Strictly's Layton Williams has very impressive acting and theatre CV
West End star Layton Williams wowed the Strictly Come Dancing judges this week after he took to the dancefloor with partner Nikita Kuzmin for their debut dance of the series.
The 29-year old is best known by many for his role as sassy school student, Stephen Carmichael, in TV comedy series Bad Education, but also has many credits on the stage as well as on the screen. Because of this, it is no secret that Layton has previous dance experience - which many fans were quick to call out after his dazzling performance on Saturday evening.
But, in fact, many people are actually unaware of how extensive his incredibly impressive CV is and the full list of shows he has starred in, even doing so alongside some huge names in the industry.
Layton Williams in The Cleaner (BBC/ Studio Hamburg UK/Jonathan Browning)One of his first leading roles was in 2007, as the main character in Billy Elliot, when he was just 12. He became the first Black person to play the part and Layton did a lot of promotion for the production and his training was documented by the Paul O'Grady Show, where he appeared alongside Vernon Kay and Sally Lindsay who he attempted to teach how to dance.
Around the same, he landed a spot on TV show Beautiful People, which he stayed on for two seasons, acting alongside none other than Oscar winning actress Olivia Coleman.nHe then became a student as the prestigious Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts, where he was featured in a documentary series for CBBC called School for Stars that followed the lives of the children and their unique education there.
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Attending the school at the same time and also on the show were actors Mimi Keene (Eastenders) and Kedar Williams-Stirling - who are both now in the lead cast in Netflix's Sex Education. He went onto to star in a host of other roles, including more recently in the West End production of Everyone's Talking About Jamie as title character Jamie New from 2019 to 2020.
Layton is probably best known for his role in Bad Education (BBC/Tiger Aspect/Jonathan Hall)Here are a few of the other jobs he's had:
- 2011: Postcode - CBBC drama
- 2015: The Car Man - theatre production, dancer
- 2015 : The Bad Education Movie
- 2016: Hairspray the Musical UK Tour - playing Duane
- 2016-2017: Rent UK Tour - playing Angel
- 2017-2018: Hairspray the Musical UK Tour - playing Seaweed J. Stubbs
- 2018-2019: Kiss Me Kate - playing Bill Calhoun/Luciento
- 2022: I Hate Suzie - Adam Jackson
But despite his obvious talent when it comes to dancing and performing, judge and former Strictly professional Aton Du Beke was quick to remind people that they shouldn't let this cloud their judgement. After his Samba routine with Nikita on Saturday, Anton told Layton: "I know you have previous dance experience but that's very different from what we do here especially when you're tackling a dance like samba with an enormously difficult technique.
"What you need to work on are your feet, they are a bit turned in. It goes up through the legs. So you start with the basics and it will filter up. From the waist up it's extraordinary and you're quite magnificent." The pair scored 29, coming joint second on the Week 1 leader board alongside Amanda Abbington and Giovanni Pernice.
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