Cleopatra "Cleo" Demetriou (; el, Κλεοπάτρα Δημητρίου; born 23 April 2001) is a Cyprus-born

Olivier Award The Laurence Olivier Awards, or simply the Olivier Awards, are presented annually by the Society of London Theatre to recognise excellence in professional theatre in London at an annual ceremony in the capital. The awards were originally known as ...

-winning child actress most known for playing the main role in ''

Matilda the Musical ''Roald Dahl's Matilda'', simply known as ''Matilda'' or ''Matilda the Musical'', is a stage musical with music and lyrics by Tim Minchin and a book by Dennis Kelly, based on the 1988 novel ''Matilda'' by Roald Dahl. The musical's narrative c ...

'' in London's West End. She is also known for playing the role of Lily Hampton in the

CBBC CBBC (initialised as Children's BBC and also known as the CBBC Channel) is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the bran ...

show ''

So Awkward ''So Awkward'' is a sitcom series on CBBC following the lives of a group of friends in secondary school. It stars Cleo Demetriou as Lily Hampton, Ameerah Falzon-Ojo and Emily Burnett (in series 6) as Jas (Jasmine) Salford, Sophia Dall'aglio as ...

'', and for singing the soundtrack "Made of Paper" to accompany the short film ''Mâché Man''.

Early life and career

Demetriou was born in

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...

, and lived in

Putney Putney () is a district of southwest London, England, in the London Borough of Wandsworth, southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. History Putney is an ancient paris ...

in south-west London throughout her primary school years at Brandlehow Primary School; she subsequently attended Chailey Secondary School and later Imberhorne School. She is best known for her role as Matilda in the musical of the same name, for which she received the 2012

Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical The Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical is an annual award presented by the Society of London Theatre in recognition of achievements in commercial London theatre. The awards were established as the Society of West End Theatre Awar ...

. She made her professional stage debut in 2009 playing Gretl in the ''

Sound of Music ''The Sound of Music'' is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. It is based on the 1949 memoir of Maria von Trapp, '' The Story of the Trapp Family Singers'' ...

'', and has performed on stage in ''

Enron Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. It was founded by Kenneth Lay in 1985 as a merger between Lay's Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth, both relatively small regional companies. ...

'' and ''

Les Misérables ''Les Misérables'' ( , ) is a French historical novel by Victor Hugo, first published in 1862, that is considered one of the greatest novels of the 19th century. In the English-speaking world, the novel is usually referred to by its original ...

''. Demetriou made her television debut in the CBBC

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...

''So Awkward'' playing Lily Hampton. The show, which was first aired on 21 May 2015, follows three socially awkward teenage girls at school who have the problems of fitting in, annoying parents, and boys to worry about. In 2018 she was 'gunged' on CBBC's ''

Saturday Mash-Up! ''Saturday Mash-Up!'' is a British Saturday morning children's magazine entertainment programme on CBBC and BBC Two, first broadcast on 30 September 2017. It is currently presented by Joe Tasker and a puppet monster called Stanley performed by ...

'', losing the vote by 1% to fellow ''So Awkward'' stars Sophia Dall'aglio and Ameerah Falzon-Ojo. On her return to the show in September 2021, Demetriou was gunged again after losing another three way vote.in a second appearance in September 2021, Demetriou was voted to take part in Slime and Punishment and was gunged for a second time.

Filmography

Television

Theatre

Awards and nominations

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Demetriou, Cleo 2001 births Living people Laurence Olivier Award winners People from Limassol People from Putney British child actresses British musical theatre actresses British people of Cypriot descent 21st-century British actresses