FLETCHER
Carrie

• 1. Life and career
• 1.1. Early life and career beginnings
• 1.2. Theatre
• 1.3. Writing
• 1.4. Music

Carrie Hope Fletcher is an English actress, singer-songwriter, author and internet personality.

As a child, Fletcher played small roles on television and appeared in musical theatre in London's West End. In 2011, she started a YouTube channel called ItsWayPastMyBedTime, later retitled Carrie Hope Fletcher, which features music and vlogs. As of June 2020, she has over 652,500 subscribers.

Fletcher played Éponine in Les Misérables in the West End until 13 February 2016 and later played Fantine in the musical's revival at the Sondheim Theatre, which started on 18 December 2019. In 2015 she published a book called: All I Know Now: Wonderings and Reflections on Growing Up Gracefully, which was a Number 1 bestseller in the UK. Her debut novel On the Other Side was released on 14 July 2016. Her second novel All That She Can See was released on 13 July 2017. Her third novel When The Curtain Falls was released on 12 July 2018. Her fourth novel In The Time We Lost was released on 17 October 2019. She released her fifth novel and first children's book, Into The Spotlight, on 17 September 2020.

Fletcher is a two-time Grammy Award nominee and a three-time winner of the WhatsOnStage Award for Best Actress in a Musical.

Life and career

Early life and career beginnings

Fletcher was born and raised in South Harrow in the London borough of Harrow, the daughter of Debbie and Bob Fletcher. Her older brother, Tom Fletcher, is lead vocalist and guitarist of the band McFly.

Her acting career began at the age of five, when she appeared in a short Channel 4 ident followed by an advert for Honey Nut Cheerios with Frasier actor Kelsey Grammer. Fletcher has also played several short television roles, including Jenny in the CITV show Dog and Duck.

Theatre

Fletcher made her West End debut as Young Éponine in Les Misérables at the age of nine in 2001. In 2002, she was part of the original cast of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in the role of Jemima Potts, and in 2004 featured as Jane Banks in Mary Poppins. Fletcher replaced Danielle Hope as Éponine in Les Misérables at the Queen's Theatre, London in June 2013. She is the only British actress to have played young Éponine, older Éponine and Fantine in the production. On 23 February 2014, Fletcher was presented the WhatsOnStage "Best Takeover in a Role" award for her performance as Éponine.

In November 2014, Fletcher took a hiatus from her role in Les Misérables to join the cast of Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds national arena tour in which she played the role of Beth, alongside Jason Donovan, Brian McFadden and Shayne Ward.

She next returned to Les Misérables, playing Éponine for the musical's 30th anniversary gala performance on 8 October 2015. Fletcher played her final performance on 13 February 2016, at which time she was the longest-running Éponine in the London production's 30-year history. On 4 May 2016, Fletcher rejoined the cast of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to play Truly Scrumptious, for a UK tour. She played her final performance as Scrumptious on 2 October 2016. She next played Éponine in the Dubai production of Les Misérables for one month. Fletcher appeared as Emily in a 2016–2017 production of A Christmas Carol starring Robert Lindsay as Scrooge, produced by James Yeoburn and Stuart Matthew Price for United Theatrical, and directed by Shaun Kerrison.

In 2017, she played the role of Wednesday Addams on the UK tour of The Addams Family. The production was produced by James Yeoburn and Stuart Matthew Price for United Theatrical and Music & Lyrics in association with Festival Theatre, Edinburgh. In December 2017, she performed in the musical The Christmasaurus.

In 2018, Fletcher reprises her role as Beth in the 40th anniversary tour of Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds. She then went on to star in Jeff Wayne's The War of The Worlds: The Immersive Experience, where she reprises her role as Parson Nathaniel's wife in the virtual reality section of the experience. She then played the leading role of Veronica Sawyer in Heathers: The Musical at The Other Palace in London from 9 June to 4 August 2018, and when the production transferred to the West End at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, she continued in the roles from 3 September to 24 November 2018.

In 2019, she returned to Les Misérables as Fantine on the West End for a 16-week run from 10 August to 30 November 2019 at the Gielgud Theatre, in a fully staged concert adaptation of the musical. Fletcher also portrayed Fantine in Les Misérables: The Staged Concert, which was broadcast live to cinemas,[citation needed] and in the new production of Les Misérables beginning 18 December 2019 at the Sondheim Theatre. She was due to perform in the role until 25 July 2020, but she left the show in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She played Fantine again in the Staged Concert at the Sondheim Theatre once it re-opened during the COVID-19 pandemic on 5 December 2020.

Fletcher is currently appearing in the title role of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cinderella, which began previews on 25 June 2021 at the Gillian Lynne Theatre in London with an opening on 14 July and will run until June 2022.

Writing

In April 2015, Fletcher released her first book, All I Know Now: Wonderings and Reflections on Growing Up Gracefully, based on her blog of the same name. The non-fiction book focuses on stages of Fletcher's life as a teenager and passes on life lessons and advice through highlighting her own mistakes and struggles as she grew up. Her book was a number one Sunday Times bestseller and remained in the Top 10 list for seven weeks.

In June 2015, Fletcher officially announced that she had started writing a new fiction novel, titled On The Other Side, which was published on 14 July 2016. In March 2017, Fletcher announced her second novel All That She Can See, which was published on 13 July 2017. In October 2017, she announced her third novel, When the Curtain Falls, which was published on 12 July 2018. In October 2018, Fletcher announced her fourth novel In the Time We Lost, which was published on 17 October 2019. Fletcher published her first children's book Into the Spotlight on 17 September 2020 based on Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild. Her fifth novel, With This Kiss was announced on 17 November 2020 via her Instagram, due to be published in August 2021.

Music

Fletcher has produced two singles, "Running Through Rivers" and "The Way We Were". She performed to benefit the band Sheytoons at the St. James Theatre, as well as Ramin Karimloo on his 2012 Road to Find Out tour.

In 2012, she performed the official 2012 Summer Olympics mascots song with her brother, Tom.

Fletcher is featured in Alex Day’s 2013 album Epigrams and Interludes on the songs covering "Poison" and "This Kiss". Fletcher can also be seen in The Vamps' music video for their cover of McFly's "That Girl". In 2014, Fletcher had featured in Daniel Koek's album High in the song "Remember Me". Koek was a colleague and fellow cast member of Fletcher's in Les Misérables.

Her most successful video on YouTube, currently with 1.5 million views (as of 14 April 2020), is a live interpretation together with her brother Tom Fletcher of the McFly song "Love Is on the Radio".

Fletcher released her first solo album When The Curtain Falls on 30 March 2018. It was released via musical theatre concert and record producers Club 11 London and accompanied her first four solo concerts at Cadogan Hall, London, on 31 March and 1 April 2018.