As an actor, presenter and documentary maker, Reggie Yates has been a regular fixture on our TV screens since he was a young child.
Now 38, the Londoner is making his debut as a filmmaker, having written and directed his latest project, Pirates – a coming of age tale about three friends trying to have a night to remember, set against the backdrop of Millennium Eve.
The story is relatively new for Yates, but he told Sky News he has always wanted to make a film, “from the minute I found myself on set as an eight-year-old”.
“I, as an actor, loved the idea of actually creating and running my own set but never really had the confidence to believe I could do it,” he said. “It wasn’t until I started writing quite quietly and privately that my confidence began to build.
“But this idea specifically is a new idea, it’s a recent idea, it wasn’t something that I’ve been sat on forever, but the elements in it – the version of London that we see on screen is something that I’ve always wanted to see on the big screen.”
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As an actor, Yates has appeared in shows including The Bill, Grange Hill and Doctor Who, but rose to fame as a radio presenter and host of TV shows including Top Of The Pops and The Voice.
While he recognises the benefits of already having a presence in the industry, he said it took more than his reputation to get Pirates made.
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“I’d be incredibly naive to say it didn’t have an influence on me being involved in this project and getting it over the line, but the truth is, if the script was rubbish, they wouldn’t have let it happen, and I work very hard, which is why I’ve had a three-decade career,” he said.
“I’ve pivoted in my career several times because I follow what I’m passionate about and I’m incredibly passionate about film and finding the right team to collaborate with and finding the budget to make this thing happen because of that passion.
“It happened because of the hard work and it happened because of ultimately the story that I wanted to tell.”
While all first-time filmmakers can expect to contend with a whole host of challenges, those working when the pandemic hit faced unprecedented issues.
“We had 10 days left to shoot and then COVID hit and we went from a 25-day shoot to having a 220-something day break and then finally getting back on set,” he said.
“So COVID – Auntie Rona, as we affectionately know her – definitely got in the way of Pirates being a slick process, but I’m really glad that it happened in a lot of ways because I found myself in a unique position that no first time writer-director gets. That is having a break to actually look at what I’ve done and edit everything that I’d shot up until that point and rewrite some stuff, throw some new bits in. And because of that I think the film was better.”
Pirates may have only just hit cinemas, but Yates says his next film is already written and he hopes to make it next year. He also hopes to work with his three young leading actors – Elliot Edusah, Jordan Peters and Reda Elazouar – again.
“I think I’ve learnt a hell of a lot about collaboration and also the importance of investing in your cast,” he said. “I spent a lot of time with these boys, they’re my little brothers now, we talk pretty much every day.
“I learnt the hard way that you can’t really do that in documentaries because I would take everybody that I would make a documentary about with me. After, like, 40 documentaries, that’s a lot of people to carry, especially people that were carrying quite difficult stuff because at the heart of all of those documentaries was an issue.”
While it’s too early to look at box office success, Pirates has already proved a hit within the industry, earning three nominations at this year’s British Independent Film Awards, including the best debut screenwriter prize for Yates.
But he’s not keen to talk about his own achievements – instead saying the nods validate the team effort behind the film.
“It’s a massive thing to get those three nominations for the movie and I just feel really proud because it’s a company effort, you know. I started out in theatre and the company is something that I love, this idea of people coming together to make things work, this idea of a team, this idea of people really pulling together and that is certainly what happened on this film.
“It means so much, and even if we don’t win on the night, I think for all of us, we’re going to be celebrating anyway because this movie is tiny, we have no money – they paid me in custard creams! For us to get nominations is huge.”
Hollywood celebrities are among thousands of people to have been evacuated from their homes as fires rip through areas of Los Angeles.
Sky News’ US correspondent Martha Kelner reported that Tom Hanks, Ben Affleck and Reese Witherspoon were all evacuated on Tuesday as wildfires continued to spread in the Pacific Palisades suburb of LA.
The area, which is home to billionaires as well as Hollywood A-listers, is located between Santa Monica and Malibu.
Other celebrities who have fled their homes include the award-winning actor James Woods, who said last night he had been safely evacuated from his home in Pacific Palisades.
But he added in a post on X: “I do not know at this moment if our home is still standing.”
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Actor Mark Hamill, best known for playing Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars films, also posted on social media last night saying he evacuated his home in Malibu and his family were “fleeing for our lives”.
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This Is Us actress Mandy Moore was also forced to leave her home due to the fires.
She said in two Instagram stories she had fled the Eaton fire, which is raging near Altadena, with her children, cats and dog. They have found temporary refuge with friends.
The actress said: “Trying to shield the kids from the immense sadness and worry I feel.
“Praying for everyone in our beautiful city. So gutted for the destruction and loss. Don’t know if our place made it.”
According to Velvet Ropes, which maps celebrity properties, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, Matt Damon, Steven Spielberg, Hilary Swank and Sally Field all have homes close to where fires are raging.
Dr Dre, Adam Brody and Leighton Meester, Tyra Banks, Martin Short, Anna Faris, Milo Ventimiglia, Linda Cardellini, Mary McDonnell, Adam Sandler, Miles Teller, and Jennifer Love Hewitt are also said to have houses in affected areas.
In neighbouring Malibu, which was also affected by fires in December, stars including Beyonce and Jay-Z, Kim Kardashian, Lady Gaga and Billie Eilish are said to be among the celebrity residents.
The Palisades blaze has already burnt through more than 11,000 acres of land while the Eaton one has caused the death of two people, Los Angeles County fire chief Anthony Marrone said on Wednesday.
The two other fires are known as Woodley and Hurst, after the main areas affected.
All four blazes are still growing, Mr Marrone said.
A reality TV personality known for appearing on shows like The Hills and Made In Chelsea has told Sky News her family have lost their homes in the California wildfires.
Stephanie Pratt, a model and the sister of fellow reality TV celebrity Spencer Pratt, lives in the Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles, where more than 30,000 people have fled their homes due to the fast-moving blaze.
Los Angeles fire chief Anthony Marrone said on Wednesday that the Palisades fire is still growing and that “well over 5,000 acres” have been burnt.
At least two people have been killed so far, with around 1,000 buildings destroyed.
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House surrounded by flames during wildfire
California governor Gavin Newsom earlier declared a state of emergency over the four wildfires in the south of the state.
Speaking to Sky News from London, an emotional Ms Pratt said: “It’s just so crazy, I had no idea what was happening.
“I talked to my dad yesterday and he said ‘The Palisades is burning’. He said that he was at my brother’s house on Chautauqua [Boulevard] and they were just watching the flames come.
“The firefighters came and said you got to leave.”
‘I don’t know if my house is there’
Ms Pratt said her parents and brother Spencer, who like her starred in the reality series The Hills, were safely evacuated from the area.
However, the 38-year-old added that “all of the phones are disconnected” and that she doesn’t know what had happened to her home.
“I talked to my neighbour last night and she told me that [Palisades Charter High School] had burnt down, and that’s directly behind me, and so had Gelson’s Supermarket which is adjacent,” she said.
“I just can’t reach anyone to see if my house is okay. I just Googled it and it said that it’s destroyed and terrible… I don’t know if my house is there.”
When she asked her dad about Spencer, 41, who is married to 38-year-old Heidi Montag – another co-star of The Hills – Ms Pratt said he told her “I’ve never seen him like this”.
“I’m assuming he’s just completely catatonic,” she added. “We don’t care about the material things or anything like that, but this was their family home.
“This is where they raised their two little kids.”
The Palisades fire is one of five blazes currently burning in southern California– evacuation orders were in place on Tuesday in Altadena after another fire, called the Eaton fire, started near a nature preserve.
A third blaze, called the Hurst fire, also ripped through Sylmar in the north of the city.
And according to the state department Cal Fire, two more blazes – the Woodley fire in Los Angeles and Tyler fire in Riverside – broke out on Wednesday.
Two School Of Rock co-stars, who met at the age of 10, have got married.
Caitlin Hale and Angelo Massagli, who played Marta and Frankie respectively in the 2003 classic alongside Jack Black, tied the knot in New York on Saturday.
The couple brought some of the original cast of the film, which centres on a pretend substitute teacher turning a group of musically gifted school children into a rock band, together to celebrate their nuptials.
Posting on Instagram, Hale, 33, shared various images of the day, including a photobooth picture with a handful of their former cast mates.
The former actress, who now works as a sonographer, wrote under the post: “Special thank you to everyone who contributed to an unforgettable day!”
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Rivkah Reyes, who played bass player Katie in the film, also posted about the wedding, sharing a video on TikTok.
The clip, set to Stevie Nicks’s Edge Of Seventeen, included cameos from Brian Falduto, who played Billy, Joey Gaydos Jr, who played Zack, and Aleisha Allen, who played Alicia, among others.
The use of the song was a nod to one of the scenes from the film where Black and Joan Cusack, who plays headteacher Rosalie Mullins, sing the song in a bar.
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“Celebrating the marriage of Caitlin & Angelo with my forever fam #schoolofrock #wedding,” Reyes wrote alongside the video, which showed them all dancing together.
After appearing together in the film the only contact Hale and Massagli had was through a WhatsApp chat set up with the entire cast, according to The New York Times.
The pair then both left show business and coincidentally reconnected while studying in schools in Florida.
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Massagli, 32, who now works as a lawyer for TikTok, according to The Times, told the paper the familiarity they both had due to working together when they were younger “cut through some of those early relationship hurdles”.