Ava Brennan

Ava Brennan (born 7 January 1987) is an English film and theatre actress from Liverpool, Merseyside, England. She is best known for her portrayal of Nala in the musical The Lion King in the West End and in Hamburg.^[1]

Biography

Brennan grew up in Liverpool and attended Belvedere girls’ school. She trained at the Loretta Legge Theatre School in Maghull, where she learned ballet, modern dance and tap dance, and later joined the National Youth Music Theatre, appearing on stage in London aged 15 in Oklahoma!.^[2]

Theatre

Ava Brennan's theatre credits, including Nala in The Lion King (West End), Luisa Vampa in The Count of Monte Cristo, Mercedes in Miami Nights, Dynamite in Hairspray, Cover Aida in Aida, and Ikette in Tina (musical), as well as appearances in Aladdin and Oklahoma!. Brennan also played the female lead Angelica in Lin Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton in London’s West End, and she appears as Fantine in Boublil and Schönberg’s Les Misérables at London’s Sondheim Theatre.^{[3][4][5][6][7][8]}

In 2023 Brennan was cast in a leading role in the new musical stage adaptation of The Secret Life of Bees based on the best-selling novel by Sue Monk Kidd at the Almeida Theatre in North London.^[9]

Film

Ava Brennan has appeared in the following movies: Beauty and the Beast, Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again!, Hellboy and Rocket Man. She also performed as a singer in the famous TV production West Side Stories: The Making of a Classic and Blue Peter. Brennan plays series regular Vee in season 4 of Top Boy for Netflix.^{[10][11][12][13]}

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2014	Teenage Ghost Punk	Dancing Ghost
2017	Beauty and the Beast	Debutante
2018	Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again!	Performer
2019	Hellboy	Alice's Mother
2019	Rocketman	Dancer
2022	Top Boy	Vee	TV Series (5 episodes)