Lloyd Everitt’s dyslexic means he has to replace his Casualty scripts with pictures

December 12, 2016

‘Jez Andrews’ in Casualty, nominated for Best Newcomer at National TV Awards
Wasn’t diagnosed with dyslexia until he was studying at drama school in Wales
Sufferers struggle with spelling, reading, writing and pronouncing words
Lloyd, 23, ‘just started drawing pictures’ to help him remember and ‘it worked’
He uses the same symbol for each word and has developed his own language

Zara Rubin For Mailonline

Published:
09:10 EST, 12 December 2016

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Updated:
09:23 EST, 12 December 2016

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He might be touted as one of the UK’s brightest young TV talents but Lloyd Everitt, 23, can only do his job by replacing his worded scripts with pictures.

The actor, who plays Jez Andrews in BBC’s Casualty, is so severely dyslexic that he has been forced to use an ingenious method to help him read his scripts.

The Cardiff-born star has just been nominated for Best Newcomer at the National Television Awards.

Actor Lloyd Everitt (pictured) plays paramedic Jez Andrews in the long-running BBC hospital show, Casualty

Unlike most actors, he has to replace all his lines with pictures – effectively meaning he is forced to rewrite all his scripts.

Dyslexia sufferers can have problems with spelling words, reading quickly, writing words, pronouncing words when reading aloud, and understanding what they are reading.

Lloyd wasn’t diagnosed with the condition until he was an adult studying at Cardiff’s Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.

‘In school no one picked up on it,’ he said. ‘I had spelling mistakes but I loved writing stories.

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‘When I got to drama school it was the first time I had to learn lines and I found that really hard to do.

‘I managed to get by using the covering and remembering technique.

‘Then I had an audition that meant I had to learn 10 pages of lines.

‘I just started drawing pictures to help remember and it worked. It was like a spiritual revolution!’

Lloyd suffers from dyslexia that went undiagnosed until he was an adult studying at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama

‘Like a spiritual revolution’: The Cardiff-born star, who has been praised for his work on the show, has created his own picture-based language to help him read and learn his scripts

This technique came in handy when he was cast as Othello. As well as making history as the youngest actor to ever play Othello on the Globe Theatre stage, he also had a lot of drawing to do.

He said: ‘I used the technique to remember an entire Shakespeare play, it took me two weeks to draw out the whole thing.

WHAT IS DYSLEXIA?

Dyslexia is a common learning difficulty that can cause problems with reading, writing and spelling.

It’s a ‘specific learning difficulty’, which means it causes problems with certain abilities used for learning, such as reading and writing. Unlike a learning disability, intelligence isn’t affected.

It’s estimated that up to 1 in every 10 to 20 people in the UK has some degree of dyslexia.

Dyslexia is lifelong problem that can present challenges on a daily basis, but support is available to improve reading and writing skills and help those with the problem be successful at school and work.

Source: NHS Choices

‘In the play there were words like tyrant, for instance. For that I would draw a picture of Saddam Hussein.’

Lloyd, who learns his lines on the exercise bike at the gym, always uses the same symbol for each word and has basically developed his own written language.

‘I don’t pretend to be Picasso! I use the same picture for the same words every time,’ he said.

‘Sometimes I will draw the first thing that comes into my head and when I look back I can’t remember it. Then I have to be more creative and change the picture.

‘Sometimes they have to be just rude or humorous so I remember them.. For instance for the word man or women I draw a man or woman.

‘What I really like is that the Egyptians did a similar thing with hieroglyphics. I never noticed it until someone pointed it out.’

Lloyd is now nervously waiting to see if he has made the final four shortlist of the National Television Awards on January 25.

Previous winners include EastEnders stars Jessie Wallace and Tamzin Outhwaite.

Lloyd said: ‘I feel proud and want to thank my family who have helped me do it. I want to dedicate the nomination to my gran because she helped me be myself.’