THE National Youth Theatre has been a springboard for professional actors and actresses including Daniel Craig, Daniel Day-Lewis, Idris Elba, Colin Firth, Helen Mirren, Kate Winslet and Aberystwyth’s own Gwyneth Keyworth.

With auditions for the company taking place in the seaside town next week (22 and 23 February), Gwyneth has been sharing her memories of the company - and the career it spawned - with the Cambrian News.

The 27-year-old, who is best known for her roles in Misfits and The Great Outdoors, and who can be seen in current S4C drama series, Craith, joined the National Youth Theatre in 2006.

“I was 15,” she recalls. “I took part in their two-week summer course and then went on to perform in their 50th birthday celebrations at Trafalgar Square that year.

“I wasn’t the most confident academically and with my GCSE’s looming I knew I wasn’t about to become an astrophysicist, but I had gotten into acting locally.

“I’d always been encouraged to try for NYT by Buddug James-Jones, director of Theatr Licris Olsorts, and after she died, in memory of her, I decided to give it a go.

“I loved my time with NYT. It was quite literally a life-changer to meet so many different people with wildly differing life experiences to my own, and although I cried with nerves the entire journey to London before starting my course, the time I spent within the company nurtured my sense of self, and confidence, exponentially.”

She added: “I wouldn’t be doing what I am now without the opportunities NYT provided. It was while performing in Sick Room in 2008, a comedy sketch show about the NHS where I played - amongst other things - a Whitney Houston-singing virus, that I was approached by my agent. So began my career.

“I also made life-long friends whilst performing and I regularly work with people I met during my time as a member of NYT.”

This year auditions are taking place across the country throughout February and March, and will land at Aberystwyth Arts Centre on Friday and Saturday, 23 and 24 February.

The auditions are for people aged between 14 and 25 and the company hopes to meet as many young people as possible from Aberystwyth and the surrounding area.

Applicants just need to prepare one speech from a published play that’s no longer than three minutes.

“To anyone thinking of auditioning I would say do it!” said Gwyneth.

“Give yourself the opportunity to make mistakes, discover, learn and grow within a safe, professional, passionate and creative environment.”

If you do, you could have a career like Gwyneth’s.

As well as a number of stage shows, she has previously appeared in E4’s Misfits in 2010 and 2011, was in smash hit show Game of Thrones in 2015, locally-filmed Hinterland in 2016 and episode four - Hang the DJ - of Black Mirror, currently streaming on Netflix.

Gwyneth, who is also a graduate of The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, can also be seen right now on S4C in Craith.

Read the full feature in this week’s south editions, on sale now