Born in Manchester in 1994, Layton Williams is a musical theatre performer and TV actor. Propelled from the Dicky Bird estate in Bury to the West End at the age of 12, Williams landed his first role as the lead in Billy Elliot the Musical. With a scholarship from the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts, he went on to tour the UK in hit musicals Rent and Hairspray, as well as starring in TV comedy Bad Education and 2021’s adaptation of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie. A finalist on 2023’s Strictly Come Dancing, Williams is currently appearing in its live tour.
This was taken in a local Bury shopping centre. The jumper would have been a George at Asda special. I look very cute, like butter wouldn’t melt.
I was a good kid. Very energetic, always running around. The sort of person who wanted to play with everyone. Me and my older brother were close in age, joined at the hip, and we’d wear the same clothes. He was in this very same jumper in his shopping centre photo.
I’ve got seven brothers and one sister. I lived with my mum during the week and I’d see my dad at the weekend. It was a very beautiful but confusing family dynamic. Me and one of my brothers don’t look anything alike. We have different dads. Sometimes people wouldn’t believe we were siblings. I’d have to say, “Er, yeah. We share the same bedroom, and he’s really annoying.”
I’ve always been an entertainer; the one to lift people’s spirits. My favourite thing to do pre-professional performing was to learn the dances from music videos. MTV was the only chance I had to see Wannabe by the Spice Girls – there was no laptop to watch it on YouTube. If it came on, I had to be in the moment and learn as much of the choreography as I could before it ended, then wait another 24 hours to see it again. Then there were the Barbies. I’d make outfits for them and I’d do their hair. I was a very expressive little boy.
As I got older I realised I had to become my own role model, as there wasn’t a lot of representation for boys like me in the noughties. I was a chav, but inside there was a diva desperate to burst out. Instead of sparkly trousers, I was in my McKenzie tracksuit and acting like one of the lads on the estate. Queer kids grow up pretending to be someone else for as long as they can until they feel like they’re going to be accepted. For the first decade of my life I was not being myself. I had a straitjacket on.
When I went for the role of Billy Elliot, I was the only person auditioning who looked like me. It was a room full of white boys, and it made me feel reluctant to walk in. It wasn’t normal for me to be in spaces where I was the only black person. My estate had all walks of life in it, so the whole experience felt unknown. Not only that, but I had no idea what an audition was and I’d never done those dance steps before. I felt like I didn’t belong. But I did my own thing, my own moves. I faked it until I made it, and I got hired because of my talent.
I was none the wiser that there was going to be a hoo-ha that I was going to be the first black Billy or Jamie when I got those roles; I just did it. Looking back, I think that was kind of iconic. The best part was setting an example and inspiring people, young boys. There was a moment when I was in the auditions for the boy who was going to take over from me in Jamie. They were doing open calls and as I was on my way into the building I saw hundreds of kids queueing up around the corner – white boys, black boys, people from all backgrounds. It made me feel super proud. If I hadn’t got this part, would that line have looked like it did? I’m not sure it would have.
I moved to London when I got the role of Billy, and two years later some ladies called Maria and Val took me in. They were a lesbian couple. All of a sudden, I was living in a gay house and it was normal to just be me. I cannot stress enough how beautiful that was. I lived with them for more than a decade and only moved out a couple of years ago. There were no rules. I could dress and express myself however I wanted. I went from having to hide myself to living with this amazing couple who were the perfect example of love. I would wear these little heels to cook my breakfast. Clop-clop-clopping around in the kitchen.
I also embraced the Topshop era. I’d go there and buy anything pink. I was obsessed. Whatever piece I could get my hands on that would make me different, I would want. I remember getting dragged for wearing Converse and Ugg boots. Now all the lads are wearing them!
As well as Maria and Val, I started to meet people in London who showed me the life I could have one day. When I was training at the Italia Conti college in central London, I’d be at G-A-Y, the club in Soho, every single Friday and Saturday night. I would party up. I went out and lived the years that I didn’t get when I felt repressed. It was the best to see people who were openly out, fab and happy. That was the number one thing for me: happiness.
That being said, I’m not always bam-bam-bam, ready-to-slay-mode Layton. As performers, as gay people especially, it’s important that people know we are three-dimensional. Of course there is a heightened version of me. On Strictly I felt like I had to be “on”. But I have a softer, more chilled side, one that only my friends and family get to see.
The notion of privacy has been very important recently. The past six months have been testing [Williams received criticism online and in tabloids claiming his dancing background gave him an unfair advantage on Strictly]. Many people could have crumbled under the amount of attention I was getting, and there were moments when I was lying in bed, tears flowing, and thinking, “How am I going to be able to manage this?” But I got to a point where I had to believe that as long as my family and friends accepted me, that was all that mattered.
My childhood also prepared me. I am so used to being scrutinised. I was leading a whole West End company, the star of the show, by the age of 12. Then the TV jobs came along and I was inside that machine. It wasn’t like I was Lindsay Lohan, but working in this industry from a very young age gave me a thick skin. I’m now ready for all eventualities.
I used to think that my path into entertainment was a kind of escape from my childhood self. But I’ve since done a 360: I absolutely love being from Bury. I went back recently and was waltzing down the estate. People stopped me and said, “We’re so proud of you, our Bury lad!” It wasn’t like that when I was growing up, but now I can own my situation, walk with my head held high and say, “Come get a selfie, darlings!”
