Eddie Redmayne, Benedict Cumberbatch

Source: Tim P. Whitby/BFI, Phil McCarten / ©A.M.P.A.S.

Eddie Redmayne, Benedict Cumberbatch

Bafta-nominated actors are five times more likely to have attended a fee-paying (private) school than the UK population as a whole, a report from UK social mobility advocacy group the Sutton Trust has unveiled.

While 35% of the nominated actors and actresses went to a private school, only 7% of the population attend fee-paying schools. Recent Bafta awardees include Eddie Redmayne who attended Eton College, and Benedict Cumberbatch, who was a pupil at Harrow School. 

The 35% was based on those born or primarily based in the UK who were nominated for a best actor/actress or supporting actor/actress award at the Bafta film awards or television awards between 2019 and 2024, while the 7% figure comes from a 2019 government-backed Sutton Trust report titled ’Elitism in Britain’.

The report published today, titled ‘A class act? Social mobility and the creative industries’, also drew on research from the Creative Industries Policy and Research Centre. According to this research, as of 2020, 52% of the creative workforce were from higher socio-economic backgrounds, compared to 38% across all industries. Creative sectors were defined as a range of fields, including film, TV, music, advertising, architecture and journalism.

Levels of social mobility in the creative sectors have remained low since the 1970s, with 16.4% of creative workers born between 1953 and 1962 having a working-class background, compared to just 7.9% for those born four decades later.

Analysis of Labour Force Survey data from the UK’s Office For National Statistics in 2019 shows those who are degree educated and from a privileged background are 5.6 times more likely to work in the creative industries, compared to those from lower socio-economic backgrounds with GCSE-level qualifications or below.

To tackle this inequality, the Sutton Trust is calling for a range of measures to improve access to the arts, such as introducing an ‘arts premium’ so schools can pay for arts opportunities including music lessons, ensuring that conservatoires and creative arts institutions that receive state funding are banned from charging for auditions, and adding socio-economic inclusion as a condition of employers receiving arts funding.

The Sutton Trust is also developing a partnership with screen industries membership organisation, the British Screen Forum, which aims to address socio-economic diversity through targeted skills and career initiatives.

“It’s a tragedy that young people from working class backgrounds are the least likely to study creative arts degrees, or break into the creative professions. These sectors bear the hallmarks of being elitist – those from upper-middle-class backgrounds, and the privately-educated are significantly over-represented,” said Nick Harrison, CEO of the Sutton Trust.

“Britain’s creative sector is admired around the world, but no child should be held back from reaching their full potential, or from pursuing their interests and dream career, due to their socio-economic background. It’s essential that action is taken to ensure access to high quality creative education in schools, and to tackle financial barriers to accessing creative courses and workplace opportunities.”

The Sutton Trust was established in 1997, to champion social mobility in education and the workplace, through programmes, research and government lobbying.