Children in Need airs on BBC One tonight and one of the presenters is young actor Lenny Rush. The award-winning star first appeared on camera on the CBeebies documentary Our Family. He has since gained national recognition for his role in Daisy May Cooper ’s BBC One comedy Am I Being Unreasonable?, in which he improvised some of his lines.
The 15-year-old actor, from Burnham in Essex, has a medical condition called spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita which affects his growth, resulting in dwarfism. He lives at home with his parents and younger brother, Bobby. It was his mum Lisa who applied to be part of the Our Family series, which followed different types of families.
Lenny was seven at the time and this was when he realised he loved being in front of the camera. His mum opened up on the balance between work and school, as he took three months off to film Am I Being Unreasonable? “It’s a fine balance, because Lenny would do this full-time if he could – he absolutely loves it and he’s living the dream at the moment – but he is young, and he needs to have that time where he keeps his feet on the ground,” she told The Guardian. Lenny said he was very lucky with his friends, who are "all lovely and very supportive" of his work.
He did admit there was some jealousy amongst his peers, saying: "It’s one kid in particular and you can’t do anything to stop that. “This is really ironic coming from someone with dwarfism, but you’ve got to be the bigger person..