Waterloo Road: Otley actress Lucy Chambers on playing Cat Guthrie in BBC show

“I've just always loved the spotlight and I've always been a drama queen, so I think they saw that and thought, ‘She needs to go to drama class’.”

She was about seven when she signed up with Articulate Agency, a casting and drama school business based in West Yorkshire.

And having starred in a number of smaller roles over the years, she can now been seen on television sets across the country as part of the cast of Waterloo Road.

Lucy was introduced as new character Cat Guthrie in episode three of the latest, 15th series of the show, which is based in a high school.

"I started (filming) in March last year and, yeah, it's been amazing,” says Lucy. “It's a really warm environment to work in and it's really lovely.

"I've been put forward for roles in Waterloo Road for a while now and every time I got really close, but then just missed out in the last hurdle. So when I got the self tape through for Cat, I had a good feeling about it, and Stacey, my agent, said the same. So I did the self tape and then went to the recall, and it went really well. And then Stacey actually came to my house to tell me the good news – it was just an amazing feeling.”

It helped that she so liked the character she would be playing.

"Cat is cool, she's confident and she's also not afraid of confrontation. She's sporty and she has a strong sense of self-confidence, which I really admire. She's got a very strong moral compass and she also caresa lot for her family and friends, especially her sister, Libby.”

Acting takes not just talent but persistence – and Lucy has an extra quality which has helped her win roles.

“I always just found it really exciting, because I've always been very competitive," she says. “I did competitive gymnastics, so when I started doing auditions, I just saw them as competitions. I wanted to beat the competition. So I found it really enjoyable.”

But she adds: “It's definitely a really challenging industry and it took me many years of lots of auditioning to get anywhere, really, but with support of Articulate, it's just been really positive. And I found the whole experience really positive - even if I didn't get jobs, I just thought, Okay, on to the next one.”

Two actors she would love to work with are Jodie Cromer, of Killing Eve fame, and Beverley-born Anna Maxwell Martin.

"I thought her performance in Motherland, as well as Until I Kill You, were just absolutely amazing. She's such a versatile, talented actress,” says Lucy.

Acting runs in the family as her mother, Laurel, also had small roles in The League of Gentleman, The Royal and Kay Mellor’s Fat Friends.

“She's a great help when I'm doing my self-tapes (audition videos). She always reads in for me and she also chaperones me a lot when I'm working,” says Lucy, who goes to Manchester for Waterloo Road filming.

She is also daughter to recently retired University of Leeds professor Gary Chambers and sister to Emma, 14.

Lucy, who attended Articulate’s class in Ilkley on Saturdays for 10 years, is also due to appear in a major new the Amazon Prime Video series starring Hollywood names later this year – but she can’t say too much about it right now.

Previous roles include Chole Tuckman on the ITV series Viewpoint and she had a regular role in season two of the CBBC sci-fi drama, Silverpoint.

Waterloo Road, which is set in a comprehensive school, first aired in 2006, and is known for tackling social issues alongside the lives of its teachers and pupils.

The series has helped build the acting careers of young talent, but has also cast well-known actors such asincluding Angela Griffin, Jill Halfpenny, Denise Welch, Amanda Burton, Jason Manford, and Neil Morrissey.

Stacey Burrows, founder of Articulate, says: “Waterloo Road is a seminal British TV series that has seen some remarkable actors and household names appear over the years.

"It is a brilliant platform for Lucy to continue to develop and grow as an actor. At Articulate, we are incredibly proud of her achievements to date, and the exciting roles still to be announced for Lucy.”

The teenager – who is also studying for her A-levels in politics and Spanish at Prince Henry’s Grammar School sixth form in Otley – is one of many young actors from Articulate Agency to have landed a major TV role.

Founded in 2013, Articulate has grown a reputation for casting children and young acting talent. It also runs established acting schools across the Yorkshire region.

Other recent successes from the agency include Bradford teenager Yousef Naseer in the BBC drama Virdee, which was filmed and is set in the the city, child star Matilda Firth, from Leeds, in the Universal movie Wolf Man, and Halifax’s Billy Hickey in the recent Netflix drama Black Doves.

Its talent star across 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.

As for Lucy, she’s pretty clear about what she wants. “I'd love to pursue acting all my life,” she says. “I'd love to just do as many different forms as I can. I'd love to do theatre, like straight plays, musicals, films, TV programmes. I just want to do it all.”

Waterloo Road airs on Tuesdays at 9pm on BBC One and all episodes are on iPlayer.