SHE has been performing since she was a little girl.

And now Jade Kilburn has taken one step forwards towards her dream of becoming a full-time professional actress.

The 22-year-old has won a place at the prestigious New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts.

She beat thousands of performers from across America and beyond to secure a spot at the acting school.

There Jade, from Lindley, will get the chance to hone her skills in acting for both stage and screen.

To bag a place on the Platform Year training programme she had to perform two contemporary monologues to an audition panel.

Jade chose a piece from a play called Road and the beginning speech from the comedy film Bridget Jones's Diary.

She said: “It was probably the scariest audition I’ve done because it meant to much.

“I didn’t really know how well I did because the panel didn’t give much away.

“But when I found out that I’d got a place I felt this explosion of excitement.

“There were less than 200 places available and they saw people from all around America and Europe.”

For Jade, a former Greenhead College student, securing her place at drama school was a lifelong dream come true.

She started performing at the age of six with the Mad Music acting and dancing group at Huddersfield New College.

Jade then went on to join the youth theatre group at the Lawrence Batley Theatre before performing with local professional company Benchmark Theatre.

She has performed in Shakespearean dramas – including a production of Romeo and Juliet in Greenhead Park – to more modern shows like black comedy Bones at the LBT.

Her passion for theatre has also been shown though her work as Jade has been a member of the Huddersfield theatre’s front of house staff as well as working as a special education teacher for Paddock Junior and Infant School.

Jade said: “I have always loved acting and to be able to wake up in the morning and go to work to do something I love would be amazing.

“I am really excited at the thought of going to drama school in New York – and it will be lovely on an evening to go and see a proper Broadway show.”

Before she can take up her place at the school later this year, Jade must first prove that she has enough funding.

She has applied for grants and is appealing to local businesses to sponsor her to raise the £30,000 she will need for her first year.

Jade said: “It’s a bit up in the air at the moment, I can’t apply for a visa until I can prove that I can afford to live there.

“But hopefully I will get the chance to go. This has always been my home but I’m excited to get out there and see America and come back and tell everybody all about it.”