Mia McKenna-Bruce: Bafta Rising Star nomination for Kent actor

The EE Rising Star award has been running since 2005

An actor from Kent has been nominated for the Rising Star Award at the EE Baftas.

Mia McKenna-Bruce, 26, who grew up in Kent, received the nomination for her role as Tara in Molly Manning Walker's How to Have Sex.

Ms McKenna-Bruce said she was "slightly petrified, in the best way" ahead of the Baftas this Sunday.

She was nominated alongside four other actors: Phoebe Dynevor, Ayo Edebiri, Jacob Elordi and Sophie Wilde.

The Rising Star award is the only prize to be nominated by the public and has been running since 2005.

Previous winners of the award include Daniel Kaluuya and Kristen Stewart.

'Means so much'

Ms McKenna-Bruce said it was a "dream come true" to have been nominated for a film that "means so much" to her.

The actor plays Tara in How to Have Sex, a coming-of-age drama about sexual consent set during a post-GCSEs holiday in Malia.

Ms McKenna-Bruce said it was an important film "for young people in particular who are at this point in their lives of self-discovery".

The film has been discussed in schools by pupils of GCSE age

McKenna Bruce said: "There's a kind of expectation that you should just know what to do when it comes to losing your virginity or talking about consent, then you're just left to figure it out on your own."

The actor said she hoped the film would give young people "the tools and the language to have this discussion around consent," adding that she herself "never had those conversations in school".

Since the film, writer and director Molly Manning Walker has discussed consent in schools with sixth form pupils.

Follow BBC South East on Facebook, on X, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to [e-mail].