9 Roles You'd Completely Forgotten That Strictly Star Layton Williams Once Played

Here's where you might have seen the Strictly Come Dancing favourite before the BBC ballroom show came calling.
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Layton Williams on the Strictly dance floor
BBC/Guy Levy

You probably know him as one of the stand-out competitors on this year’s Strictly Come Dancing, but Layton Williams has long been a regular on both stage and screen, having already amassed an impressive CV.

So far, the actor’s biggest roles have been as the sassy Stephen Carmichael in BBC Three’s comedy Bad Education, and as the titular Jamie New in stage smash Everybody’s Talking About Jamie.

But as well as his most prolific performances, Layton has also starred in other lead roles in West End productions, made appearances in beloved sitcoms and even done double duty in Baltimore.

Here are nine roles you forgot that Layton Williams once played…

Billy Elliot

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Layton Williams in Billy Elliot
Dave M. Benett via Getty Images

For Layton’s West End debut, he starred as the lead in Billy Elliot at London’s Victoria Palace Theatre, between 2007 and 2008.

Layton’s performance in the coming-of-age musical as its titular boxer-turned-ballet-dancer started his path to stardom – and he was still a teenager at the time.

Beautiful People

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Layton Williams and Luke Ward-Wilkinson in Beautiful People
BBC

Co-starring with future Oscar winner Olivia Colman at the age of 14? Sounds like an icon to us.

Layton starred in the two-series sitcom Beautiful People as Kyle (nicknamed Kylie due to his love of the iconic Australian singer) Parkinson.

The show focuses on a recounted version of Kyle and his best friend Simon’s childhoods in Reading in 1997, and their dreams of one day moving to London, to be among “the beautiful people”.

Rent

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Layton as Angel in Rent in 2016
John Snelling via Getty Images

Years before Everybody’s Talking About Jamie came calling, Layton took on another iconic stage role when he began playing Angel in a touring production of Rent.

Layton won huge acclaim for his performance as Angel – a character who has previously been played by legends like Pose’s MJ Rodriguez,  and RuPaul’s Drag Race’s Valentina – between 2016 and 2017.

Hairspray

In 2016, Layton starred as Duane, a minor character, in the UK national tour of Hairspray.

On the tour, he also served as the understudy for Seaweed J. Stubbs, one of the musical’s principle roles.

And all of that hard work clearly  paid off, because the following year, Layton stepped into the role of Seaweed when he returned to the tour.

Benidorm

The final episode of the long-running ITV sitcom featured none other than Layton as Larry, the airport check-in guy.

During the episode, Layton delivers a moving speech about life and love to the late John Challis’ character as he’s stuck at the airport on the way to Benidorm due to a strike.

We know – it’s not the hugest role in the world. But we bet you’d forgotten all about it until now, right?

The Cleaner

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Greg Davies and Layton Williams in The Cleaner
BBC

A BBC sitcom that followed Greg Davies as a professional crime scene cleaning technician, The Cleaner featured an episode in which Layton Williams starred as a young social media influencer, Hosea.

Greg’s character Wicky is called to Hosea’s den to clean up a gruesome murder (and then, in a bid to boost Hosea’s faltering follower count, Wicky is called on to recreate it all over again).

I Hate Suzie Too

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Layton in I Hate Suzie Too
Sky

Layton appeared in the ever-so-stressful second season of the comedy drama I Hate Suzie, which was created by Billie Piper.

Though the season was made up of just three episodes, Layton appeared in all of them as Adam Jackson, the stylish and flamboyant host of Suzie’s new in-show-show, Dance Crazee. 

Queens For The Night

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Layton Williams, Melanie C, Rob Beckett and Courtney Act
ITV

Layton quite literally served on the judging panel for ITV’s one-off celebrity drag competition Queens For The Night.

The show saw male celebrities being paired up with a drag queen mentor in order to impress the judges by putting their drag skills to the test.

Along with Layton, the judges included Spice Girls singer Melanie C, Drag Race finalist Courtney Act and, for some reason, comedian Rob Beckett.

I Kissed A Boy

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I Kissed A Boy
James Stack/BBC/Two Four/iStock

I Kissed A Boy caused lots of conversation when it began last year, as viewers quickly began gripped by all of the action from the Italian masseria.

The UK’s first gay dating reality show featured Dannii Minogue as its host – but what you might not have realised was that it also had a famous narrator in Layton.

Next year, the show is being revived with its own sapphic spinoff, I Kissed A Girl – although Layton has confirmed he won’t be returning.

“I will not be voicing that one because I’m not a lesbian,” he explained. “But I just want to say I’m so proud to have been part of this beautiful show.”

It’s unclear whether he’ll be back if a second season of I Kissed A Boy should ever transpire in the future.