Nominees have been announced for the annual Ian Charleson Awards 2025.
The annual awards go to the best performances by actors under 30 in a classical role, in work written before 1918.
The Ian Charleson awards honour acclaimed British actor Ian Charleson, who died of AIDS in 1990 aged 40.
The judges of this year’s awards are: actor Fisayo Akinade (Heartstopper); Head of casting at the National Theatre, Alastair Coomer; Deputy artistic director of the National Theatre, Robert Hastie; and casting director Hannah Miller.
The winners will be announced in London this spring 2025. The Sunday Times first announced the nominations.
Last year’s Ian Charleson Awards went to Francesca Mills, who starred as Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Shakespeare’s Globe, and has also been nominated this year for The Duchess of Malfi; with Second Prize to Toheeb Jimoh for Romeo and Juliet at the Almeida Theatre; and Third Prize to Joseph Payne in The Tempest at the RSC and Macbeth at Shakespeare’s Globe.
Past winners of the Ian Charleson Awards include Paapa Essiedu, Rebecca Hall, Rory Kinnear, David Oyelowo, Cush Jumbo and Tom Hollander.
Ian Charleson Awards 2025 – Nominees
Francesca Amewudah-Rivers, 26 – Romeo and Juliet, Duke of York’s
Melanie-Joyce Bermudez, 24 – Love’s Labour’s Lost, RSC
Ralph Davis, 28 – Othello, Shakespeare’s Globe
Tom Glenister, 28 – A Doll’s House, The Crucible, Sheffield
Madeleine Gray, 29 – Uncle Vanya, Orange Tree Theatre
Éanna Hardwicke, 27 – The Cherry Orchard, Donmar Warehouse
Oli Higginson, 29 – Othello, Shakespeare’s Globe
Nadeem Islam, 27 – Antony and Cleopatra, Shakespeare’s Globe
Siena Kelly, 28 – A Doll’s House, The Crucible, Sheffield
Francesca Mills, 27 – The Duchess of Malfi, Shakespeare’s Globe
Daniel Quinn-Toye, 21 – Romeo and Juliet, Duke of York’s
Andrew Richardson, 28 – Uncle Vanya, Orange Tree Theatre / A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Barbican
Rumi Sutton, 24 – The Importance of Being Earnest, Royal Exchange
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