As a child growing up in the small village of Lymm, Miya Ocego was a huge fan of pop legend Cher. But she could never imagine that one day she would be channeling the Oscar-winning actress and singer in a trailblazing TV role.
The transgender actress can hardly Believe that she's playing the statuesque superstar in her first ever professional acting role. At just 22, Miya has stepped into the icon's shoes to play a trans Cher tribute act on the BBC3 slasher comedy series Wreck, set aboard a cruise ship with a killer duck on the loose.
Miya, who trained at The Arden drama school in Manchester, felt a deep connection to her character Rosie after surviving bullying while struggling with her gender identity, having been assigned a male gender. As a young child she played with dolls and reached for her mum's high heels, with her transition journey beginning at the age of 11.
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Her transition began after she was part of an early intervention study, which she credits with saving her life. Miya said about her role in Wreck: "Rosie is a trans character and that's why I had such a deep connection to the character and also the horror genre.
"Why I connected is that they have to fight for themselves to stay alive and I've had to fight mostly all the way through my life to live authentically as me. I started transitioning when I was really young. It was hard but my family have been my biggest support system, they've helped me get to the place where I am now."
She said about playing Rosie: "It's so rewarding for me to be able to bring this character to screen and to have chance to help a confused child that I once was. If they can see just a little bit of them in the character Rosie, to know there is a space for them and that they are valid and that they are here then that is incredible for me."
On the challenges she faced she explained: "Just waking up every morning was a challenge. I didn't want to do anything. I could hardly look at myself in the mirror, to have to drag myself to school and to then face so much discrimination and abuse, it was so tiring and so draining.
"To then get home with this negative energy I really became a person I didn't like. I would push the people who loved me most away and I couldn't see that all they wanted to do was to help me and be there for me. But I just didn't want it at the time and that's when I started my transition."
She explained: "When I felt I knew the path I wanted to be on my head was set. I've always known - my family have as well - that there was something, not necessarily different but that there was something quirky about me.
"I played with Bratz dolls when I was younger, I've always played dress-up with my sister, I would always sneak my mums heels out of the closet and run around. That grew into a sense of confusion about myself because I didn't know what was happening.
"I didn't know what these feelings were and that's when I started to go to counselling and they asked me a question that really resonated with me. They said 'are you really happy within yourself?' and I wasn't and they said 'do you want to be somebody else?' and that's when I realised I needed to be somebody else in order to carry on."
She added: "I was very very lucky. I was on something called the early intervention study so I was a study being watched by different specialists and I got to treatment kind of quicker because the waiting lists these days are just, they're suicidal.
"It's just not fair people have to go through that and that extent of time to live how they need to live. I started my transition throughout my teens and stopped transitioning around 18.
"I was studying at the time and had this constant battle within myself going on, and then having to find the strength within me and then to have a battle with all these different people because of their closed-mindedness and their inability to see all I was trying to do was co-exist just like them."
In Wreck Rosie can be seen in flamboyant Cher outfits and an item that the star actually wore. "It's mad how much I had a connection to the character already," she beamed. "It was an honour to bring the character to life and put my own spin on things.
"I'll be forever grateful to be given an opportunity - the transformation with the wigs, the incredible costumes. Literally I felt like Cher. One of the set designers on Wreck worked on Mamma Mia 2 and Cher makes a cameo in that. She actually took a pair of shoes that Cher wore on set and those were the shoes that I was wearing while I was filming.
"I literally had a bit of Cher with me through filming and that was iconic in itself. I didn't get to keep them but they did fit like a glove so it was a match made in heaven.
"This was my debut. It was such an educational process for me. I was fresh out of university and that's what makes this series so exciting."
The tense thriller is directed by Ryan J. Brown who in 2016 won the BAFTA New Writing Prize for TV Drama for his LGBT crime drama We Are Your Children. Set on The Sacramentum cruise ship the series follows 20-year-old new recruit, Jamie, as he infiltrates the 3,000 strong crew in a desperate race to find his missing sister.
When bloodthirsty murders take place on board, Jamie is forced to turn detective and uncover the sinister truth. Miya said: "Ryan poured his heart into the queerness and diversity in this show and it speaks volumes and is exactly what we need at this point in time.
"Ryan is trailblazing a path for us and creating a safe space for us and creating space on screen to give queer talent the spotlight they deserve and usually have to fight a lot harder for, and we need more people like Ryan in the world."
She added: "What's beautiful about Wreck is that he doesn't delve into the trauma and dysphoria around gender identity and sexual identity. He just creates a world where all these characters co-exit and that speaks volumers in itself, without the murder of course."
Speaking about the reaction to the six-part series, which launched on Sunday October 9 with all episodes available to watch online now on iPlayer, she said: "It's been amazing. People are loving it and they binge watch it because it's such a gripping story. All you want to do is click on the next episode.
"However I did get a voicemail off my nan saying she's traumatised. She said she had trouble sleeping after seeing the duck." And she added: "My family is my biggest support system, they were there through every step of the way. For them to watch me back and my work back is so rewarding for me."
As well as Cher holding a place in her heart, Miya was also inspired by Lady Gaga. "I've always had a love of Lady Gaga. I'd put my heels on, put my wig on and blast her music and it was escapism for me to get lost in her music. I loved how unapologetic she was for being her and that's how I was inspired to be."
Asked how it feels to be inspiring others now, she said: "I've messages that are incredible saying how much they connect to character of Rosie. In some of the later episodes she has such unwavering strength about her and that is something that I as a trans person has had to have throughout their life. I would not still be here today if it wasn't for that strength.
"With it being such a diverse cast there's somebody for everybody and I hope they feel validated and when they watch it it's a safe space. You see these authentic queer love stories on screen and they're just the same as any straight typical love story. That's what people need to realise.
"Love is love at the end of the day simple as that. All I can do is pray for a season two to delve into the characters more and for audiences to fall in love with them."
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