Seven celebrities you might not know are from Nottinghamshire

Nottinghamshire has produced a long line of famous faces who have made in big in the world of acting, music and sport. You’ll spot them on screens, big and small.

When it comes to sporting royalty we have Torvill and Dean, Rebecca Adlington, Lee Westwood and Carl Froch. In the world of film and TV the list is huge, in no small part down to Nottingham’s Television Workshop.

Samantha Morton, Vicky McClure, Toby Kebbell, Aisling Loftus, Bella Ramsey and Joe Dempsie are some of the big names who trained there. Other stars of stage and screen include Su Pollard, Chris Gascoyne, Sherrie Hewson andMathew Horne.

Famous music stars include Bruce Dickinson, Iron Maiden’s lead singer, who was born in Worksop, Jay McGuiness, who found fame with boyband The Wanted before going on tread the boards, is from Newark, and it’s a well-known fact that Jake Bugg’s roots are in Clifton.

They’re some of the most instantly famous faces from Nottinghamshire but there’s plenty of others that you might not realise were born here.

Rosie Bentham

Rosie has played Gabby Thomas in Emmerdale since 2016. Hailing from West Bridgford, the former Nottingham Emmanuel School student was just 14 when she got the call. “I was out shopping with my mate when I found out I’d got the role. I was jumping around in Boots. It was amazing,” she said.

Like many before her, Rosie, now 23, attended Nottingham’s Television Workshop and her transition into the soap was helped by fellow soap stars Lucy Pargeter and James Hooton, who also attended the acting school.

Rosie’s gritty role has seen her learning that her father Ashley has dementia and dealing with his death, going off the rails and becoming a teenage parent. After a turbulent love life, last month viewers saw Gabby agree to marry Vinny after his proposal.

Norma Burton

The name Norma Burton might not mean anything but if we say Jess and Norma you might recognise them as the social media phenomenon. The nan and granddaughter gained fame for sharing their heart-warming videos of their daily lives, along with the occasional prank or two at Norma’s expense.

There have been many standout moments, like the time Norma got had a surprise meeting with singer Alfie Boe and spending time with the cast of Coronation Street. The duo, who have amounted 2.6 million followers on TikTok, have gone on to release an autobiography, Jess and Norma: A lifetime of laughter and our unbreakable bond.

Norma, 91, was born in Nottinghamshire, and trained as a telephonist. She worked at the General Post Office exchange in Retford until she was married in 1962. From the early 1970s, she worked as dinner lady for 20 years.

Sian Welby

Sian has become a regular face on daytime television, helping to present This Morning and standing in for Lorraine Kelly, while she was undergoing surgery. She’s also part of the Capital Breakfast show team – all while being a first-time mum to 11-month-old daughter Ruby.

The 38-year-old grew up in Upton, a small village between Newark and Southwell and she attended Minister School. In 2010 Sian was working as a part-time shop assistant in New Look when she was plucked to become Channel 5’s new weathergirl, despite having no experience.

Lennie James

The 59-year-old actor is probably best known for playing Morgan Jones in the series The Walking Dead and in its spin-off, Fear the Walking Dead. Lennie also landed a role as DCI Tony Gate in series one of Line of Duty.

Earlier this month he won a BAFTA Television Award for leading actor in the film Mr Loverman, the BBC series about a closeted family man who wants to end his marriage and live with the man he has been having an affair with for almost 60 years.

Lennie was born in Nottingham to Trinidadian parents, and grew up in South London. His mother died when he was 11 so Lennie and his older brother went into a council children’s home.

When he was 16 he was fostered by a social worker. Within a year he was writing his own plays. Storm Damage was broadcast by the BBC in 2000 and won a Royal Television Society (RTS) award in 2001.

Joel Peat

The 34-year-old musician was born in Ravenshead and took his A-Levels at Joseph Whittaker School before heading to Guildford to study at the Academy of Contemporary Music, which he compared to the Jack Black film School of Rock.

He hit the big time with pop band Lawson, playing lead guitar. The band’s debut album Chapman Square, released in 2012, reached number four on the UK Albums Chart. The band had a sell-out tour at Rock City and played Splendour in 2015.

Last year Joel performed with Maisie Peters, who was the opening act for a 90,000 strong crowd at Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour show at Wembley – another major moment was tying the knot in West Bridgford with Georgina Cassar, a former Olympic rhythmic gymnast.

Elizabeth Rider

The well-known actress has appeared in scores of the UK’s best loved television programmes. She played the role of Marris Jacobs in the BBC series Casualty and DCI Lynette Driver on the BBC soap opera Doctors.

In a list as long as your arm, there’s been roles in At Home with the Braithwaites, Doc Martin, Midsomer Murders, Lewis, Call the Midwife, Emmerdale, Silent Witness, Cold Feet, A Touch of Frost and Waterloo Road to name just a few.

The 67-year-old, who was born in Newark, joined a cast of multiple Nottingham actors when she played DCC Andrea Wise in Line of Duty. She was the one who urged Ted Hastings to voluntarily step down from AC-12, and retire with his full pension, or else be dismissed for his continued defiance.

The versatile actress hasn’t just appeared on TV, she’s had roles in films and appeared on stage.

Graham Russell

One half of the duo Air Supply, Graham Russell is an international music star but when he returned to his birthplace, Arnold, two years ago, no one batted an eyelid. Aged 74, the singer songwriter and guitarist and fellow band member Russell Hitchcock are still going strong with a 45-date tour across three countries in 2025.

Air Supply has enjoyed decades of success around the world, with epic ballads All Out of Love and Making Love Out of Nothing At All which soared up the charts in 1980s. They were the first Western group to tour China in 1975, which before the band’s breakthrough would not allow pop music across their borders.

Last year the duo celebrated 50 years in the music business, amassing a milestone 5,500 live gigs on top of album sales of 100 million.