BAFTA star Mia McKenna-Bruce’s rise from EastEnders & Tracy Beaker roles to returning to work 6 weeks after horror birth
SHE’S been on TV since the age of 11, but last night Mia McKenna-Bruce cemented her status as a household name.
The Kent-born actress, 26, scooped the EE BAFTA Rising Star gong for her role in How to Have Sex – beating her arguably more high profile fellow nominees, Bridgerton‘s Phoebe Dynevor and Saltburn actor Jacob Elordi.
The BAFTA red carpet – and rubbing shoulders with Prince William – is a long way from where she started, with a cameo on EastEnders and a part in the kids TV series Tracy Beaker.
Even her family didn’t expect her to win, with her younger sister openly admitting she was going to vote for Saltburn’s Jacob when she heard he was nominated.
Mia has been juggling her newfound fame with motherhood, having welcomed son Leo with her fiancé Tom Leach last year.
She returned to work just six weeks after a traumatic birth to promote How to Have Sex, a coming of age drama about a teenager who was raped on a boozy girls’ holiday to Crete.
Talking about her character, Tara, coming to terms with the assault, Mia told The Guardian: “It’s her first time. She’s questioning if that’s how it’s supposed to be. If she did something wrong. Is it on her? She’s got nothing to compare it with.
“And often, your first time, because it’s such a minefield, doesn’t feel that great. But without experience or people to turn to, it’s so hard to know. I hope this film can be a reference point.”
Mia’s first big role came in 2008, aged 11, when she landed the part of Penny Branning – Jack Branning’s daughter, who was left wheelchair bound after an accident – on EastEnders.
She only appeared for five episodes, but it helped launch her career and two years later she starred as Tee Taylor in Tracy Beaker Returns, then played the same character in The Dumping Ground until 2018.
Mia had decided she wanted to act from age six, after a phone call with Hollywood director James Cameron – or so she thought.
She told how she was so “traumatised” after watching Titanic at home that she couldn’t sleep – so her mum got the ‘director’ to call her up and explain it was just a film.
“I was honestly distraught,” she explained. “He explained to me about actors, costume, make-up, scripts, and loads of other things that come along with making TV and film and convinced me that what I watched wasn’t real.
“I found this so amazing and thought I want to do that, that’s a real job!”
She later discovered the man on the end of the line was her grandfather, but it set her on a course that would change her life forever.
Despite working on sets from a young age, Mia struggled with anxiety as she got older and almost quit acting altogether.
She even dropped her agent and took a job in a call centre after deciding she was done with it.
She said previously: “Why am I doing this to myself? Before auditions, I would get myself in such a state I would think, why am I putting myself through it?
“The actual audition would be fine – I would be in there and I would be loving it – but I would come out and have a panic attack because of how much I had worked myself up before.”
Before auditions, I would get myself in such a state I would think, why am I putting myself through it… I would come out and have a panic attack because of how much I had worked myself up before
Mia McKenna-Bruce
It led to her taking a break from the industry to go travelling in Australia – initially for three weeks, but it ended up being seven months.
Mia told The Cut: “Stepping out of acting, I think, was the best thing I could have done, because it made me realise how much I loved it and why I loved it.”
When she got back she hit the ground running, picking up a role in The Witcher, as Marilka, then in Persuasion as Mary Musgrove.
She then landed her breakout role in How To Have Sex, for which she also won Best Lead Performance at the British Independent Film Awards last year.
Surprise pregnancy
In February 2022, Mia got engaged to actor-turned-entrepreneur Tom Leach, and the couple – who had been together for eight years – welcomed son Leo in August last year.
She admitted she fell pregnant a lot quicker than she’d expected, telling Giovanna Fletcher‘s Happy Mum, Happy Baby podcast: “I thought it would be a lot later in life for me because of acting… It was brilliant though because I had to take the time out.
“I didn’t have to think about it. Well, it’s happening so I have to.
“Somehow, by some weird twist of fate it aligned perfectly with all the press for How To Have Sex, so I’ve kind of been working without having to play a character.”
But the birth was anything but straightforward, dragging on for a traumatic three days which included 25 hours of active delivery.
Mia was eventually induced and had a forceps delivery.
Speaking about the birth, Mia said: “I was being violently sick. I couldn’t keep anything down.
I was being violently sick. I couldn’t keep anything down
Mia McKenna-Brown
“The contractions had stopped, and then I was petrified, that, well, I’d dilated to a point, was I going to go back.”
Speaking about her first few weeks of motherhood, Mia said: “I was like, how do people do this, how on earth do they do this. By that point, I was on another planet.”
But she was back in work just six weeks later, and admitted it was “the best thing she could have done”.
She told Variety: “I did really struggle at first because I couldn’t wrap my head around having any kind of life.
“But then I went back to doing press six weeks after [I gave birth] and it was the best thing I could have done, because I was like, ‘Oh my God, I can still keep doing this thing that I love and also have my baby that I love, all at the same time’.
“I’m quite a chaotic person anyway. So for me, this sort of chaos really works… I’m getting to do all this exciting stuff, and then going home and being puked on.”
Mia has had plenty of practice thanks to her two sisters, who are five and 10 years younger. She said she loved being a big sister and went out of her “way to be mumsy towards them”.
Two months after the birth, she penned an open letter to her son in Net-A-Porter.
She wrote: “Becoming your mum has unlocked a whole new part of me. I have discovered an inner superhero: pregnancy, labour, and the aftermath are relentless, but we did it.
“And for you, I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Amidst all the chaos and cuddles, I have found pure joy, deeper than any adventure I’ve known.”
She admitted for the first time in her life, acting is no longer the be-all and end all, telling The Guardian: “It’s no longer the priority. It’s also nice to get out of the house, to be honest.”
‘Girls on holiday nicked our props’
Standing at just 4ft 9in tall with youthful looks, Mia is often cast in younger roles, so How To Have Sex is a marked departure for her.
It was filmed in Malia, Crete, where the film is set, and Mia told how it led to some amusing encounters with teenagers on their ‘rite of passage’ holidays.
“We filmed mostly out of season, but there was a slight overlap,” she told The Cut.
“It was really funny because we were in the chip shop, and these girls that were on a night out came into the chip shop and were trying to eat the chips. We were like, ‘They’re not for sale, they’re props.’
It was really funny because we were in the chip shop, and these girls that were on a night out came into the chip shop and were trying to eat the chips. We were like, ‘They’re not for sale, they’re props’
Mia McKenna-Brown
“We just let them crack on with it, but I can only imagine them waking up the next morning and being like, ‘What the …?’
“You know when you have those memories come back to you after a night out? But then one of the girls did message me on Instagram and was like, ‘Were you shooting a film!?’ I’d love to know if they’ve seen it.”
Despite the awards, the thing Mia is most proud of is how many people the film has spoken to.
“I was expecting it to be a film that mostly spoke to teenagers, but there have already been so many people – teenagers, others my age, and generations above – who’ve opened up about having similar experiences to the ones in the film,” she said.
“Lots of them, especially older women, saying they’d never really dealt with the emotions or even realised it had affected them.”