Cerrie Burnell
| Cerrie Burnell | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Claire Burnell 30 August 1979 Petts Wood, London, England |
| Occupation | Actress, singer, playwright, Television presenter |
| Known for | Presenting CBeebies (2009-2017) |
| Children | 1 |
Claire "Cerrie" Burnell (born 30 August 1979) is an English actress, singer, playwright, children's author, and television presenter for the BBC children's channel CBeebies.
Burnell was born with a right arm that ends just below the elbow. Her initial appearance on CBeebies sparked a controversy about children's television presenters with physical disabilities and the apparent prejudice of complainants.
Burnell was born in Petts Wood, London, and grew up in Eastbourne, Sussex. Her mother is a dance teacher, and her father a telecoms manager. She has one younger brother. She was originally named "Claire", but started asking people to call her "Cerrie" at the age of ten.
Burnell was born with her right arm ending slightly below the elbow. Her parents encouraged her to wear a prosthetic arm, but she resisted from the start, and stopped wearing one entirely when she was nine. She says her disability did not hinder her from doing what she wanted, including "sports, swimming, windsurfing, singing in the choir or joining the Army cadets." Burnell also suffered from dyslexia, which left her unable to read until the age of ten. She learned with extra tuition and the Letterland system. As a teenager, she worked as a hotel chambermaid during summers, and travelled widely, working in a leprosy clinic in India, and volunteering in Brazil.
Burnell has a daughter, Amelie, born in 2008.
Burnell graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University, where she studied acting. She has performed in theatre in the UK, where she received favourable reviews, and in Brazil with the CTORio Political Theatre Company. Burnell was also a member of National Youth Theatre She has appeared in UK television parts in Holby City, EastEnders,Grange Hill,The Bill, and Comedy Lab. She is the author of Winged - A Fairytale, a play about Violet, a one-winged fairy in a London inner city fairy community, which she also starred in when it was staged at the Tristan Bates Theatre, London in 2007. She starred in "The First to Go" by Nabil Shaban, about the "Disabled Holocaust" in Nazi Germany, playing the part the part of Brunhilde, at the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh in 2008. Besides acting, she has worked as a teaching assistant in a special needs school.
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