Rachel Zegler, named the Best West End Debut Performer at The Stage Debut Awards. Picture: Alex Brenner
Winners of The Stage Debut Awards 2025, in association with Netflix have been revealed at a ceremony taking place at London’s 8 Northumberland Avenue, hosted by Julian Clary.
Rachel Zegler scooped the prize for Best West End Debut Performer, one of the evening’s most coveted awards, for her tour de force performance as Eva Perón in Jamie Lloyd’s triumphant revival of Evita. She follows in the footsteps of previous winners Jodie Comer, Rose Ayling-Ellis and Jack Wolfe.
Zegler’s win was the only award category to have been decided by the public. The starry shortlist also included Zegler’s Evita co-star Diego Andres Rodriguez; both Tosin Cole (Netflix’s Supacell) and his co-star Heather Agyepong for Shifters; Kat Ronney for Titanique; The Devil Wears Prada’s Georgie Buckland; Clueless the Musical’s Emma Flynn and Samuel Brewer in Oedipus.
This year’s 46 nominations across eight categories celebrated performers, composers, designers, writers, lyricists and directors whose breakthrough work premiered across theatres from all four nations of the UK.
Of the winners, Welsh talent walked away with the prize for this year’s Best Director award with former Best Writer nominee Richard Mylan winning for Mumfighter at the Swansea Grand Theatre. His staging of the one-woman play ‘laced with anger, pathos and emotion’ struck home with the judges.
Scot Milly Sweeney who wrote Water Colour, a Glaswegian tale produced by Pitlochry Festival Theatre and Byre Theatre, shared the prize for Best Writer alongside Essex screenwriter Ava Pickett, whose Almeida Theatre production of 1536 equally shone.
This year’s Best Performer in a Play’s eight-strong shortlist was narrowed to a joint award going to Hilson Agbangbe for his star turn in Bristol Old Vic’s Wonder Boy and Lucy Karczewski for Stereophonic at the Duke of York’s Theatre, London.
In an all-female shortlist for Best Musical Performer, Why Am I So Single?’s Leesa Tulley took home the top prize, with judges praising her exquisite voice and astonishing vocal range, while Australian Yve Blake’s Fangirls, a musical homage to the culture of the superfan at Lyric Hammersmith, brought her the accolade for the Best Composer, Lyricist or Book Writer award.
Celebrating creativity behind the scenes in the shape of Best Designer, Hannah Schmidt won the award for her work on sets and costumes across two shows, The Passenger (Finborough Theatre) and Personal Values (Hampstead Theatre), while director Mark Rosenblatt’s pivot to playwriting was rewarded with the prize for Best Creative West End Debut for Giant, his multi-Olivier Award-winning play about children’s author Roald Dahl, heading for Broadway in 2026.
These awards, which are dedicated to shining a light on breakthrough theatre talent, the eighth since their inception in 2017, also featured live performances from Just For One Day’s Craige Els; Jesus Christ Superstar’s Parisa Shamir; former winner of Mamma Mia! I Have a Dream!’s Tobias Turley performing a song from new musical Hot Mess; as well as the cast of Magic Mike Live who dropped in to perform a surprise grand finale.
THE WINNERS IN FULL
Best Performer in a Play
- Hilson Agbangbe for Wonder Boy at Bristol Old Vic
- Lucy Karczewski for Stereophonic at the Duke of York’s Theatre, London
Best Performer in a Musical
- Leesa Tulley for Why Am I So Single? at the Garrick Theatre, London
Best Director
- Richard Mylan for Mumfighter at Swansea Grand Theatre
Best Designer
- Hannah Schmidt (set and costume) for The Passenger/Personal Values at Finborough Theatre/Hampstead Theatre, London
Best Writer
- Ava Pickett for 1536 at the Almeida Theatre, London
- Milly Sweeney for Water Colour at Pitlochry Festival Theatre and Byre Theatre, St Andrews
Best Composer, Lyricist or Book Writer
- Yve Blake for Fangirls at Lyric Hammersmith, London
Best West End Debut Performer
- Rachel Zegler for Evita at London Palladium
Best Creative West End Debut
- Mark Rosenblatt (playwright) for Giant at the Harold Pinter Theatre
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