Midlands on the Move: More Midlanders Who Made A Move
Building upon our first part looking at famous Midlands folk who have gone on to starry success here, we bring even more local talent who, without forgetting where they've come from, have had very illustrious and recognised careers in the film industry. And we hope, that along with their stories of rising stardom, they will all hopefully inspire future cast and crew along their own journey...
Sophie Turner
The Game of Thrones star was born in Northampton and made her acting debut as Sansa Stark in the HBO series Game of Thrones (2011–2019). Receiving an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in 2019, Turner then leaped from TV to film with a role portraying a young Jean Grey in the X-Men film series.
Growing up, Turner moved to
Chesterton, Warwickshire when she was two and attended Warwick Prep School & The King's High School. She then spent time near Leamington Spa and has since said, "My childhood was pretty fun. We had pigsties, barns and a paddock, and used to muck around in the mud." And more recently, she became a patron of Playbox Theatre in Warwick - a place where Turner herself performed when she was younger. Now an established presence around the world, she is soon set to play Lara Croft in the upcoming Prime Video Tomb Raider live-action series. Another Midlands success!
Clint Mansell
The composer of choice for director Darren Aronofsky, Mansell may be best known for his Requiem for a Dream soundtrack, particularly "Lux Aeterna" and its many reiterations which have been featured in multiple adverts, films, trailers, video games and more. Despite being a global star, Mansell actually hails from Coventry and at 19, while living in Stourbridge, he joined Pop Will Eat Itself as vocalist. And this alt-rock career eventually saw him living in a US apartment owned by Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails & a film composer himself). He then met Aronofsky and scored his film Pi (which also won him the City of Birmingham award at the Birmingham Film Festival in 2000!)
Now with over 60 scores under his belt, Mansell worked on Stoker (Park Chan-wook), Sahara (hello, Lennie James from Snatch, again) and Loving Vincent (a personal fave) as well as High Rise directed by Ben Wheatley – himself no stranger to the Midlands with Sightseers. Having no formal training in musical notation, Mansell has become a huge name and his score for Black Swan is one of his best, but sadly deemed ineligible for an Academy Award due to some use of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. Yet with strong roots in the region, the local lad has never forgotten the area where he made his first start – adding to its already rich history of music.
Felicity Jones
Writing these articles, it’s been fascinating to uncover the many Midlands links between just these few people and another occurs with Felicity Jones - who was selected as the protagonist of Gareth Edwards’ Rogue One. Who knew Star Wars was so Midlands related? Well, whilst on the subject, actor Jeremy Bulloch was born in Market Harborough, Leicestershire and starred as Boba Fett in The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983) & even returned to the franchise for a cameo in Revenge of the Sith. And don't forget Leicester's Richard Armitage's blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo in The Phantom Menace (1999)!
Anyways, back to Jones. She was born in Birmingham in 1983 and grew up in the ‘centre of chocolate’ Bournville. She attended Kings Norton Girls' School & King Edward VI Handsworth before joining an after-school workshop funded by Central Television in the Midlands. Starring roles in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, A Monster Calls and many others came before Rogue One and she’s also been nominated twice for an Academy Award. One for The Theory of Everything (Best Actress) and her second was for 2024’s The Brutalist (Best Supporting Actress). Never forgetting her home area, Jones even headed to Conan O’Brien’s late-night USA chat show to teach him some Brummie slang! Bostin’!
As a bonus aside, Dad’s Army actor Ian Lavender also grew up in Bournville too and had an illustrious career on the small screen with Rising Damp, Yes Minister, Keeping Up Appearances and of course EastEnders (240 episodes as Derek).
And with that, we’ve gone full circle back to southeast London where we started in part one! This all-too-brief selection of Midlands talent has demonstrated there exists an accessible career path in the film industry. Stories of creatives rising form their hometown to the heady heights of stardom is one we can hopefully celebrate in, but as we’ve found out, not one of these has forgotten the magnificent Midlands and how it shaped their journey.
