Winners Announced for The Stage Debut Awards 2025

Winners of The Stage Debut Awards 2025, in association with Netflix, were revealed on September 28 at a star-studded ceremony taking place at 8 Northumberland Avenue, London. 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.

Hosted by comedy royalty and actor Julian Clary in front of some of UK theatre’s most influential figures, Zegler’s win – the people’s favourite – 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 visceral and urgent staging of a muscular one-woman play laced with anger, pathos and emotion struck home with the judges. Scot Milly Sweeney who wrote Water Colour, a devastatingly raw and moving 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. 

Richard Mylan and Milly Sweeney. Photos by Alex Brenner

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, London, 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 outstanding 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 richly rewarded with the prize for Best Creative West End Debut for Giant, his timely, sophisticated and deeply nuanced multi-Olivier award-winning play about children’s author Roald Dahl, heading for Broadway in 2026. 

The Stage editor Alistair Smith said: “This year’s winners range from Hollywood star Rachel Zegler making her West End debut to our most regionally and internationally diverse line-up yet, with productions from Scotland, Wales and Bristol recognised alongside talent from Australia. It’s a vivid reminder of the extraordinary breadth of artists making their debuts on UK stages – and a clear sign that the future of the sector is in safe hands."  

These awards, which are uniquely 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 Mama 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.