BEAMING from ear to ear, Mia McKenna-Bruce looked overwhelmed with happiness as she clutched her Rising Star trophy at the Bafta Film Awards.
The 26-year-old lead from 2023 film How To Have Sex called the prize a “dream come true” after attending the ceremony with her parents Angela and Wayne.
But today we can reveal how she overcame the odds to win her break-out role in the movie — and how her drive to become an actress was born out of a “dramatic” childhood.
Mia was forced to change schools at a young age when her mum relocated from Chislehurst, in South East London, to nearby Eltham, while her dad Wayne spent time away from the family home.
A friend said: “It had a big impact on the family.
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"Mia was performing in Billy Elliot in the West End so it was an important time for her.
“But she has overcome what was a trying time with such strength. She is amazing.”
And at last Sunday’s Bafta bash at London’s Royal Festival Hall, Mia’s proud parents posed on the red carpet alongside their daughter, with photographers snapping away.
Last week on podcast Happy Mum Happy Baby she gave only the tiniest hint of the challenges that fired her ambition.
Asked if she had enjoyed her childhood, Mia, who has younger sisters Anya, 18, and 13-year-old Ellis said: “It was amazing — very dramatic, as you can imagine, but I was really lucky.”
Mia admits she was a handful as a child. Laughing, she told the podcast: “I started dancing when I was two years old.
“I grew up in South East London and went to a local dance school.
“I think everyone in my family was like, ‘We need to do something with this child, she’s nuts’.
“I went to dance and I’m very all or nothing, so it wasn’t like I would do one dance class a week.
“It was multiple dance classes each night after school and I loved that feeling of being part of something.
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“I relentlessly did that for a long time and then realised that acting was the thing.
“Before I knew that, I was at school making up all these crazy games about spies and living in this world or playing Hannah Montana and putting on performances for the teachers who, bless them, were always very good at watching.
“But that must have been a nightmare for them.”
Mia’s earliest TV roles included playing schoolgirl Abi Taylor in a single episode of Holby City in 2008.
She followed it by starring as Penny Branning, daughter of bent copper Jack Branning, in EastEnders the same year.
Short-lived roles in The Bill and Doctors followed, before she starred as Tee Taylor in Tracy Beaker Returns in 2010, a part she also played in the spin-off series The Dumping Ground.
Mia has previously talked about how she struggled after leaving the popular CBBC series after six years aged 19.
The stress led to panic attacks that were so upsetting that she considered quitting acting for good.
She told Charlie Brooks’ Iampro podcast: “When I left, I was auditioning as an adult and not a child.
The further I went along, the more pressure I would put on myself and the more nervous I would get
Mia McKenna-Bruce
"I would be asked, ‘Tell us what you think about the character’, and I would be like, ‘What?’
"It was stuff that you don’t necessarily think about as a child.
“The further I went along, the more pressure I would put on myself and the more nervous I would get.
“And then I had to strip it back and think, ‘Why am I doing this?’
"The actual audition would be fine. I would be in there and I would be loving it.
“But I would come out and have a panic attack because of how much I had worked myself up beforehand.”
Thankfully, Mia stuck it out and in 2021 she auditioned for How To Have Sex, about three teenage girls who are celebrating the end of their GCSEs, in Malia, Crete.
It proved to be a big success and secured Mia her Bafta nomination — but she was forced to sign a non-disclosure agreement that prevented her talking about the awards nod.
She said: “I was told back in November and I was on a packed rush-hour train when I found out.
“It was NDAs and everything — I couldn’t tell anyone. I was sitting on this train and I couldn’t even squeal.”
Director Molly Manning Walker was impressed by Mia’s ability to convey raw emotion through the power of her eyes and cast her as Tara, who finds herself in uncharted territory during a night out.
Mia told the Why I Move podcast: “A lot of people were like, ‘How did you guys play drunk?
"Were you actually drunk?’ No, absolutely not.
“I don’t know how we would have got through that shoot if we were.
“But we were living on (Crete nightlife hotspot) Malia strip, so it all came back — I felt 17 again.”
Away from the cameras Mia has been engaged to 29-year-old actor Tom Leach for two years and their son Leo was born last August.
She said: “I fell pregnant a month after we wrapped.
“It was almost like I’d had this young me unleashed and then gone into mum mode.
‘That’s a glitch’
“And I was doing all these events and after-parties to promote the film and I was like, ‘I need to go home and be with my baby’.
“So I must have really got it all out of my system in Malia, which is brilliant.”
She added of her new arrival: “My family were absolutely chuffed.
"They had no idea.
“Again, they thought it would be a lot later for us because our lives are just so chaotic, what with work and everything.
"So it was a complete out-of-the-blue thing for them, and because it was between Christmas and New Year, I gave them a little bag and was like, ‘Oh I forgot to give you this gift’. It had the pregnancy test in it.
“My mum looked at it first and said, ‘You are joking?’ She was speechless and started crying.
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Mia McKenna-Bruce
“And then my dad was like, ‘What? What?’
"Then he said, ‘Wait, are you happy?’ because we hadn’t even mentioned to anyone that it was a consideration for us.
“But we said, ‘Yeah’ and then he started celebrating.”
And when Mia found out their baby’s sex at a private clinic — which used a quirky lighting system to signal the result — she made sure her parents were by her side again.
She said: “I had Tom and I brought my mum and dad with me as well.
"They told me the lights will change to either pink or blue. I was lying there when all the lights went pink.
“And they said, ‘Oh no, sorry, that’s a glitch. Ignore it’. We said, ‘What does that mean?’
"Then they said, ‘Now we are going to change the lights to how they actually should be’.
“And they went blue. My dad and Tom jumped up, buzzing.
“I was like, ‘But this is baby Eliza, I’ve named her’. Every scan after that, I was like, ‘Can you double-check because I’m not sure?’”
During the pregnancy Mia attended promotional events for How To Have Sex — but found achieving Hollywood- style glamour was a challenge.
She said: “I was very scared going into it.
"Cannes was the big red-carpet event we did when I was six months pregnant. I was like, ‘I don’t know how to dress for it’ because your body is very different.
“I didn’t know how I was going to wear a dress but my amazing stylist, Holly White, just pulled it out of the bag.
"It was amazing, although I was having to wear platform heels, so I said, ‘Guys, I love the look but I’m going to need a seat’.
“Everyone was on guard for the pregnant lady and protecting me at all costs, which was fun.”
But it was all worth it.
Mia said of motherhood: “It’s the best feeling in the world.
“It’s not easy but as soon as they smile, you will do absolutely anything for them — and they can’t even talk to you yet.”
