Former EastEnders star and 2021 Strictly Come Dancing winner Rose-Ayling Ellis is announced as starring in the next series of Doctor Who.
Once rumoured to be considered for the Season One companion, she will join Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor for a thrilling and frightening adventure in Doctor Who Season Two.
At a press screening of the Doctor Who Christmas special on December 16, showrunner Russell T Davies mentioned her as starring the next series .
“We’ve got a story with Rose Ayling-Ellis in the lead. I think [it’s] our scariest episode, it’s absolutely terrifying. She’s magnificent.”
“We always want guest actors on Doctor Who to have fun, but Rose takes it to a whole new level,” Davies said in a press release. “She storms in with an astonishing performance of terror, anger and bravery in one of the most frightening episodes we’ve ever made.”
“I loved Doctor Who when I was growing up, so being cast in the show was a dream come true,” Ayling-Ellis enthused. “My inner child is ecstatic with excitement! Working with Russell and filming alongside the talented cast and crew has been an incredible experience. Ncuti is a wonderful Doctor, and I can’t wait for audiences to see what we have created together.”
Ayling-Ellis became the first ever deaf actress to play a deaf character in EastEnders and made history in 2021 on Strictly Come Dancing, as the first deaf participant, and then winner, of the show.
This year, she was awarded an MBE for voluntary services to the deaf community and she became the first deaf presenter of live sport at the Paralympic Games.
Rose Ayling-Ellis will guest star in one episode of Doctor Who Season Two which will transmit some time in the first half of 2025.
The Doctor Who Christmas special Joy to the World, written by Steven Moffat, directed by Alex Pillai, starring Ncuti Gatwa, Nicola Coughlan, Jonathan Aris, Steph de Whalley and Joel Fry, will transmit on Christmas Day, 25 December, from 17:10 to 18:10 GMT, 2024 on BBC One in the UK and Ireland and Disney+ everywhere else where available.