Wolf Man, Virdee, Ackley Bridge and Hullraisers: How Bradford acting agency is becoming epicentre for young stars of the screen

Take 10-year-old Matilda Firth. She joined an acting class near her home in Cleckheaton aged three. Last month, she sat on the BBC Breakfast sofa promoting Wolf Man, the latest movie she’s in - a few days after flying back from LA where the premiere was cancelled by Universal due to the catastrophic LA fires.

After her interview, she was on a train to Glasgow to film her next role, and now she’s currently shooting a film on location in Yorkshire with an A-lister cast. To date, she’s starred alongside Patrick Dempsey (Disney’s Disenchanted), Golden Globe nominated Julia Garner (Wolf Man), Megan Fox (Subservience), Nicole Kidman (the new series of Hulu’s Nine Perfect Strangers) and is currently filming with Hollywood stars on a movie, yet to be announced.

The West Yorkshire lass with the perfect American accent is in huge demand. Not only that, she’s a regular on Brit hits, from ITV’s Mr Bates Vs Post Office to Channel 4’s Hullraisers. There is a constant stream of announcements on Articulate Agency’s socials, highlighting the latest casting role featuring their acting protégé.

Founded in 2013 by former lawyer, Stacey Burrows, its enviable reputation for casting children and young acting talent, is partly thanks to the fact Articulate also runs established acting schools across the Yorkshire region.

So, many of its clients are literally home-grown talent. It works with the top UK and US casting directors, producers and show runners to secure high-profile, career-making roles, including major Hollywood opportunities.

Its talent star across all major TV networks, including Netflix, Sky, ITV, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Disney+, HBO, and the BBC, as well as independent and major UK and US film studios, and are trusted by Disney, Universal, and Fox.

Yousef Naseer, 19, and his brother Wissam, 6, who live in Bradford, both went to Articulate Agency’s drama school, and both have roles in the BBC drama set in Bradford, Virdee. Wissam plays the central character’s son, and Yousef, now in his first year at university in Salford, plays Ateeq Farooqi.

Yousef explains: “I started at a very young age, I was about eight years old when I first started taking an interest, just from being confident and putting shows on at home, my dad thought why not put him in a drama class? So, I went in to Articulate, and just went up from there.”

His dad is a fraud investigator and his mum, a maths teacher. They are, Yousef says, “as far as you can get away from the creative industries.” But his Greek mum, who moved to England aged 18, grew up playing piano, and his Pakistani dad, who came to England as a toddler, has a creative streak. He cites his dad as a major influence and support around his acting, but admits none of it would have happened without Articulate.

He explains: “I took Articulate classes with an amazing drama teacher called Kirsty. She played a big part in my success because she saw so much in me, and always tried to bring it out, always reminding me I was talented and made for something amazing... I was a sponge as a kid, so took everything in, I was very observant. I wasn’t a big talker. So, I just absorbed everything she said and applied it to the craft.”

Yousef’s first major role was in Fox’s Tyrant a TV series filmed in Budapest. His overseas filming continued with a role in Sky’s Strike Back, and he’s also had great success in children’s TV shows in the UK with the Tracy Beaker spin-off on CBBC, The Dumping Ground, which he filmed across several years, and as Saleem Paracha in Channel 4’s Ackley Bridge. He’s also appeared in the BBC shows, Casualty and Doctors.

“I wouldn’t have had these opportunities if Articulate wasn’t in Bradford. Articulate is why I’m here today, especially as a young Asian lad,” he says. “It’s very easy to get sucked into the same crowd that many of my friends unfortunately find themselves in. They find themselves without realising going down a rabbit hole – drugs, crime - they can’t really get out of. Articulate has played the biggest part in my success, in getting to where I am now.”

Bradford author AA Dhand adapted the six-part series, Virdee, based on his best-selling novels, for the screen, which delves into a darker side of the city and crime gangs. Yousef says: “My role in Virdee was very emotive. It tested me in many ways.

"I play a great character, who is born and raised in Bradford. He has his struggles; the character I was playing was so similar to people I know of where I’m from. It put me straight back into my roots. He’s the person I had always tried to avoid becoming.”

Despite enjoying studying marketing at university, Yousef says acting ‘has and always will be’ his main focus. “Acting gives me insight,” he says. “With acting, I get to experience so much more than I would have in my own life. When I act, I take on a character, their life, their problems, their issues, their mindset, and it makes me more of an understanding person…Acting gives me so much more knowledge of myself that I didn’t even know, places I can go into trying to be a character, emotions I can tap into that I didn’t know I had. I think that’s the best thing about acting.”