Coronation Street star Cherlyee Houston awarded MBE for services in disabled community

Cherylee Houston joined Elaine and Gamal in the studio


Coronation Street star Cherylee Houston has collected her MBE for services in the disabled community.

The actress, known for her role as Izzy Armstrong, works to remove barriers for other disabled people and has previously spoken about welfare cuts at the Houses of Parliament.

Playing Izzy for the past 12 years, Cherylee also picked up her award for services to drama, collecting her MBE from the Princess Royal.

Cherylee collecting her MBE from the Princess Royal

Cherylee said: "It's a bit overwhelming. It's massive and what I think is that it gives me a stronger voice for my community. As many people who are disabled and in the public eye we tend to use our voices as much as we can because we don't have any central spokespeople.

"We have over 1,500 members of the deaf, disabled or neurodivergent creatives in our network and what we are doing is pulling together as a community and having conversations with our industry about how to make people feel comfortable.

Nobody knows all the answers around disability access but what we are saying is to talk to us and allow the talent in the room.

Just by allowing the opportunity to be in the room means things are changing. The talent is there."

Cherylee made a return to Coronation Street last year, in a storyline that highlighted the difficulty millions of disabled people experienced during the pandemic and the pressures they were under while trying to work remotely and shield at the same time.

The show’s writers and producers collaborated with Cherylee for many months on the storyline.

Cherylee featuring in Christmas advert.

For the past three years Cherylee has also produced a Christmas advert.

Cherylee said: "We are in our fourth year and this is the brainchild of my co-creative lead Melissa Johns and she had this brilliant and four years ago she asked 'where are all the disabled people in adverts' and Simon Nayler from 53two found us a full accessible theatre in Manchester and we now make a Christmas ad each year.

"We've got a really exciting theme this year."


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