Strictly star Rose Ayling-Ellis receives MBE for services to deaf community

Rose Ayling Ellis after being made a Member of the Order of the British Empire at an Investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle, Berkshire. Picture date: Wednesday December 4, 2024.
Credit: PA

Actress Rose Ayling-Ellis, who made history on Strictly Come Dancing as the show’s first deaf contestant, has received an MBE at Windsor Castle for services to the deaf community.

Ayling-Ellis, 30, won the 2021 series of Strictly, along with the nation's hearts, after a routine in which the music paused and she and partner Giovanni Pernice danced in silence.

The emotional tribute to the deaf community got the nation talking about the experience of deafness, and also won the must-see moment award at the Baftas.

She portrayed Frankie Lewis in the BBC soap opera EastEnders from 2020 to 2022 after starting her career in short film and on stage.

She has completed a string of firsts, including becoming the first celebrity reader to perform a CBeebies bedtime story in sign language in 2022, the first deaf person to deliver the Alternative MacTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh TV Festival, and the first deaf person to host a live sports show, presenting the Paralympic Games in France for Channel 4.

Ayling-Ellis also worked with Mattel on the production of the first deaf Barbie doll equipped with behind-the-ear hearing aids and helped to mentor Unify, an all-deaf sign performance group who use British Sign Language (BSL), for a special concert for the King’s coronation.

Also among the 60 people to receive royal honours at Windsor Castle today were Hari Budha Magar, the first above-the-knee double-amputee to climb Mount Everest.

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Mr Magar, from Nepal, was a Gurkha serving with the British Army in Afghanistan in 2010 when he lost both legs in an IED (improvised explosive device) blast.In 2023, the father-of-three became the first above-the-knee double-amputee to climb the world’s highest mountain after taking a campaign to the Supreme Court in Nepal to overturn a ban on people with disabilities climbing Everest in 2018.

“I told her (the Princess Royal) that I am climbing the seven summits. She couldn’t speak for a while,” Mr Magar said.