Bel Priestley (born 13 May 2003) is an English actress and internet personality. She began her career on the social media platforms

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

and

TikTok TikTok, known in mainland China and Hong Kong as Douyin (), is a social media and Short-form content, short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration f ...

, where she documented her

gender transition Gender transition is the process of affirming and expressing one's internal sense of gender, rather than the sex assigned to them at birth. It is a recommended course of treatment for individuals experiencing gender dysphoria, providing impro ...

after

coming out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBTQ people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. This is often framed and debated as a privacy issue, ...

as a

transgender woman A trans woman or transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity and may experience gender dysphoria (distress brought upon by the discrepancy between a person's gender identity and their ...

. By 2023, she amassed over one million followers on TikTok. Priestly joined the cast of the second season of the British coming-of-age romantic comedy drama television series '' Heartstopper'' as the character Naomi Russell. In 2023, she appeared on the covers of ''Brick Magazine'' and ''

Attitude Attitude or Attitude may refer to: Philosophy and psychology * Attitude (psychology), a disposition or state of mind ** Attitude change * Propositional attitude, a mental state held towards a proposition Science and technology * Orientation ...

''.

Early life and education

Priestley began studying musical theatre and dance when she was six years old. She came out as

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

and began her

when she was thirteen years old. She cited the British model Munroe Bergdorf as one of her inspirations for coming out. She studied fashion in college and attended the Fashion Retail Academy for one week before dropping out. She worked as a

cleaner A cleaner, cleanser or cleaning operative is a type of industrial or domestic worker who is tasked with cleaning a space. A janitor (Scotland, United States and Canada), also known as a custodian, Facility Operator, porter or caretaker, is a pe ...

before beginning her entertainment career.

Career

Priestley began her career on the

social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...

platforms

and

, where she documented her gender transition and made makeup and beauty videos. By the time she was nineteen years old, she amassed a TikTok following of over 1.5 million people. She was one of the first openly transgender British women creators on TikTok. On

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

, she had over 130,000 followers by 2023. On YouTube, she garnered 43,000 followers. In November 2022,

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

announced that Priestley would play the role of Naomi Russell in the second season of the British coming-of-age romantic comedy drama series '' Heartstopper''. The second season aired on 3 August 2023. She was the second transgender woman to appear in the show, following her co-star Yasmin Finney who plays Elle Argent. She is signed with Margravine Management. In March 2023, Priestly partnered with

ASOS ASOS or Asos may refer to: * Asos, a village in Greece * ASOS (retailer), a UK online fashion store * '' A Storm of Swords'', a book in the ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' saga by G. R. R. Martin * Action short of strike, industrial action undertake ...

and appeared on their ''Out & Out'' series for Transgender Day of Visibility. In April of that same year, she joined the

Paramount Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to: Entertainment and music companies * Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS. **Paramount Picture ...

audience-led initiative Generation Change, focused on empowering women. She was featured on the cover, and in an editorial, of ''Bricks Magazine'' in June 2023. She also appeared on the cover, alongside her ''Heartstopper'' co-star Ash Self, of ''

''.

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Priestley, Bel Living people 2003 births 21st-century English actresses 21st-century English LGBTQ people Actresses from London Beauty and makeup YouTubers English television actresses English TikTokers English transgender women English transgender actors LGBTQ people from London LGBTQ TikTokers LGBTQ YouTubers Transgender actresses YouTubers from London YouTubers who make LGBTQ-related content