Lenny Rush, the youngest ever presenter on BBC’s Children in Need coverage, returns to the role tonight for a packed evening of fun and fundraising.
The 15-year-old actor has starred in Doctor Who and Am I Being Unreasonable? the Daisy May Cooper comedy show, for which he won a BAFTA in 2023.
He first appeared on the 2022 edition of BBC Children in Need in a sketch spoofing The Office, where he played the supervisor to a call centre full of misbehaving celebrities including Peter Andre, Mo Farah, Jonathan Bailey (then fresh off his role as a romantic lead in Bridgerton) and a chaotic Mr Blobby.
In 2023, he joined the presenting team for the fund-raising show. “It’s an honour and a thrill to be the first child presenter for Children in Need,” he told the BBC. This year he has re-joined the line-up of presenters, including Ade Adepitan, Mel Giedroyc, Rochelle Humes, Vernon Kay, and Chris Ramsey.
His first on-camera appearance was in 2017, for the CBeebies documentary Our Family. He went on to play roles in CBeebies Apple Tree House and The Dumping Ground on CBBC.
He starred as Tiny Tim in the 2017 and 2018 production of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol on stage at London’s Old Vic, reprising the role in a televised version in 2019, directed by Steven Knight.
Having won a series regular role as The Sweeper on BBC show Dodger alongside Christopher Eccleston, his role was expanded to create the character of Morgon. The show won a BAFTA in 2022. He also had a bit part as a newspaper boy in Netflix show Enola Holmes 2.
His best-known role was playing Ollie opposite Daisy May Cooper in her 2022 show, Am I Being Unreasonable? Rush won effusive praise for his acting and improvisation skills – and the BAFTA for Male Performance in a Comedy Programme. He also took home the Breakthrough Award and Best Comedy Performance (Male) at the Royal Television Society Programme Awards.
He has also starred alongside Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor in the 14th season of the long-running show, which aired earlier this year. Having first been cast as the voice of Eric in the Doctor Who episode Space Babies earlier this year, he was given the role of Morris Gibbons, a scientific advisor for UNIT, the in-show universe’s military organisation.
Rush has spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita, a rare bone growth disorder that results in dwarfism, and spent the first four months of his life in hospital. The actor is a disabilty advocate and is vocal about representation in television and film.
“Disability or not, I think anyone can play a role,” he said on Good Morning Britain. “It’s good for people with disabilities to have the same opportunities that other people do, because why not?”
