Talented young black actors are to be helped to fulfil their dreams of stage and screen stardom thanks to a fund launched in memory of Shipley drama student Jenson Marriott who died in January.

The Jenson Marriott Memorial Scholarship Fund for Actors has been set up by the 21-year-old's grieving mother to help budding black actors from poor backgrounds pay for their studies.

Sharon Marriott, 37, of Norwood Avenue, Shipley, hopes the fund, which she is in the process of getting registered as a national charity, will encourage more black youngsters to take drama courses and ultimately help break down racial stereotyping within the acting industry.

She said: "The fund will offer financial support and scholarships to help young black actors, who wouldn't otherwise be able to afford it, through acting courses at higher education level.

"Drama training is a very challenging undertaking, particularly for black youngsters because at the end of the day there still isn't much work around for them which puts an awful lot off taking courses they cannot afford.

"But with this fund at least they won't have to get into debt to do it - it will be one less thing for them to worry about which might just give them the courage to do the training.

"We're not concerned here with wealthy middle-class black children but kids who have talent but whose families aren't very well off.''

Jenson, a former student at Nab Wood Grammar School who appeared as a thuggish gang member in the BBC's Screen Two drama documentary Criminal when he was 17, was in the second year of a drama degree course at Middlesex University when he died of cancer in January.

His mother, who teaches English at Bradford and Ilkley Community College said the fund would be a fitting tribute to her son.

She said: "Jenson was a very talented, hardworking and spirited young man and this will help keep his memory and intellectual spirit alive.''

So far the fund's total stands at more than £2,000, thanks to donations from friends and £1,000 from Jenson's estate, but money from an insurance policy and fundraising event run by students at Middlesex should soon take the total to about £5,000.

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