Rose Ayling-Ellis Comes To Storyhouse This Month

EastEnders and Strictly star Rose Ayling-Ellis heads for Storyhouse next week as part of the 2025 WayWord Festival.

The annual October half term festival for children runs from Saturday, 25 October to Sunday, 2 November.

Now in its fourth year, WayWord aims to excite, inspire and celebrate the power of words to ignite the imagination. In addition to Rose Ayling-Ellis, the 2025 programme also includes appearances from Jacqueline Wilson, Liz Pichon, Jonny Duddle and Tom Gates as well as performances of Pirates Love Underpants, Twelfth Night (for Kids) and The Dinosaur That Pooped.

Tickets are available from www.storyhouse.com and you can save 10% when you book two eligible events or 15% when you book three or more in the same transaction.

The 30-year-old BAFTA-winning actor comes to Chester on 28 October with Marvellous Messages, her debut book for young readers.

Join Ayling-Ellis, her cool cat Halo and their magical tour guide Perky the Penguin on a time-travelling globetrotting adventure to explore the story of communication as never before.

Discover ancient language, and decipher secret codes, on a journey through time and learn about all the different ways we can send, or receive, a message. With Perky, the expert tour guide, explore the beginnings of language, the first hieroglyphic ‘emojis’ and even communication in the animal kingdom.

Interspersed throughout the journey are Messaging Milestones: fascinating timelines of inventions that changed the world, and Rose’s Superstars, a celebration of inspirational heroes, both past and present, from the deaf world – including movie star Millicent Simmonds and stuntwoman Kitty O’Neil.

The event is being supported by Cheshire-based charity DSN (Deaf and Sensory Network which is providing training sessions for Storyhouse’s front-of-house team and volunteers to ensure they can communicate with deaf visitors and make their day an even more enjoyable experience.

And the Network will also be holding a BSL-signed Storytime on the same day featuring Julia Donaldson’s Superworm and That’s Better by Gill Reeder.

DSN’s CEO Gill Reeder said: “DSN is delighted to be part of this year’s WayWord Festival at Storyhouse, helping to make the magic of storytelling and performance accessible to everyone through providing interpreters and offering deaf awareness training to the team. We are particularly proud of the role our young deaf people are playing in WayWord – using the confidence and presentation skills they have learnt through our Youth Vibe club to introduce Rose on stage for the event.

“Representation and access are at the heart of what we do, and it’s inspiring to see events like Rose Ayling-Ellis’ Marvellous Messages championing inclusion and celebrating deaf culture on such a prominent stage. Together, we’re ensuring that all families, including those who use British Sign Language, can share in the joy of these creative experiences.”

Rose Ayling-Ellis began her acting career in a radio play Early Warning, in short film The End, productions on stage and on television in the BBC series Summer of Rockets before in 2020 securing the role of Frankie Lewis in EastEnders, which she played for two years.

In 2021 the trailblazing actor won the 19^th series of Strictly with her professional partner Giovanni Pernice, raising awareness as the first deaf contestant on the show during which she performed a groundbreaking silent dance which won the ‘must-see moment’ award at the BAFTAs. Her 2023 documentary Signs for Change was nominated for a BAFTA Craft Award.

On stage, in 2023 she appeared as Celia in As You Like It at Soho Place, for which she won The Stage Award for Best West End Debut, an Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role and a prestigious Ian Charleston Award nomination.

Deaf since birth, Ayling-Ellis was taught British Sign Language (BSL) by her mother and is a prominent advocate for Deaf representation and accessibility, campaigning for the BSL Act which was passed in 2022. She also worked with Mattel to create the first deaf Barbie doll with behind-the-ear hearing aids.

Among her other ‘firsts’ is becoming the first celebrity reader to present a CBeebies bedtime story using sign language, the first deaf person to deliver the Alternative McTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh TV Festival and the first deaf person to host a live sports show, presenting the Paralympics from Paris for Channel 4.

She was made an MBE in the 2024 King’s Birthday Honours for services to the deaf community.

Rose Ayling-Ellis at WayWord Festival plays at Chester Storyhouse Saturday, 25 October to Sunday, 2 November. Tickets are available here.