It only took Emily Blunt a couple of years from being spotted in Hurtwood’s production of ‘Bliss’ at the Edinburgh Fringe to being cast in her career-changing role in ‘The Devil Wears Prada’. The rest was history for Oscar nominated Emily and it looks very possible that Honor Gillies, who left Hurtwood in 2019, might follow in her footsteps. Honor certainly seems to be matching the speed of her rise to the big time.

It is difficult to imagine a more perfect start to an acting career. After Hurtwood, Honor took up her place at the London Drama School ALRA and was signed to the acting agency ‘Revolution Talent’ in her final year. The very next week she found herself in an audition for one of the biggest shows of the moment. Many actors spend years waiting for their break, but Honor was instantly cast as District 12 resident ‘Barb Azure’ in ‘The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes’.

After her screen debut, Honor was delighted to be cast in another groundbreaking role alongside Hollywood Royalty Graham McTavish, Susie Porter and Stan Steinbichler in ‘Dirty Boy’, directed and written by Doug Rao. ‘Dirty Boy’ is a psychological thriller that centres around a religious cult and the story follows a reclusive schizophrenic who realises that he is being framed by cult leaders for a series of ritualistic murders. Honor’s character ‘Hope’ is one of the involuntary members of the ‘Flock’ and filming took the cast to Ausseerland in Austria, famous as the backdrop for ‘The Sound of Music’.

Hurtwood is very proud of Honor and speaking to her last week she reflected “I feel very lucky to have had this success this early into my career. The high calibre production values of the Hurtwood shows served as a wonderful introduction to working towards performing professionally and Hurtwood helped me to pursue Drama School through their brilliant Drama School programme.”