'Landing role on Thomas & Friends was crazy' — SkimNews
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- Ellie-Mae Siame, 14, voices Nia — the orange-and-black engine number 18 — in Thomas & Friends: Railway Stories, and was offered the role directly after a single filmed audition in January.
- A full-length YouTube special premiered Thursday and has already passed two million views; it lands on Netflix on September 30, with a full series set to air in 2027.
- Siame, from Stafford, has been acting since age five, with prior credits including Four Kids and It (2020), His Dark Materials, Modern Love, and My Week with Maisy alongside Dame Joanna Lumley.
- Siame said she prefers voice acting because "you don't have to learn a script," and she can be heard singing on the program's theme tune.
- She told BBC Radio Stoke she initially didn't grasp how big the franchise was because she was "more into princesses than trains" — until her parents' reaction showed her how beloved Thomas has been since the 1980s.
Why it matters: A 14-year-old landing a lead voice role on a globally recognized children's franchise after a single audition — and already clearing two million YouTube views before the September 30 Netflix debut — marks an unusually early career milestone for Siame ahead of a full 2027 series rollout.
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