Before starring alongside David Tennant in hit drama Rivals, Lisa McGrillis spent years living, studying and trying to forge an acting career in the North East.
Long before she was winning over viewers as Valerie Jones in the hit Disney Plus series, Lisa McGrillis studied at Northumbria University before taking on everything from local television adverts to theatre-in-education tours to launch her career.
McGrillis moved from Cheltenham to Scotby, near Carlisle, as a child and attended Trinity School before studying performing arts at Northumbria University.
Her interest in acting began after a school trip to Newcastle’s Northern Stage, she told The Independent.
Lisa, 44, added: “I remember thinking, ‘Gosh, people actually do this for a job?’ How cool.”
After completing her performing arts degree, she stayed in Newcastle for several years while trying to establish herself as an actor, picking up a series of small jobs, local adverts and performances in schools.
She worked at a murder mystery event in a Newcastle hotel and once stood outside a city-centre cinema in a Pingu costume while hungover.
McGrillis told the Independent: “I was, like, ‘Is this my life? Is this what those years running up huge debts at university has got me?'”
She also worked in theatre education, travelling between North East schools to perform for pupils on subjects including ambition and sex education.
Before her big break, McGrillis worked at a murder mystery event in a Newcastle hotel and once stood outside a city-centre cinema in a Pingu costume while hungover. (Image: IAN WEST/PA Wire)
In a 2022 interview with the Sunday Post, McGrillis said: “I did really terrible local TV adverts in Newcastle for about £50, and I did murder mystery parties.
“I remember my agent at the time taking 12 per cent commission from the £80 I was paid for a murder mystery night.
“But every job has been a little break, a little step up the ladder.”
McGrillis’ career breakthrough came when she joined the cast of The Pitmen Painters, created by Northumberland-born playwright and Billy Elliot writer Lee Hall.
The play is based on the Ashington Group of painters, a collection of Northumberland miners in the 1930s who learned to paint, and opened at Newcastle’s Live Theatre in 2007.
A sold-out run and critical acclaim followed, with the play moving to the West End, and later Broadway.
The 44-year-old actress has called the play the breakthrough that changed her career and made her US theatre debut as an original Broadway cast member.
McGrillis was also know before rivals to North East television viewers for her role in the 2012 Gateshead-set BBC sitcom, Hebburn.
Created by Jason Cook, the comedy was set in the South Tyneside town of Hebburn, and starred South Shields comedian Chris Ramsey alongside Kimberley Nixon and Darlington-born comedian Vic Reeves.
Lisa played Chris Ramsey’s sister, Vicki, appearing in 13 episodes over the show‘s two series.
She also played WPC Rachel Coles in the North East-set BBC crime drama Inspector George Gently, later reaching a national audience in shows including Mum and Sex Education, before taking the role of Valerie Jones in Rivals, based on Jilly Cooper’s novel.
With Disney Plus confirming Rivals will return for a third series in 2027, McGrillis’s career is still going from strength to strength.
But her rise began in the North East, where the performing arts graduate stayed after university and spent years chasing the break that changed her life.
As she told Channel 4 in 2018, Newcastle remains one of the few cities outside London where she could imagine living, a fitting tribute to the place where her acting career truly took off.
