Life is pretty surreal for Bel Priestley. “Three years ago I was a cleaner who had no friends or clue what I was going to do,” she says while sitting on a white Ligne Roset sofa in the office of her new management company. Now, the 20-year-old is about to make her acting debut in one of the biggest Netflix shows from last year, a feat which her 1.2 million TikTok followers (which she accumulated in just over a year) are feverishly awaiting.
Created by Alice Oseman after originally starting life as a Tumblr webcomic, Heartstopper was one of Netflix’s 2022 breakout hits. Fans spent over 53 million hours watching the series within its first three weeks, giving it a perfect 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. But if you somehow haven’t watched the uplifting LGBTQ+ coming-of-age drama, then you’ll almost definitely recognise the cast members — Yasmin Finney, Kit Connor and Joe Locke — from the covers of Vogue, GQ and ES magazine. Simply put, Priestley’s starring role in the upcoming second series is about to change her life immeasurably.
