Sophie Leigh Stone (born c. 1981) is an English stage and television

actress An actor or actress is a person who portrays a Character (arts), character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek ...

. She was the first deaf student to win a place at the drama school

RADA The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA; ) is a drama school in London, England, that provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in the Bloomsbury area of Central London, close to the Senat ...

. she is best known for her roles as Louise in Two Doors Down and Doctor Who as Cass.

Life and career

Sophie Stone was born to guitarist Martin Stone, grew up in East London, and has been deaf since birth. She attended Mary Hare Grammar School for the Deaf. She took up a place at RADA after the birth of her son Phoenix (to whom she is a

single mother A single parent is a person who has a child or children but does not have a spouse or live-in partner to assist in the upbringing or support of the child. Reasons for becoming a single parent include divorce, break-up, abandonment, becoming wid ...

), with the extra cost of her studies being supported by the Snowdon Trust. Since graduating, she has played the role of Kattrin in ''

Mother Courage and Her Children ''Mother Courage and Her Children'' (german: Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder, links=no) is a play written in 1939 by the German dramatist and poet Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956), with significant contributions from Margarete Steffin. Four theatrical ...

'' at the National Theatre and worked with other theatre companies. In Spring 2014, she played Agnetha in

Bryony Lavery Bryony Lavery (born 1947) is a British dramatist, known for her successful and award-winning 1998 play '' Frozen''. In addition to her work in theatre, she has also written for television and radio. She has written books including the biography ...

's play ''Frozen'', opening at the

Birmingham Repertory Theatre Birmingham Repertory Theatre, commonly called Birmingham Rep or just The Rep, is a producing theatre based on Centenary Square in Birmingham, England. Founded by Barry Jackson, it is the longest-established of Britain's building-based theatre c ...

. In Autumn 2014, she took the leading role in the touring production of ''Woman of Flowers'', a reworking of the Welsh myth of

Blodeuwedd Blodeuwedd (), (Welsh "Flower-Faced", a composite name from ''blodau'' "flowers" + ''gwedd'' "face"), is the wife of Lleu Llaw Gyffes in Welsh mythology. She was made from the flowers of broom, meadowsweet and oak by the magicians Math and Gwydio ...

by playwright Kaite O'Reilly. She has also appeared in episodes of several British television series and short films. In 2015, she played the role of deaf crew-leader Cass in the ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the u ...

'' episodes "

Under the Lake "Under the Lake" is the third episode of the ninth series of the British science fiction television series '' Doctor Who''. It was first broadcast on BBC One on 3 October 2015. It is the first part of a two-part story, the second of which is " Be ...

" and " Before the Flood", who communicated entirely in

British Sign Language British Sign Language (BSL) is a sign language used in the United Kingdom (UK), and is the first or preferred language among the Deaf community in the UK. Based on the percentage of people who reported 'using British Sign Language at home' on ...

. She was cast as

Princess Alice of Battenberg Princess Alice of Battenberg (Victoria Alice Elizabeth Julia Marie; 25 February 1885 – 5 December 1969) was the mother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, mother-in-law of Queen Elizabeth II, and the paternal grandmother of King Charles III ...

Prince Philip Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, later Philip Mountbatten; 10 June 1921 – 9 April 2021) was the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. As such, he served as the consort of the British monarch from E ...

's mother, who was deaf herself, in Netflix's series 2 of '

the Crown The Crown is the state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their subdivisions (such as the Crown Dependencies, overseas territories, provinces, or states). Legally ill-defined, the term has different ...

'. In 2021 she played the lead in an episode of the BBC 1 anthology series '' Jimmy McGovern's Moving On''. In 2009, she played in "Coming Home", directed by the deaf director Louis Neethling. She played the deaf poet and activist

Dorothy Miles Dorothy "Dot" Miles (19 August 1931 – 30 January 1993, née Squire) was a Welsh poet and activist in the deaf community. Throughout her life, she composed her poems in English, British Sign Language, and American Sign Language. Her work laid ...

in the docu-drama "Dot" in 2019. She appeared in the short "Sign Night" with actress

Vilma Jackson Vilma Jackson is an English actor and performer. She is known for portraying the role of Charlie in Coronation Street. She is Deaf and a British Sign Language user. In 2020 Jackson wrote, produced and performed in a short film, "Triple Oppression" ...

, which was broadcast on the BBC. In 2020, she added radio to her credits, by being cast in a

BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, Radio drama, drama, High culture, culture and the arts ...

drama "Beethoven Can Hear You" as a deaf traveller from the future that visits Beethoven (played by

Peter Capaldi Peter Dougan Capaldi (; born 14 April 1958) is a Scottish actor, director, writer and musician. He portrayed the Twelfth Doctor, twelfth incarnation of The Doctor (Doctor Who), the Doctor in ''Doctor Who'' (2013–2017) and Malcolm Tucker in ' ...

). She also wrote and spoke an essay about her relationship with music. This was part of the celebration for the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth. In 2013, she co-founded the DH Ensemble Theatre Company, which creates plays that include deaf and hearing actors. She is also an Associate Artist for The Watermill Theatre, and in 2021 she guest-edited an anthology of Deaf authors for Arachne Press.

Credits

Film

Television

Chelsea Detective Ashley Wilton

Theatre

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Stone, Sophie Leigh Deaf actresses English television actresses Living people Alumni of RADA Year of birth uncertain 1980s births English deaf people BSL users 21st-century English actresses English stage actresses English film actresses Actresses from London English radio actresses