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Rose Ayling-Ellis attends The Stage Debut Awards 2023 at 8 Northumberland Avenue on October 1, 2023 in London© Dave Benett

Rose Ayling-Ellis makes dramatic hair transformation as she celebrates huge career achievement

The 28-year-old actress won an award on Sunday

Nicky Morris
TV and film writer
October 2, 2023
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Rose Ayling-Ellis underwent a dramatic hair transformation on Sunday night ahead of celebrating a huge career achievement. 

The former Strictly winner chopped off her signature long locks in favour of a shorter hairstyle before attending The Stage Debut Awards, where she picked up the gong for Best West End Debut for her performance in Shakespeare's As You Like It. Congrats Rose!

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Showing off her brand new look, the 28-year-old reshared a post from celebrity hairstylist Ricky Walters, who worked his magic on her blonde tresses ahead of ceremony.

Ricky wrote in the caption: "Sundays with @rose.a.e! Haircut and styled for The Stage Debut Awards."

Fans rushed to the comments section to praise Rose's stunning new look, with one person writing: "You look stunning, @rose.a.e !!!!" while another simply added: "Gorgeous."

Rose Ayling-Ellis holding the award for Best West End Debut at The Stage Debut Awards© Rose Ayling Ellis/Instagram
Rose Ayling-Ellis won the award for Best West End Debut at The Stage Debut Awards

A third fan congratulated the star on her achievement, commenting: "So beautiful. Congratulations. Rose won. So happy."

Rose marked her big win by taking to her Instagram Stories. Sharing a photo from the ceremony that showed the actress holding her award, she wrote in the caption: "Wow I did not see this coming!! Thank you so much!"

The awards ceremony, which took place at 8 Northumberland Avenue in London, celebrates breakthrough theatre talent from the past year and recognises outstanding professional debuts.

rose ayling ellis as you like it shakespeare west end production© Photo: Getty Images
Rose Ayling-Ellis performed in Shakespeare's As You Like It in the West End

Rose first took to the stage in As You Like It in December last year. The production, which was directed by the Olivier Award-nominated Josie Rourke and ran until January, saw Rose and other members of the cast use BSL as part of the performance.

ROSE AND GIOVANNI: The sweetest things they have said about each other

MORE: Strictly Come Dancing Week Two: Layton Williams steals the show with first nines of the competition

During the show's run, Rose took to Instagram to reveal an upsetting incident that occurred during one of the performances in January. 

Giovanni Pernice and Rose Ayling-Ellis lift Strictly glitterball© BBC
Rose Ayling-Ellis won Strictly Come Dancing with Giovanni Pernice in 2021

Rose, who is a proud member of the deaf community, explained that a member of the audience interrupted her production with an "entitled rant" accusing the cast of "discriminating against hearing people".  

"During the matinee yesterday, an angry man in the audience interrupted the show with an entitled rant screaming that we were 'discriminating against hearing people!'," she wrote on Instagram. "He was looking at me directly. It was shocking.

WATCH: Strictly's Rose Ayling-Ellis supported by fans after discriminatory rant

"The video is the reaction when we got back on the stage after he was kicked off. We picked up from Touchstone's line, 'The more pity that fools may not speak wisely what wise men do foolishly'.

She went on to explain that a little girl, who was deaf, sat in the front row with her parents, who were signing to her. "Deaf members of the audience are able to sit wherever they want and whenever they want. Hearing people reading the captions, laughing and reacting to our signing on stage, coming into our world and understanding Shakespeare because of this," she continued. "Two days ago, we had a BSL performance show, and 106 deaf people [turned] up. This is why we do accessible theatre."

Every Strictly Come Dancing winner so far

Rose and Giovanni with the Glitterball in 2021
Rose and Giovanni lifted the Glitterball in 2021
  • 2004: Natisha Kaplinsky (partner Brendan Cole)
  • 2004: Jill Halfpenny (partner Darren Bennett) 
  • 2005: Darren Gough (partner Lilia Kopylova) 
  • 2006: Mark Ramprakash (partner Karen Hardy) 
  • 2007: Alesha Dixon (partner Matthew Cutler) 
  • 2008: Tom Chambers (partner Camilla Dallerup) 
  • 2009: Chris Hollins (partner Ola Jordan) 
  • 2010: Kara Tointon (partner Artem Chigvintsev) 
  • 2011: Harry Judd (partner Aliona Vilani)
  • 2012: Louis Smith (partner Flavia Cacace)
  • 2013: Abbey Clancy (partner Aljaž Škorjanec) 
  • 2014: Caroline Flack (partner Pasha Kovalev) 
  • 2015: Jay McGuiness (partner Aliona Vilani) 
  • 2016: Ore Oduba (partner Joanne Clifton) 
  • 2017: Joe McFadden (partner Katya Jones)
  • 2018: Stacey Dooley (partner Kevin Clifton)
  • 2019: Kelvin Fletcher (partner Oti Mabuse)
  • 2020: Bill Bailey (partner Oti Mabuse) 
  • 2021: Rose Ayling-Ellis (partner Giovanni Pernice) 
  • 2022: Hamza Yassin (partner Jowita Przystał)
  • 2023: Ellie Leach (partner Vito Coppola)

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