At just 20 years old, Amelia Gething has landed her first ever show on CBBC and has a total of 950,000 followers on Instagram and YouTube alone, impressive right? Well, the actress, who has been likened to Anne Hathaway, also has a remarkable following of seven million on lip-synching app Musicaly.ly, where she began her career and made a name for herself. Amelia's comedy sketches, song covers and dance routines earned her a huge cult following on YouTube with 500,000 loyal subscribers. Now the actress has turned her attention to the exciting launch of her new CBBC show The Amelia Gething Complex, which will air in autumn 2019.
HELLO! spoke exclusively to the up-and-coming star about her path to success and where she hopes the journey will take her.
The Amelia Gething Complex will air in autumn 2019
The start of her career
The comedy actress started her Musical.ly account at the age of 17. Inspired by comedy groups like The Mighty Boosh and Monty Python, she began making comedy sketches of her own and posting them online. Amelia told HELLO!: "When I was just doing Musical.ly, it was purely just for fun, and I started to get followers from there really unexpectedly and obviously I was really happy about that, so I started to use it to start a career with." The young star explained her rise to fame "happened by accident really" as she was unaware of the progression her career would take at such a young age. The successful Musical.ly star then tried her hand at creating YouTube content as an opportunity to break into comedy, creating her channel in 2016. "At school we usually did serious stuff and I only really did comedy online as when you do YouTube videos… it's usually quite light-hearted and fun," she said.
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The goal
With her success rising, the BBC came across her content on YouTube and asked for a meeting to discuss how they could expand her sketches into something bigger, commissioning a pilot for a show. Amelia explained: "We did a pilot and it was really fun and really cool, the BBC decided they liked it too, and now we have a series!" Despite this incredible opportunity, it seems the actress is only just beginning her rise to success, and she has huge ambitions. "My main goal for life is to do acting, and so in a few years I would love to be in a programme or a film," she said. "I just think that would be really, really cool and doing something that is not necessarily comedy - I really love dark and edgy films. I would love to do more serious acting in the future."
The BBC found the star on YouTube
Family influence
Most families would be taken aback by the quick success story, but Amelia explained that there was little shock amongst her family as they, like her, love to perform. "Literally every single person in my family was born to be on stage, it's crazy!" the 20-year-old explained. "My mum is just a natural and my dad was in a band when he was younger, my grandad is still in a band now, he dresses up like the Grim Reaper and dances around the stage playing the banjo - my grandad is very eccentric!" We can only imagine what a Gething party would look like!
Amelia is often told she looks like Anne Hathaway
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Being Anne Hathaway's doppelganger
The social media star who appreciates the work of Helena Bonham Carter, Johnny Depp and Sarah Paulson is often compared to The Princess Diaries actress Anne Hathaway. Amelia revealed: "I literally see comments on my videos and photos every single day of people telling me I look like Anne Hathaway - I actually didn't see it until probably a year ago."
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