Rose Ayling-Ellis has joined the cast of Letters to My Younger Future Self, the National Youth Theatre 70th anniversary show at the Royal Festival Hall. It runs for one performance only, on Sunday 20 September 2026.
The National Youth Theatre has been adding names to its 70th birthday show all summer. The latest is Rose Ayling-Ellis.
She performs in Letters to My Younger Future Self at the Royal Festival Hall on Sunday 20 September 2026, for one night only. The company confirmed the casting this morning, five days out from the performance.
Screen audiences know her from ITV’s BAFTA-winning Code of Silence and from the BBC’s Reunion. The stage record is the one that matters here. Ayling-Ellis made her theatre debut as Celia in Josie Rourke’s production of As You Like It, taking the Stage Debut Award for Best West End Debut, an Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role and an Ian Charleson Award nomination. She is a BAFTA Breakthrough Brit and won the BAFTA Television Award for Must-See Moment of the Year. She was appointed MBE in the King’s Birthday Honours for services to the deaf community.
Paul Roseby OBE, the company’s chief executive and artistic director, directs alongside Josie Daxter. Dramaturgy is by Krishna Istha and Sophie Ellerby, video design by Will Duke, lighting design by Prema Mehta, sound design by Nicola T. Chang and movement direction by Matthew Wells.
The bill gathers performers from across seven decades of the company’s history. Behind it, on stage and on screen, are young people trained through IGNITE Your Creativity, the National Youth Theatre programme run with Netflix, which has created more than 4,000 free places since 2023. Netflix is the evening’s headline supporter, with Arts Council England and EON Productions also backing it.
The alumni list explains the company’s reach faster than any description of it does. Daniel Craig, Helen Mirren, Adeel Akhtar, Andrea Riseborough, Matt Smith and Rege-Jean Page all came through the National Youth Theatre, as did the writers Jack Thorne, James Graham, Miriam Battye, Lennie James and Sarah Solemani.
Ayling-Ellis joins the line-up the company announced in August, which included Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Susan Wokoma, Daniel Ings and Fay Ripley. Letters to My Younger Future Self is at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, on Sunday 20 September 2026.
