A queer teen grappling with their gender identity is at the center of What It Feels Like for a Girl, the BBC drama telling a party- and drug-fueled trans coming-of-age story based on the memoir of journalist Paris Lees. The show’s breakout star is Ellis Howard, a rising talent from Liverpool.
For those who don’t recognize the accent: that is the same city that Adolescence and A Thousand Blows star Stephen Graham is from, and the city that BBC drama crime epic This City Is Ours, starring Sean Bean, is set in.
Writer and actor Howard has turned heads with his performance in What It Feels Like for a Girl, and now Howard is on the U.K. 2025 BAFTA Breakthrough list of rising talent, supported by Netflix, which was unveiled on Tuesday.
Born and raised in Liverpool, actor and writer Ellis Howard trained at The Guildhall School and has since starred in major productions across stage and screen, including the 2022 BBC horror series Red Rose and his West End debut as Dill in Aaron Sorkin’s To Kill a Mockingbird.
What It Feels Like for a Girl has made him more widely recognized. The show, produced by Hera Pictures and directed by Brian Welsh, co-stars Hannah Walters and Laura Haddock.
THR talked to Howard about making a splash, making the BAFTA Breakthrough list, and what’s next.
How exciting is it for you to be part of the newest BAFTA Breakthrough group?
So exciting! I feel BAFTA is such an incredible institution at the very heart of our culture. And to be recognized and to be supported by them is just such an honor, and it’s so gratifying. I feel so proud of What It Feels Like for a Girl, my breakthrough project. It was a tiny BBC Three show. And now that it is getting the stamp of approval from BAFTA, I’m like, “God, this feels mad.”
You’re playing Byron, who is multi-dimensional and goes on an emotional ride. How did you get into that character?
It was a ride, also because those parts are often reserved for people who are incredibly famous. And so I thought, “Whoa, I get to this point in my career, and I go on this odyssey,” which is written by Paris Lees. And I felt this tremendous responsibility, but also this opportunity, to come at this role with all of my trauma and triumph and mess.
I think if there was ever a role to let yourself be uninhibited and go at it with as much pomp and panache as possible, [this is it]. The day I got it, I was terrified. Two seconds later, I was like: “This is it! This is a journey.” But it’s, honestly, a journey that I’ve relished, and it has also got me so, so excited for what is next. It has invigorated my sensibility and my appetite to take risks and to do parts that scare me.
Do you have any plans or hopes for the BAFTA Breakthrough program?
Yes, I want to really just meet like-minded creatives. What was so incredible about What It Feels Like for a Girl was that this was someone’s passion project. Paris Lees is an auteur. She has this unrelenting and working-class voice in the arts, which feels so rarefied. And I want to meet more exciting writers and filmmakers.
The second part is that, I hope, with the support from BAFTA, I now get access to doors that would have otherwise not been opened, and maybe more people will watch What It Feels Like for a Girl. I’m a working-class boy from Liverpool, and so I need all of the accreditation and help that I can get for people to take me and my work and my voice seriously, whether that be as a writer or as an actor. And so I’m really just excited to get this process started.
Tell me a bit about the themes of What It Feels Like for a Girl and themes that you want to explore more in your career…
What What It Feels Like for a Girl did so incredibly well was look at both queerness and class and the intersection of those two things. Queerness and class are incredibly important to me.
But even though I am a working-class gay lad, I also want the opportunity to transform. I want to be in those period pieces. I want to know what it feels like to run a kingdom. It would also be totally exciting to take some of those middle-class parts. What does the version of me look like in a suit? Some of my favorite shows, like Industry and Succession, are about the hot breath of ambition on your neck, and they have incredibly smart players. Those characters are complex and ruthless, and I’m like, God, I really want to get my teeth into parts like that.
Anything else you’d like to share?
Yes. What It Feels Like for a Girl does not have U.S. distribution. We’ve got to get it out in the U.S. We need this anarchic, punk queer show over in the States just to ruffle some feathers, and to give them a slice of British life.
