Sophie Leigh Stone (born ) is an English stage and television actress. She was the first deaf student to win a place at the British drama school Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). She is best known for her roles as Louise in Two Doors Down and as Cass in Doctor Who. In 2022, she joined the cast of the new Acorn TV detective series The Chelsea Detective, playing the forensics officer Ashley Wilton. She continued to play that role in season 4 in 2026.
Early life and education Sophie Leigh Stone was born in to Ruth Bullock, a painter, and guitarist Martin Stone. She has been deaf since birth, and grew up in East London. She attended Mary Hare Grammar School for the Deaf.
Stone took up a place at RADA after the birth of her two children (to whom she is a single mother), with the extra cost of her studies being supported by the Snowdon Trust.
Career Since graduating, Stone has played the role of Kattrin in Mother Courage and Her Children at the National Theatre and worked with other theatre companies.
In Spring 2014, she played Agnetha in Bryony Lavery's play Frozen, opening at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre.
In Autumn 2014, she took the leading role in the touring production of Woman of Flowers, a reworking of the Welsh myth of Blodeuwedd by playwright Kaite O'Reilly.
She has also appeared in episodes of several British television series and short films.
In 2015, she played the role of deaf crew-leader Cass in the Doctor Who episodes "Under the Lake" and "Before the Flood", who communicated entirely in British Sign Language. She was cast as Princess Alice of Battenberg, Prince Philip's mother, who was deaf herself, in Series 2 of Netflix historical drama The Crown. In 2021 she played the lead in an episode of the BBC 1 anthology series Jimmy McGovern's Moving On.
In 2009, she played in Coming Home, directed by the deaf director Louis Neethling. She played the deaf poet and activist Dorothy Miles in the docu-drama "Dot" in 2019.
She appeared with actress Vilma Jackson in the short Sign Night, which was broadcast on the BBC.
In 2020, she added radio to her credits, by being cast in a BBC Radio 3 drama Beethoven Can Hear You as a deaf traveller from the future that visits Beethoven (played by Peter Capaldi). She also wrote and spoke an essay about her relationship with music. This was part of the celebration for the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth.
In 2013, she co-founded the DH Ensemble Theatre Company, which creates plays that include deaf and hearing actors. She is also an associate artist for the Watermill Theatre, and in 2021 she guest-edited an anthology of Deaf authors for Arachne Press.
In 2022, she joined the cast of the new Acorn TV program, The Chelsea Detective. She played the forensics officer Ashley Wilton, a role she continued to play in the fourth series of the show, in 2026.
Credits Film YearTitleRoleNotes2009CaniformiaOne of 'The Table of Dining Hipsters'Short films2012ConfessionMabel2013RetreatIsobelShort film. Best Actress Award, Clin d'Oeil Festival2017IntimacyDebbieShort films2019HappinessSarah2020Sign NightGhost 1TBARetreatTBA Feature film
Television YearTitleRoleNotes2003CasualtyKirsty HarmonSeries 18; Episode 7: "Can't Let Go"2009FMPoppyEpisode 3: "Return to Sender"Coming HomeKateTelevision film2011MarchlandsOlive RuncieMini-series; Episodes 1–4Holby CityJade AshdownSeries 13; Episode 14: "My Hero"2013Kara ShottonSeries 16; Episode 3: "Flesh Is Weak"Midsomer MurdersFay BellSeries 15; Episode 5: "The Sicilian Defence"2014Mapp & LuciaHotel ClerkMini-series; Episode 12014–2016Small WorldLauraEpisodes 1–52015Doctor WhoCassSeries 9; Episodes 3 & 4: "Under the Lake" and "Before the Flood"2016The MoonstoneLucy YollandMini-series; Episodes 2 & 32017The CrownPrincess Alice of BattenbergSeries 2; Episodes 2 & 9: "A Company of Men" and "Paterfamilias"2018DotDot (Middle years)Television filmShetlandJo HalleySeries 4; Episodes 1–52019Shakespeare & Hathaway: Private InvestigatorsKatie HarperSeries 2; Episode 2: "The Play's the Thing"2019, 2022Two Doors DownLouiseSeries 4; Episode 6: "Housewarming", and Series 6; Episode 6: "Garden Party"2020, 2021CasualtySusie AshbySeries 34; Episode 36, and Series 36; Episode 5: "The Road Less Travelled"2021This Way UpJulieSeries 2; Episodes 1–4Moving OnRosie PearceSeries 12; Episode 5: "More Than Words"2022 –PresentThe Chelsea DetectiveAshley WiltonSeries 1–3; 12 episodes2023Midsomer MurdersGill TempletonSeries 23; Episode 4: "Dressed to Kill"TBAReunionNaomi BrennanIn production
Theatre YearTitleRoleCompany2009Mother Courage and Her ChildrenKattrinNational Theatre2012In Water I’m WeightlessNational Theatre of Wales2014Woman of FlowersForest Forge / UK Tour2016The Government InspectorPostmasterBirmingham Rep / UK Tour2018A Midsummer Night's DreamHermiaWatermill TheatreAs You Like ItJaquesShakespeare's GlobeJubileeBodLyric, Hammersmith / Manchester Royal Exchange2019EmiliaShakespeare's Globe / West End2020The Beauty ParadeWales Millennium Centre2021The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-TimeJudy & EnsembleTroubadour Wembley Park Theatre / UK Tour2026The Cherry OrchardSharlottaRSC Swan Theatre
References
External links