A young actor who dreams of one day playing Spiderman on the silver screen has earned his place on the list of nominees for this year's British Soap Awards.
Jude Riordan, 11, is up for the Best Young Performer award for his performance as Sam Blakeman in ITV's Coronation Street. Lillia Turner (Lily Slater, EastEnders), Huey Quinn (Kyle Winchester, Emmerdale) and Jayden Fox (Bobby Costello, Hollyoaks) are also in the running for the winning spot, which will be announced at a televised ceremony in June.
Jude, a Y7 pupil at De La Salle School in St Helens, first plunged into the world of acting six years ago, when he appeared in The Secret Life of Five-Year-Olds on Channel 4. He later appeared in the CBBC short film Katie, and played Tyler Croft in the Sky one comedy-drama Brassic.
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His mum Kellie Riordan, 43, said: "We're all so chuffed for him, and he's over the moon about it. He knows it's a really hard category to compete in, so he's just chuffed to bits.
"A lot of people don't understand that these child actors are working, and on top of that you have to make sure they have breaks for tutoring time. He can have as little as one scene a day, or as many as sixteen. It all depends, but it's very much a job to them."
Jude, whose dad Paul has directed several episodes of Coronation Street, made his first appearance on the popular soap opera in October 2020. In 2021, he earned a National Television Award for Best Newcomer for his portrayal of Sam Blakeman, the son of Natasha Blakeman, who was dramatically shot dead by villainous drug lord Harvey Gaskell.
Kellie said: "Jude just loves acting. He's not the type of child you could force to do anything. He very much wants to be there. You ask him what he wants to do when he gets older and he says he's already doing it. He picks up the lines really quickly.
"He would love to do Marvel, Disney. I think that's on his radar, long-term. He loves Spiderman, so he'd love to star in a Spiderman film one day."
The first round of viewer voting has opened on the British Soap Awards website and will close on April 25 at 5pm. The second round voting will open on May 2 at 10am and close on June 2 at 5pm.
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