14-Year-Old Ellie-Mae Siame Lands Thomas & Friends Voice Role — SkimNews
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- Ellie-Mae Siame, 14, from Stafford, was offered the voice role of Nia — an orange-and-black engine, number 18 — in Thomas & Friends: Railway Stories straight after a filmed audition in January.
- A full-length Thomas & Friends: Railway Stories YouTube special premiered Thursday and had already been viewed more than two million times.
- The special arrives on Netflix from 30 September, with a full series scheduled to air in 2027.
- Siame has been acting since age five, with credits spanning Four Kids and It (2020), Generation Z, His Dark Materials, Modern Love, and My Week with Maisy alongside Dame Joanna Lumley.
- Siame told BBC Radio Stoke she prefers voice acting because "you don't have to learn a script" and can change her voice away from its natural sound.
- She said she initially didn't grasp the scale of Thomas the Tank Engine because she was "more into princesses" than trains, until her parents' excitement revealed the franchise's reach since its 1980s TV debut.
Why it matters: For 14-year-old Siame, the role is her first major voice credit and, in her own words, has "opened such a big pathway" to further work. The 2 million early YouTube views and a 30 September Netflix drop give the rebooted Thomas & Friends franchise a streaming-era runway ahead of its 2027 full series.
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