Sylvia Young (born 1939 in Hackney, London, England) is the founder and principal of

Sylvia Young Theatre School Sylvia Young Theatre School is an independent school in Marble Arch, London, England. It is a specialist performing arts school named after its founder and principal, Sylvia Young OBE. Outline The Sylvia Young Theatre School was founded in ...

in London, England.

Sylvia Young Theatre School

Young founded her theatre school in 1981 in

Drury Lane Drury Lane is a street on the eastern boundary of the Covent Garden area of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of Camden and the southern part in the City of Westminster. Notable landmarks T ...

, London, before moving to its current

Marylebone Marylebone (usually , also , ) is a district in the West End of London, in the City of Westminster. Oxford Street, Europe's busiest shopping street, forms its southern boundary. An ancient parish and latterly a metropolitan borough, it ...

premises in 1983. The school is co-educational and provides a combination of academic and vocational classes for children aged 10 to 16 years. The academic curriculum encompasses GCSEs, while the vocational curriculum teaches acting, dance and music. Many SYTS students have gone on to become successful in the performing arts world, including

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; Denise Van Outen;

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; former Spice Girl Emma Bunton; Alex Rider star Alex Pettyfer;

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;

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;

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;

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member

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; Busted bassist

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;

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member Vanessa White; and

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member Nathan Sykes. The film '' High School Musical 3'' features an SYTS pupil, Jemma McKenzie-Brown.

Family

Young married Norman Ruffell in Hackney, London, in 1961 and has two children, actresses

Frances Ruffelle Frances Ruffelle (born 29 August 1965) is an English musical theatre actress and singer. She won a Tony Award in 1987, and represented the United Kingdom in the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest with the song " Lonely Symphony (We Will Be Free)", ...

and Alison Ruffelle. Young's granddaughter is pop singer Eliza Doolittle.

Styles and honours

She was the subject of ''

This Is Your Life This Is Your Life may refer to: Television * ''This Is Your Life'' (American franchise), an American radio and television documentary biography series hosted by Ralph Edwards * ''This Is Your Life'' (Australian TV series), the Australian versio ...

'' in December 1998 when she was surprised by Michael Aspel at the Sylvia Young Theatre School. Young was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire ( OBE) in the

Queen's Birthday Honours The Birthday Honours, in some Commonwealth realms, mark the King's Official Birthday, reigning British monarch's official birthday by granting various individuals appointment into Order (honour), national or Dynastic order of knighthood, dynastic ...

List of 2005 for her services to the arts.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Young, Sylvia 1939 births Living people Officers of the Order of the British Empire Sylvia Young Theatre School