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 a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

and

TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version ...

, where she documented her

gender transition Gender transition is the process of changing one's gender presentation or sex characteristics to accord with one's internal sense of gender identity – the idea of what it means to be a man or a woman,Brown, M. L. & Rounsley, C. A. (1996) ''True ...

after

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

as a

transgender woman A trans woman or a transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity, may experience gender dysphoria, and may transition; this process commonly includes hormone replacement therapy and som ...

. 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 may refer to: Philosophy and psychology * Attitude (psychology), an individual's predisposed state of mind regarding a value * Metaphysics of presence * Propositional attitude, a relational mental state connecting a person to a pro ...

''.

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 abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...

and began her

when she was thirteen years old. She cited the British model

Munroe Bergdorf Munroe Bergdorf ( Beaumont; born 11 September 1987) is an English model and activist. She has walked several catwalks for brands including Gypsy Sport at both London and NYC Fashion Weeks. Bergdorf was the first transgender model in the UK for L ...

as one of her inspirations for coming out. She studied fashion in college and attended the

Fashion Retail Academy The Fashion Retail Academy is a vocational training college in the Tottenham Court Road area of London, England. It was founded as a National Skills Academy in 2005 by M&S, Next, Experian, F&F and Arcadia, with funding from the UK government. ...

for one week before dropping out. She worked as a cleaner before beginning her entertainment career.

Career

Priestley began her career on the

social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...

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 a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

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

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

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 Yasmin Finney (born 30 August 2003) is an English actress. She is known for her role as Elle Argent in the Netflix series '' Heartstopper'' (2022), for which she was nominated for a Children's and Family Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting P ...

who plays Elle Argent. She is signed with Margravine Management. In March 2023, Priestly partnered with ASOS and appeared on their ''Out & Out'' series for

Transgender Day of Visibility International Transgender Day of Visibility (often referred to as TDOV or Trans Day of Visibility) is an annual event occurring on March 31 dedicated to celebrating transgender people and raising awareness of discrimination faced by transgender ...

. 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. The following busin ...

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 LGBT people Actresses from London Beauty and makeup YouTubers English television actresses English TikTokers English transgender women English transgender actors English YouTubers LGBT people from London LGBT TikTokers LGBT YouTubers Transgender actresses YouTubers who make LGBT-related content