SHE was brought up in the quiet domesticity of Skelmanthorpe.
Now Yorkshire actress Jodie Whittaker is winning rave reviews – from Africa.
Her starring role in the South African romantic comedy White Wedding has opened up a whole new fan base for the former Shelley College student.
The romantic comedy proved a big hit when it was released in the spring and the DVD is being released this month.
And Jodie is also looking forward to three more films out in the coming months, with two filmed in Ireland.
It all means 2009 is set to be a huge year for the 27-year-old actress, who shot to stardom opposite Peter O’Toole three years ago in Venus.
Though Jodie is now London-based, her family home is in Huddersfield with dad Adrian, mum Yvonne and older brother Kris. She went to school at Shelley where she was taught drama by Steven Downs before heading for London’s Guildhall.
White Wedding, described as a South African road movie, saw Whittaker filming in the beautiful countryside around Cape Town and Table Mountain with top African stars Kenneth Nkosi, Rapulana Seiphemo and Zandile Msutwana.
The film follows the loyal, committed and very decent Elvis (Nkosi) as he leaves Johannesburg on Tuesday en route to pick up his best friend and best man Tumi (Seiphemo) in Durban.
Whittaker plays the part of Rose, a young English doctor who fled the altar after discovering her fiancée was serially unfaithful to her and links up with the pair.
Critics described "White Wedding" as an appealing, feel-good movie about love, commitment, intimacy and friendship.
Whittaker is also awaiting the release of Perrier’s Bounty, a comedy drama about Irish gangsters in which she co-stars with Jim Broadbent and Cillian Murphy.
And she was also in the Emerald Isle to film Occi vs The World, alongside Tom Burke and Irish actress Susan Lynch.
The third film, which she has just completed, is The Kid, a gritty thriller set in London and featuring Rupert Friend, James Fox and Bernard Hill.
