Storme Toolis

Last updated

Storme Toolis
Born
Storme Toolis

(1992-11-26) 26 November 1992 (age 32)
London, England
OccupationActor
Parent(s) Dea Birkett
Kevin Toolis

Storme Toolis (born 26 November 1992) is a British actress from London. [1]

Contents

Early life

Toolis was born and raised in London. Her father journalist Kevin Toolis was born in Edinburgh; his parents originated from Achill Island in County Mayo, Ireland. [2] Her mother is Dea Birkett, a British television and print journalist from Surrey; she has a younger brother and a younger sister. [3] Toolis spent seven years as an aspiring actress at the Ovalhouse. [4]

Career

She first appeared on film in Channel 4's The Inbetweeners as an extra, and then as a minor character in The Inbetweeners Movie , based on the earlier television series, subsequently joining the cast of New Tricks as Holly Griffin in August 2013 in series 10 episode 5, "Cry Me a River", of the show.

Toolis has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair. [5] [6] She is an advocate of the rights of disabled actors to play disabled roles. [7]

For her role in New Tricks, Toolis was described as "one of the few disabled actors in Britain, and across the world, to play a minor role in a mainstream drama where the disability of her character is not a feature of the plot, and her role has been compared to Walt Jr in the US Breaking Bad series." [8]

Toolis also partook in the Malteser series of adverts for the Paralympics. The advert was praised for its portrayal of people with disabilities. [9]

Toolis was the first disabled actress to take on the title role of Josephine in the West End version of the play A Day in the Death of Joe Egg . [10]

References

  1. ↑ "Storme Toolis: We need more disabled actors". BBC News. 24 September 2019. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  2. ↑ "Daughter of Achill native hits small screen". The Mayo News. 27 August 2013. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  3. ↑ Emma Broomfield (14 August 2011). "Storme on the horizon". The Sunday Times. Archived from the original on 8 April 2014. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
  4. ↑ "Storme Toolis | Ovalhouse". Ovalhouse. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  5. ↑ "Kennington actress Storme Toolis breaks TV taboos". Kennington Runoff. 28 August 2013. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
  6. ↑ Dea Birkett (5 August 2011). "My daughter stars in The Inbetweeners Movie – so does her wheelchair". The Telegraph. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
  7. ↑ Jo Usmar (28 August 2013). "New Tricks' Storme Toolis: What you need to know about actress with cerebral palsy set to feature in 'TV's first disabled character sex scene'". Mirror Online. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
  8. ↑ Jo Usmar (28 August 2013). "Should only disabled actors be allowed to play disabled roles on TV?". Mirror Online. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
  9. ↑ O'Connor, Rory (9 September 2016). "WATCH: The 'brilliantly filthy' Maltesers advert that's got everybody talking". Express.co.uk. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  10. ↑ "Storme Toolis: I put aside my fears to be first disabled Joe Egg star". Evening Standard. 16 September 2019. Retrieved 10 November 2020.