huge cult hit and he has followed that up with dark comedy shows Psychoville and Inside No 9. Shearsmith, Pemberton, Gatiss and Dyson completed a sell-out live tour of League of Gentlemen.

Inside No 9 is still going strongly with the seventh series having premiered in April this year.

He has also played a huge number of secondary roles in a number of films and television shows, turning his hand to a number of characters.

He has also had a successful stage career. In 2020, he received a nomination for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance as The President and Jon in A Very Expensive Poison at The Old Vic.

6Andrew Lincoln

Actor Andrew Lincoln who was brought up in Hull which may surprise people. But he was only in the city for six or seven years before moving to Bath.

Lincoln came to prominence in hit BBC show This Life and cemented his reputation in the hugely successful Channel 4 sitcom Teachers.

His worldwide reputation was enhanced by his role in John Curtis’s Love Actually with his iconic scene on the doorstep of Kiera Knightley’s home declaring his love with cue cards.

More recently, he is better known for his starring role as Sheriff Rick Grimes in the post-apocalyptic comedy horror The Walking Dead for which he has received critical acclaim. That role dominated his career until it finished in 2018. He has since starred in the film drama Penguin Bloom alongside Naomi Watts.

7 Hannah John-kamen

Having already had bit-part roles in Game of Thrones or Star Wars John-kamen was already recognisable. But the actress, who grew up in Anlaby and went to Hull Collegiate School, received her major breakthrough after being cast as the lead villain in Marvel’s Antman and the Wasp.

She had already appeared in acclaimed television programmes, including Black Mirror, Misfits and Whitechapel and starred in the West End show Viva Forever! About the Spice Girls.

Her other major film role was as F’nale Zandor in Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One. In 2021, Johnkamen starred in the action-thriller film SAS: Red Notice and portrayed Jill Valentine in the reboot film Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City.

8 Isy Suttie

Isy was born in Hull but moved to Derbyshire when she was quite young.

From an early age she expressed a desire to act and write. She began playing the guitar and writing songs at the age of 12.

After a number of bit part roles, including featuring in the last series of Shameless, Isy rose to prominence playing Dobby in the Channel Four comedy Peep Show which she featured in from 2008-15.

In September 2016, she began a six-episode run on the Channel 4 TV show Damned as Natalie, a temporary receptionist. She returned for the second series in 2018. She also appeared in the sitcom Man Down as Miss Clarke. Over the years she has also done a number of voiceover work and comedy writing.