The Progress 1000: London's most influential people 2019 – 25 future faces 25 and under

8 October 2019

ARLO

Singer
This east Londoner’s soaring vocals and fresh sounding soul-pop have been making serious waves for some time now, with this year’s Rivers being his most well-received track yet. Plenty more such songs are to follow in the coming months.

Maro Itoje

Maro Itoje
World Rugby via Getty Images

24, rugby player
Playing for Saracens, Maro has already won four English Premiership rugby titles, three European Rugby Champions Cup titles, and two Six Nations titles. Despite his youth, this Camden- born and raised star is already one of the most accomplished flankers in the national team, currently competing in the Rugby World Cup in Japan.

Sophie Jonas

23, actress
Fans of Game of Thrones were won over by Sansa Stark’s gruelling eight series character arc, which saw her grow from a spoilt little lady into one of the seven kingdoms’ most dominant women as Queen of the North. But it was Sophie Jonas nee Turner’s off camera personality which won her the admiration of fans all over the world, including the musician Joe Jonas, who she married in May at A Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Jasmine Lee-Jones

Helen Murray

20, writer
Lee-Jones’s provocatively-titled play Seven Methods Of Killing Kylie Jenner at the Royal Court deals with issues of race, appropriation and beauty. It has been a huge hit, establishing its creator as one of the most exciting new theatre voices around.

Moe Redish

24, furniture designer
Winner of the 100% Forward design award, Redish’s work in timber (and sometimes ceramics) sees him fusing traditional joinery with modern techniques and has also seen him nominated in the Young Furniture Makers Awards for the past two years running.

Bertie Gilbert

22, actor/writer/director
Gilbert got his break playing Scorpius Malfoy in Harry Potter, but now operates in the indie cinema world, with numerous DIY short films to his name as a director on Youtube, where he has amassed almost half a million subscribers.

Amelia Dimoldenberg

Dave Benett

25, founder of Chicken Shop Date
Central St Martins graduate Dimoldenberg’s unique Youtube show combines fried chicken with flirting and blew up very quickly indeed. Since then she has taken it on tour, interviewed some of the biggest names in UK grime and fronted documentaries for Vice and Channel 4.

Shahmir Sanni

25, activist
Formerly a volunteer for Vote Leave, Sanni became a whistle-blower who raised concerns about overspending on the campaign and was fired for his troubles. Now he is working with investigators and journalists to further expose corruption in Westminster.

Travis Alabanza

23, LGBTQ+ performer and writer
Alabanza’s recent solo show, Burgerz, was widely acclaimed and won a Total Theatre award in Edinburgh this year. Starred in Derek Jarman’s Jubilee at the Lyric Hammersmith and was the youngest recipient of the artist-in-residence at The Tate workshop programme.

Alexandra Ridout

20, musician and composer
Trumpeter who won the BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year award in 2016 at just 17 and in 2018 won the British Jazz Rising Star award. Leads her own band, The Alexandra Ridout Quintet.

Holly Leslie

21, co-founder and CEO of Adla, a free stylist over Instagram
Leslie’s start-up uses AI to help fashion-lovers escape the hours of frustration searching for clothes on Instagram. In December of last year Adla was awarded a $10,000 equity-free grant by Y Combinator. Like being in a store, Adla allows you to try on clothes for free and have them picked up for free. Quality and sizing across Instagram micro-brands can vary massively so Adla offers “try before you buy”.

Enrique Uwadiae

22, anti-knife activist
A former gang member turned pastor, Enrique turned his life around after he was stabbed. After growing up on the Crawford estate, in south-east London, he now mentors young people who want to run away from a life of crime through the SPAC Nation church which was funded by Tobi Adegboyega, the Nigerian-born cousin of Star Wars actor John Boyega.

Akshay Ruparelia

Carl Fox

21, estate agent
Ruparelia set up Harrow-based online estate agent Doorsteps three years ago, selling properties with an agency fee as low as £99, by using a £7,000 loan from his family. The business now employs around 50 people and has about 2,000 properties on its books. Ruparelia owns 97 per cent of the business, making him worth roughly £16 million.

Esme Creed-Miles

Matt Writtle

19, actress
The daughter of English film actress Samantha Morton, Creed-Miles made her film debut in 2007 before her career took off this year, playing the title role in the television adaptation of spy thriller Hanna, and starring in indie films Pond Life and Undercliffe. She attended Bedales School in Hampshire and is also setting her sights on both writing and directing, as well as making music.

Sheryn Akiki

25, designer
With a focus on making clothes for the busy, working woman, Akiki won the L’Oréal Professionnel Creative Award in February after graduating from Central Saint Martins. Born in Beirut, Akiki moved to London when she was 17, and weaves political statement into her intentionally dishevelled designs, referencing conflicts in the Middle East with her hints at getting dressed at a moment’s notice.

Nicole Chui

24, artist and embroiderer
Known for her customisation of images, textiles and art through hand-embroidery, Hong Kong-born artist Nicole Chui has worked for Nike, ASOS and Vogue Italia (to name a few). She describes her style as “messy and disruptive” and, through her work, she is seeking to provide a platform for those who are under-represented.

Rachel Chinouriri

19, singer-songwriter
Born and raised in Croydon, Chinouriri caught the eye of BBC Introducing in 2018 with her raw demo of Weight of the World. Since then, she’s played at Field Day festival, been named “track of the week” on BBC Radio 1 and has now signed her first publishing deal with Reservoir Media.

Saku Panditharatne

25, Founder of Asteroid, an AR software company
Cambridge-educated Panditharatne is a computer graphics programmer, virtual reality enthusiast, ex-VC analyst at Andreessen Horowitz, former intern at Oculus, and recent creator of a neural network MOOC (Massive Open Online Course). She won a Google competition at 16, turned down a Peter Thiel fellowship and interned at Oculus whilst studying maths and computer science at Cambridge. She went on to work at Silicon Valley’s famous venture capitalists Andreessen Horowitz before returning to the UK.

Ellen Jones

20, speaker, writer and campaigner
After being named Stonewall’s Young Campaigner of The Year in 2017 and winning the MTV EMA Generation Change award in 2018, Ellen Jones is on a mission to raise awareness about LGBTQ+ rights, mental health & autism through her activism. She’s spoken at Cambridge University, on The Guilty Feminist podcast and is now studying at the University of London.

Tolu Coker

25, designer
Coker’s eponymous fashion label was launched by her Central Saint Martin’s graduate collection in 2017 — a collection which deconstructed the diasporic black identity. Since then, publications such as Vogue, Love Magazine, Dazed and Hunger have all lauded Coker, whilst celebrities including Rihanna and Steff London have been spotted wearing her creations.

Bella Lack

16, climate activist
Despite being just 16 years old, Bella has amassed a huge 150k followers on Instagram thanks to her work as a youth ambassador for the Born Free Foundation. She also was one of the youngest speakers at the Zero Hour march.

Izzy Bizu

Dave Benett

25, singer-songwriter
Bizu has supported Coldplay, Sam Smith, Rudimental and Foxes on all of their latest UK tours. She has also been enjoying plenty of mainstream support from the likes of BBC 1’s Annie Mac and BBC Radio 1Xtra’s Trevor Nelson.

Daisy Edgar-Jones

21, actor
With two highly anticipated projects in the pipeline, an adaptation of HG Wells’ War of the Worlds starring Gabriel Byrne and the BBC version of Sally Rooney’s Normal People, the Muswell Hill-born actress is sure to have a stratospheric 2020. She made her debut in the TV show Outnumbered at age 18 and was trained at the National Youth Theatre.

Hamish Stephenson

22, photographer and director
This photographer and director has worked for global brands including Nike, Adidas, Under Armour and Puma. His work combines an appreciation of the history of film and photography with a playful spirit that reflects current culture while his side project, Gaffer Magazine, profiles the next generation of British footballers, creatives and musicians.

Joy Crookes

20, singer-songwriter
Her soulful, elegant voice and mature songwriting have made Crookes one of the most exciting musical artists to emerge this year. Born in south London to a Bangladeshi mother and an Irish father, Crookes’s mesmerising performance of her song ‘Mother May I Sleep with Danger?’ has been viewed al-most 8 million times on YouTube, while her track ‘London Mine’ is a soaring ode to the capital.

The Progress 1000, in partnership with the global bank Citi, is the Evening Standard’s celebration of the people changing London’s future for the better. #Progress1000

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in