He played a horse, a caterpillar and a turtle on stage before Fleabagging the TV role that gave him his big break.
Now drama school reject Jamie Demetriou looks like turning into a creature of habit when it comes to picking up BAFTA awards.
At tonight’s ceremony, Jamie, 34, is tipped to nab the gong for Male Performance in a Comedy Programme as well as Best Scripted Comedy for his hit Channel 4 show, Stath Lets Flats.
They could go on the mantelpiece along with the three awards he won in 2020. His talented sister Natasia, 38, is also up for a gong for her role in Stath.
Today, the man who taught Jamie drama at London’s Chickenshed theatre company reckons he was always destined for stardom.
Jonny Morton said: “I was surprised he didn’t get into a big drama school. He was good enough. It’s only through his own hard graft he has achieved so much. He’s made his own luck.”
Part of that luck was landing the role of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s buck-toothed boyfriend Bus Rodent in TV hit Fleabag in 2016.
But Jonny spotted Jamie’s talent when he was just 10, and played Boxer the horse in a musical adaptation of Animal Farm.
“He sang this emotional song with the most incredible voice and it really moved me,” said Jonny. “He had something special.”
Jamie went to North Finchley’s Compton School where his drama teacher Zoe Garritt recalls: “Acting came naturally to him. He was a standout student.”
When Jamie did a BTEC at Chickenshed, Jonny recalls being in hysterics when he played a caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland in 2005. “He had a hard time with 15 of them playing the role. But he was brilliant.” The versatile actor also had to had to play the Mock Turtle and the Queen of Hearts as an understudy.
Jamie went on to Bristol university to study theatre, film and TV. It was there Prof Alex Clayton saw how his Greek Cypriot family influenced his comedy – which later blossomed into Stath Lets Flats, where he plays the bungling son of a landlord.
Alex said: “He’d often talk about his family, and Natasia was a big influence. For his final project, he did a piece about his Cypriot background and started the show by giving the audience kebabs.
“Everyone sat with a kebab on their lap, not really wanting to eat it, but I think that was part of the point.”
Alex also said Jamie was “a risk taker”: “He likes winding people up. But he is also a very warm soul.”
Jamie has previously told how his heroes are Sacha Baron Cohen, Steve Coogan and his dad Sotiris, 82.
After uni, he landed parts in Scrotal Recall, Drunk History, Tracey Ullman’s Show then Fleabag. In 2019, he was nominated for two BAFTAs for Stath Lets Flats then in 2020, he won Best Writer: Comedy; Male Performance in a Comedy Programme and Best Scripted Comedy.
Teacher Jonny will be hoping Jamie is a winner again at tonight’s BAFTAs.
“At Chickenshed, we are proud of him and Natasia,” he said. “The two of them will take over the world.”
- The Virgin Media TV BAFTA Awards are on BBC One from 6pm. Coverage will be streamed on YouTube and Facebook from 2pm.
