Cleckheaton actress stars in latest episode of BBC's Casualty
A 12-year-old actress from Cleckheaton stars in the latest episode of long-running BBC drama Casualty.
In the episode, which airs on Saturday (May 3) at 9.20pm, Jessica Lawrenson plays Olive Harris, a young girl visiting her mum, Cara Harris, who is battling cancer at Holby City hospital.
Jessica, who is represented by Baildon-based Articulate Agency, said: "I'm really excited to be part of such an iconic television series.
"It was very amazing and shocking when I found out I got the role.
"We got the call, and I thought it was a feedback call with Stacey [Burrows, founder of Articulate Agency], so I was so surprised!"
Articulate Agency also runs the Articulate Drama School in hubs across West Yorkshire.
The school offers specialist classes, including in screen acting, performing arts, musical theatre, public speaking, singing, and LAMDA drama.
Jessica has previously appeared in Toxic Town, Emmerdale, Odd Squad, and A Gentleman in Moscow, but Casualty is her first major role.
Jessica added: "I wouldn't have gotten this role or had the opportunity without my agency and my agent.
"I send self-tapes to her and she gives me tips on how to improve.
"I've also got brilliant drama teachers, Kirsty and Lee, who help improve my acting every single drama lesson."
Jessica spent a month in Cardiff filming for two episodes in total (episodes seven and eight of the latest season; the May 3 episode is episode eight).
She said that "some of the best advice [she'd] got was to learn the script in chunks."
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles

Business Insider
20 minutes ago
- Business Insider
Meet the Kardashians' plastic surgeons responsible for Kris Jenner's new face and Kylie's 'teardrop' breasts
Kylie Jenner recently shared details of her breast augmentation, including her surgeon. Kris Jenner also confirmed her plastic surgeon, speculated to be the one behind her facelift. Dr. Garth Fisher and Dr. Steven Levine are their plastic surgeons with cutting-edge techniques. While most celebrities stay tight-lipped about their plastic surgeons, Kylie Jenner surprised fans by doing the opposite: listing exactly what she got done, down to her implant size and plastic surgeon. It all started when TikToker Rachel Leary posted a video asking Kylie to share details of her surgery. "Please, can you just tell me/us/anyone that's interested, what it is you asked for when you had your boobs done?" Leary said. "It's the most perfect, natural-looking boob job ever." About a day later, Jenner, 27, responded. "445 cc, moderate profile, half under the muscle!!!!! silicone!!! garth fisher!!! hope this helps lol," Jenner wrote in a comment. The Kardashians and Jenners are no strangers to plastic surgery, or to public speculation about what they got done. But between Kylie Jenner's TikTok comment and Kris Jenner recently confirming her plastic surgeon, the family is becoming a little more open about the men behind the facelifts. Dr. Garth Fisher, Kylie's surgeon, is known for 'teardrop' breasts Dr. Garth Fisher, a board-certified Beverly Hills plastic surgeon, has been the go-to plastic surgeon of half the KarJenners for years. He's been practicing for over 20 years. Known for his breast augmentation technique (which favors a more natural-looking teardrop shape over a circular look), he performed the surgery for both Kylie Jenner and Kourtney Kardashian. Fisher is popular for his trademarked "pinnacle facelift," a more customized and minimally invasive facelift that avoids skin looking too pulled-back or pinched. Prior to her viral facelift, Kris Jenner got a pinnacle facelift from Fisher. He also revised a facelift for Caitlyn Jenner prior to her transition, which was shown in an episode of "Keeping Up With the Kardashians." Fisher has appeared on "ABC's Extreme Makeover" and has been ranked as one of America's top doctors by Castle Connolly, a healthcare research company. Dr. Steven Levine was behind Kris Jenner's viral facelift View this post on Instagram A post shared by Kylie Cosmetics (@kyliecosmetics) Kris Jenner, 69, is a client of Dr. Steven M. Levine, a New York-based board-certified plastic surgeon who does everything from eyelid lifts to breast implants. He opened his private practice in 2019; a year later, during the pandemic, he was so in demand that some clients offered to pay double or let him stay in their Hamptons home for a month, according to PEOPLE. While Jenner has been less open than her daughter about the exact procedures she's undergone, some speculate that she had a deep-plane facelift, where a layer of connective tissue between the skin and facial muscles is lifted to provide a more drastic, longer-lasting outcome. While it's unknown how much Jenner paid, Levine told PEOPLE back in 2020 that his facial work starts at $45,000. Levine has been ranked as one of the top doctors in the NYC area. New York Magazine also named him one of the top doctors for several years in a row. The Kardashians have had mixed plastic surgery experiences The Kardashians haven't always raved about their surgeons' work. Some regret past plastic surgery. In a 2023 episode of " The Kardashians," Kylie Jenner said she regretted getting a boob job when she was 19, months before her daughter Stormi was born. She thought she looked "perfect" before and wished she "never got them done to begin with." The KarJenners being more forthcoming about their plastic surgery could be a sign that they're happier with the results. Or, as The Cut speculated, they could be launching a plastic surgery-related venture. "Dr. Levine works hard, but Kris Jenner works harder," Carol Lee, a beauty writer, wrote. "If you know anything about the Kardashians, it's that everything they do is strategic — nothing is an accident."


Los Angeles Times
22 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
Meta sued by Eminem's publishing company over alleged copyright infringement
Eight Mile Style, a company that owns some of Eminem's most popular songs, is suing social media giant Meta over alleged copyright infringement. The lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Michigan, accuses the Menlo Park-based tech company of storing, reproducing and distributing Eminem's music without obtaining the license to do so. Eight Mile Style, which is based in Ferndale, Mich., is seeking at least $109 million from Meta and a court order to stop several alleged forms of copyright infringement. Music is a big part of social media. On Meta's platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, people add music in photos and videos they share publicly or with their friends and family. But the way social media has changed the way people listen to and discover new songs has also sparked concerns from artists about whether they're fairly compensated. 'Meta's years-long and ongoing infringement of the Eight Mile Compositions is another case of a trillion (with a 'T') dollar company exploiting the creative efforts of musical artists for the obscene monetary benefit of its executives and shareholders without a license and without regard to the rights of the owners of the intellectual property,' the lawsuit said. Meta said in a statement that it has licenses with thousands of partners globally and an 'extensive' global licensing programs for music on its platforms. 'Meta had been negotiating in good faith with Eight Mile Style, but rather than continue those discussions, Eight Mile Style chose to sue,' the company said in an email. Eight Mile Style owns and controls 243 compositions recorded by Eminem, a rapper and music producer that has created popular hits such as 'Lose Yourself.' Meta did remove some of these songs including 'Lose Yourself' from its music libraries, but other versions of the music including a piano instrumental cover and a karaoke version still remain on the platform, according to the lawsuit. Meta not only allowed users who upload these songs to infringe on copyright but knowingly stored and reproduced them in its music libraries so users can use the music in videos and photos, the lawsuit alleges. Users have added Eminem's music in millions of videos that have been viewed billions of times, according to the lawsuit. Meta also unsuccessfully tried to obtain a license for Eminem's songs as part of negotiations with the digital music royalty company Audiam even though the firm didn't have the authority to give them that license. 'Meta executives have actively encouraged such rampant infringement in order to attract as many users as possible to, among other things, make advertising on their services more profitable for themselves,' the lawsuit said. More than 3 billion people use one of Meta's apps daily, and the company makes billions of dollars every quarter from advertising. In the first three months of this year, Meta's revenue reached $42.31 billion, an increase of 16% year-over-year. The company's net income jumped by 35% to $16.6 billion in the first quarter. This isn't the first time Meta has faced legal issues over the use of Eminem's music. In 2013, Eight Mile Style sued Facebook, alleging the social network used the Eminem song 'Under the Influence' for an ad without their consent.

Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Karine Jean-Pierre is leaving the Democratic Party. Her former White House colleagues have some thoughts.
Karine Jean-Pierre's announcement that she's leaving the Democratic Party — timed with the rollout of a new book — has detonated long-simmering grievances among her former White House colleagues about Jean-Pierre's pursuit of celebrity and personal media exposure while serving as then-President Joe Biden's press secretary. The attention-grabbing ploy lit up Democratic and Biden alumni texting groups and reignited frustrations that burned for years about Jean-Pierre, according to seven former Biden administration officials granted anonymity to describe private conversations. One former official recalled that Jean-Pierre had joked about becoming an independent even while on the job in the Biden White House, an off-key comment for someone ostensibly serving as a major messenger for the Democratic Party. Another former official said that Jean-Pierre had begun working during the Biden administration with a New York-based publicist and had copied that person on official emails before some of Jean-Pierre's White House colleagues intervened. 'Everyone thinks this is a grift,' the first former official said of Jean-Pierre's book project. As Biden's press secretary, Jean-Pierre's halting, ineffectual briefings exasperated reporters and routinely offered material for the Republican Party's main account on X. She frustrated colleagues throughout the West Wing for focusing on raising her own profile while leaving the hands-on management of media relations and the White House press shop to other aides. While it's unclear how she will portray Biden or her time in the White House in the book, titled 'Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines,' several former colleagues expressed confusion at how Jean-Pierre seemingly intends to paint Biden as a victim while pinning her own decision to leave the party on his 'broken' White House. The teasing of the book project by the Hachette imprint stated that Jean-Pierre will offer her view of the three weeks of turmoil following Biden's miserable debate last summer that culminated with him dropping his reelection bid, a result the book's promotional material blames in part on 'a betrayal by the Democratic party.' Jean-Pierre's former staffers offered withering criticism of what they see as an opportunistic grift. 'She made a joke about being an independent last year and now it's a book. All ideas are monetary — even the dumb ones,' said one of the former staffers. Caitlin Legacki, a Democratic strategist who worked in the Commerce Department's communications shop during Biden's term, also took issue with the book's apparent premise. 'Kamala Harris and the entire Biden/Harris campaign did hero's work to avoid losing 400 electoral votes and giving Republicans a supermajority in Congress, which is what would have happened if he stayed on the ticket," she said. "It's more productive to focus on that, and thank Biden for doing the responsible thing by stepping aside, than it is to pretend this was an unwarranted act of betrayal." Democrats, Legacki continued, should shift their focus to the effects of Republican's 'Big Beautiful Bill, which she said would have been even more drastic had Biden remained on the ticket and bolstered the GOP's numbers in Congress. 'People will literally die because of Republican Medicaid cuts. Kids will go hungry because of SNAP cuts,' she said. 'The only reason we stand a chance to reduce the harm inflicted is the Democratic Party did the right thing here. It's completely nuts to be more upset that the Party didn't prioritize Joe Biden's ego and keep him on the ticket than to thank god we averted complete and total disaster.' A New York-based publicist, Gilda Squire, worked informally with Jean-Pierre while she was in the White House and was, on multiple occasions, copied on official emails before staffers raised the issue, another former official said. Squire previously served as publicity director for HarperCollins Publishers and also did PR for Penguin Putnam Publishing, according to her LinkedIn. And Jean-Pierre was the subject of several lengthy profiles in lifestyle publications, including Vogue and Women's Health and traveled to New York to appear on The View. According to two of the former officials, Jean-Pierre had been hoping for a post-White House job as a co-host on the show, following the template of her predecessor, Jen Psaki, who departed the job after just more than a year for an anchor job at MSNBC. But no such opportunity materialized for Jean-Pierre, a factor three of her former colleagues surmised that likely led to the book. Neither Jean-Pierre nor Squire responded to a request for comment. While a number of former colleagues kept their comments private, Jeremy Edwards, who served in the press shop under Jean-Pierre, posted a succinct response to her book project on X: 'lol.' Jean-Pierre wouldn't be the first press secretary in recent years to turn against her boss or former colleagues. Stephanie Grisham, who served as press secretary during President Donald Trump's first term, authored a 2021 book detailing her experience in the White House and how Trump often berated her. But whereas Grisham was never allowed to brief at the podium, Jean-Pierre was the public face of the administration for two and half years. One Democratic operative who worked with Jean-Pierre prior to her White House tenure called the sudden turnabout 'the most grift-y thing I've seen in a long time, and that's saying something in Washington.' 'SHE was the public face telling us all that this White House was on track and that Biden was amazing. And now she doesn't even want to be a Democrat????' one of the former Biden White House officials said via text. 'She's making herself the middle ground here when Republicans hate her. She's not in any position to be a connector of our two party system and assuming she could be is just ego.'