Yasmin Finney (born 30 August 2003) is an English actress and internet personality. She is known for her role as Elle Argent in the

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 ...

series '' Heartstopper'' (2022–present), for which she was nominated for a

Children's and Family Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Performance A child () is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The term may also refer to an unborn human being. In English-speaking countries, the legal definition of ''chil ...

. She also plays Rose Noble in the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

series ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...

'' (2023–present).

Early life

Finney was born on 30 August 2003, to a Jamaican mother and an English father of Irish and Italian descent. She went to

Ashton-on-Mersey School Ashton-on-Mersey School is a secondary school in Ashton upon Mersey, Greater Manchester, England. The school is an academy, part of The Dean Trust, which includes Broadoak School and Lord Derby Academy in Huyton. Ashton-on-Mersey School can ...

, which was a part of The Dean Trust when she attended. She and her half-sister were raised in

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

by her single mother. She participated in a number of local theatre productions while growing up, including in the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

's Sackville Theatre, the Royal Exchange Theatre, and the Aylesbury Waterside Theatre. She studied performing arts at

The Manchester College The Manchester College is the largest further education college in the United Kingdom and the largest single provider of 16–19, adult and higher education in Greater Manchester, with more than 25% of Greater Manchester’s learning provision ...

. Before her acting breakthrough, she initially gained a following through her

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 ...

videos about her experiences as a

Black British Black British people or Black Britons"Black Briton, N." ''Oxford English Dictionary''. Oxford UP. December 2024. https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/1136579918. are a multi-ethnic group of British people of List of ethnic groups of Africa, Sub-Saharan ...

teenage

trans 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 ...

Career

At the age of 17 in April 2021, Finney was cast as Kelsa in the Billy Porter film '' Anything's Possible'' and Elle Argent in the

series '' Heartstopper'', the latter of which premiered in 2022. She had to pull out of ''Anything's Possible'' due to

COVID-19 travel restrictions During the COVID-19 pandemic, COVID-19 pandemic, many countries and territories imposed quarantines, entry bans, or other travel restrictions for citizens of or recent travelers to the most affected areas. Some countries and territories impo ...

impacting her ability to get a United States work visa, leading her to be replaced by Eva Reign. She appeared on

GLAAD GLAAD () is an American non-governmental media monitoring organization. Originally founded as a protest against defamatory coverage of gay and lesbian demographics and their portrayals in the media and entertainment industries, it has since ...

's second annual 20 Under 20 list. In November 2023, Finney starred as Rose Noble, the daughter of

Donna Noble Donna Noble is a fictional character in the long-running British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. Portrayed by British actress and comedian Catherine Tate, she is a companion of the Tenth and Fourteenth Doctors (both portr ...

(

Catherine Tate Catherine Tate (born Catherine Jane Ford, 5 December 1969) is an English actress, comedian and writer. She has won numerous awards for her work on the BBC Two, BBC sketch comedy series ''The Catherine Tate Show'' (2004–2007), as well as bein ...

), in the 60th anniversary specials of the

series ''

''. On 30 August 2023, it was also announced that Finney would appear as a guest judge during the fifth series of ''

RuPaul's Drag Race UK ''RuPaul's Drag Race UK'' is a British reality competition television series based on the American television series of the same name. The television series, a collaboration between the BBC and World of Wonder, premiered on 3 October 2019. T ...

'' set to begin broadcasting in autumn 2023. In August 2022, it was announced that Finney would star in the upcoming short film ''Mars'' as the character Charlie Acaster. The film premiered in October of the same year at the

London Film Festival The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival held in London, England, in collaboration with the British Film Institute. Founded in 1957, the festival runs for two weeks every October. In 2016, the British Film Institute, BFI estim ...

Filmography

Film

Television

Theatre

Accolades

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Finney, Yasmin 2003 births 21st-century English actresses 21st-century English LGBTQ people Actresses from Manchester Alumni of the Manchester College Black British actresses Black British LGBTQ people English child actresses English people of Irish descent English people of Italian descent English people of Jamaican descent English stage actresses English television actresses English TikTokers English transgender women English transgender actors LGBTQ people from Manchester LGBTQ TikTokers Living people Mass media people from Manchester Transgender actresses Place of birth missing (living people)