Elsie Adams and Precious Assah win BAFTA Young Presenters 2023

Today, BAFTA announces 10-year-old Elsie Adams and 18-year-old Precious Assah as winners of its national Young Presenters Competition; one of BAFTA’s key initiatives for children and young people spotlighting and nurturing the nation’s budding creative talent.

An expert judging panel, including presenters Rhys Stephenson, Elle Osili-Wood, MC Grammar, Jenny Lawrence, Richie Driss and Inel Tomlinson, selected Precious and Elsie as the winning entrants, from Blackheath and Edinburgh respectively. For her final audition, Elsie interviewed Elle Osili-Wood and talked to her about her career achievements, her taste in video games, and what biscuit she prefers to dunk in her tea. Precious chatted to last year’s BAFTA Young Presenter (age 10-14) winner Jeriah Kibusi about his learnings from across the last year and balancing school with his acting career, and she asked him to teach her a dance move. You can watch clips of their winning interviews here.

Elle Osili-Wood, Television Presenter and BAFTA Young Presenter Jury Member said: "I was thrilled to take part in BAFTA Young Presenter this year, and blown away by the talent on show, especially from our fantastic winners. I loved being interviewed by Elsie - she's incredibly self-assured, and undoubtedly a natural presenter. She has everything you need to be great on camera; she’s curious, entertaining, and importantly, able to command without seeming commanding. Precious has such fantastic energy - everyone on set was smiling, which is always the sign of an exciting new presenter. On screen, it can be hard to balance personality and professionalism, but she managed flawlessly, bringing fun and warmth to her audition. I can’t wait to see what’s next for them both, and have no doubt we’ll be seeing them on screen soon.”

Elsie and Precious will receive a host of unique opportunities to present across BAFTA’s Children and Young People’s programmes, as well as external appearances over the next 12 months. Elsie, who would love to interview YouTubers Nikki Lilly and DanTDM, will take part in the BAFTA Scotland Awards and other opportunities throughout the year. Precious, who would love to interview Nella Rose and Mo Gilligan, will take-up a host of red carpet opportunities throughout the year including at the BAFTA TV Awards next year.

Elsie Adams, 10, said: “Winning means a lot because one of my dream jobs is to be a presenter or a reporter. I was extremely excited to hear that I had won I felt like I had done well, but maybe I hadn’t shown enough confidence. I’m generally very shy unless there’s a camera. I’m very happy I have the opportunity to gain more confidence speaking to others and just putting myself out there. What I want to say is that I’m thrilled that I get to work with BAFTA and get all of these amazing experiences.”

Precious Assah, 18, said: “I'm so grateful to God and the BAFTA Team for this amazing opportunity. It still doesn't feel real that I've won, I'm just over the moon! Being a BAFTA Young Presenter allows me to be my creative and bubbly self. I hope to use this opportunity to inspire other young individuals and network with many people in the industry.”

Lisa Prime, Head of Children & Young People’s Programme at BAFTA added: “The Young Presenter competition is one of the highlights of my BAFTA year.  It’s the culmination of a year-round programme that encourages self-expression, confidence, creativity and interaction – important life skills for everyone, as well as presenters.  In addition to the pleasure of viewing hundreds of films about what’s important to young people, we also get to spend a day with our finalists. It’s such a delight to welcome  them to BAFTA HQ and witness the excitement and inspiration these incredibly talented young people take from the experience. Congratulations to all our finalists and a warm welcome to the BAFTA family for Elsie and Precious. We’re so excited to be working with you over the next year.”

The finalists for this year’s Young Presenters are:

10 – 14 Category

• Ashwin Sakthivel, 11, from London
• Elsie Adams, 10, from Edinburgh (winner)
• Iara Lemon, 10, from Stockport
• Laila Manzoor, 11, from London

15 – 18 Category

• Briliana Duneva, 18, from Brighton
• Clement Locks, 16, from Steyning
• Daniel Kidd, 16, from Glasgow
• Precious Assah, 18, from London (winner)
• Skyler Atkinson-Kempt, 18, from Bolton

To enter the competition, children and young people aged between 10-18 years’ old were invited to create and submit a short video on what ‘connection’ means to them, linked to the theme of Children’s Mental Health Week. 2023 marks the seventh year the Young Presenters Competition has been running. It forms part of a wide-ranging programme for children and young people including the BAFTA Kids’ Roadshow with Place2Be aimed at primary school students, and its Young Game Designers (YGD) initiative, open to 10-18-year-olds – offering skills, networks and nurturing creative confidence to pursue careers in the games industry.

Previous winners Jeriah Kibusi, Maryam Drammeh, Daniel McGovern, Samaira Iqbal, Gracie Gosling, Tianna Moore and Braydon Bent, have gone on to interview members of the Royal Family and leading figures across the creative and sports industries, from BAFTA’s President HRH The Prince of Wales, to England and Manchester United footballer Jesse Lingard, and the cast of the Netflix hit show Heartstopper, and even become nominated for a BAFTA in the Presenter category at last year’s Children & Young People Awards.