Rose Ayling-Ellis on 'Code Of Silence': 'You're Telling Alison To Stop. I’m Telling Her, "No, Keep Going."'

Rose Ayling-Ellis is waxing lyrical about the black, studded Stella McCartney dress she wore to pick up her MBE for voluntary services to the Deaf community, and why it was important to her. ‘Clothes make a statement about who you are and how you express yourself,’ she says. ‘I think people are like, “Oh, she’s this sweet Deaf girl! How cute is she?” So no, I don’t want to wear preppy clothes and be all girly. Why would I want to do that? I want to be womanly.’

Speaking to Ayling-Ellis, 30, you understand she has to spend a lot of time defying (or, at least, correcting) people’s expectations, which can be exhausting. That’s not to say she shies away from the challenge. This month, she’s taking on her first leading role, as Alison in ITV’s Code of Silence. Working in the canteen at a police station, Alison is called in to do some lip reading, but she soon steps over the line, and is pulled deeper into the investigation than she intended.

Alison, she says, is ‘cheeky’: her choices are questionable, but Ayling-Ellis loves her determination. ‘The lack of opportunity she gets in life means she is grabbing this opportunity,’ she says. ‘I can relate a lot to Alison. [The viewer is] telling her to stop, but I’m telling her, “No, keep going.”’

Alison’s agency is refreshing, and Ayling-Ellis draws parallels between her life and her character’s. After feeling spurned by acting schools and agents, she found her first roles via a Deaf-actors group on Facebook. Her career boomed: she became the first Deaf actor to play a regular character on Eastenders; the first Deaf contestant on Strictly Come Dancing; the first person to sign a CBeebies Bedtime Story in British Sign Language; the first Deaf presenter to work live on the Paralympic Games; and she helped produce the first Barbie doll with a hearing aid. Being ‘first’ can be exciting, but surely it’s tiring to always lay the path?

‘It’s a bit of both. I love my job, I love a challenge, I love trying new things,’ she says. ‘But it is quite sad to be the first, and I’m hoping there’ll be more people to be the first.’ She adds: ‘I’m doing it because I try to open the door for everybody else, and that does put pressure on a bit. If I was hearing, maybe I wouldn’t be doing such a range of jobs.’

And it is a range. The first half of 2025 was packed before Code of Silence even hit screens. She starred in BBC series Reunion, had a huge part in Doctor Who, fronted BBC documentary Old Hands, New Tricks and released a children’s book: Marvellous Messages.

‘I just need to ride the wave while it’s still there,’ she says. It sounds like it could get overwhelming, but Ayling-Ellis says she rarely gets recognised – though she wonders whether people know how to communicate with her. She takes the bus, looks after her plants and shares roast dinners and game nights with friends. According to Ayling-Ellis, these friends would describe her as ‘chaotic, but very determined’. ‘I think they know, when they hang out with me, we’ll have fun,’ she says. ‘We’re just silly. I love being silly.’ She likens her life to Hannah Montana: the Miley Cyrus show where a teen girl lives a double life as a famous pop-star. ‘At home, I’m just Rose,’ she says. ‘When I see my family and friends, I don’t feel like it’s all happening to me.’

With her book being published in the US and Code of Silence airing on the other side of the Atlantic too, it’d be customary to ask her if Hollywood is the next stop. She doesn’t rule it out, but it doesn’t seem like something she’s considered. ‘I think I’m very in my bubble,’ she says, before noting: ‘American Sign Language is different from British, so maybe I need to learn.’

It’s a reminder that an ableist world doesn’t just ignore the challenges Deaf people face; it can also be completely unaware of what obstacles there could be. At her Alternative MacTaggart Lecture, she made headlines, saying: ‘I am disabled because I live and work in a world that disables me’.

‘The thing is,’ she explains, ‘every time I go to a new job, it’s everybody’s first time working with a Deaf person. But it’s not my first time working with people who don’t know how to work with Deaf people. So I’m always repeating myself.’

A busy year means more spotlight, and her hope for the future (along with a holiday in Japan) is that being in that spotlight won’t always include conversations about Deafness. But we’re back in that grey area, because, when asked what brings her joy, or what helps her relax, she falters. ‘I’m not used to talking about myself, or about things that aren’t about being Deaf,’ she says. ‘I talk about all this stuff because it’s a subject I know very deeply and I’m very comfortable talking about it. So when it’s like, “Hey, what do you like? What food do you like?” my mind goes blank. I think it’s important to talk about being Deaf, but sometimes it’s nice not to talk about that, too.’

She remembers visiting a school where all the teachers knew sign language and expecting the Deaf kids to tell her how great that was, in the same way she notes when productions and parts feel inclusive. In fact, they just talked about their love of history. ‘None of them even raised [the teachers knowing sign language], because it’s their norm,’ Ayling-Ellis says. She hopes to follow their lead. ‘I thought, “Wow – I hope one day in the future, these Deaf children will go to work and never have to talk about what I’m talking about.”’

Code of Silence is on ITV1 from 18 May.

Hair and Make-Up in main image: Malin Coleman using Vieve

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