Ambika Mod to Grace Beverley: All the icons who made it onto The Times’ Young Power List

You’ve seen Forbes 30 under 30 list but now we’ve got a brand new Young Power List from the Sunday Times and it is FULL of vibey people.

The list picks 25 inspiring people under the age of 30 who are “artists and entertainers, sportsmen and women dominating their field, entrepreneurs changing the world for the better, tech trailblazers, a political powerhouse and many more.

The winners, “from across the UK and Ireland, were chosen by editors across every section at The Sunday Times who selected not just the best young talent but the people who are making a real impact in the world and whose success they believe will endure.”

So here are all the people who made it onto The Times Young Power List 2024:

Ambika Mod

Also slaying making it onto the Forbes 30 Under 30 List this year is Ambika Mod. Before One Day, Ambika Mod starred as Shruti in BBC’s This is Going to Hurt. Then the world became obsessed with her as Emma in Netflix’s adaptation of One Day. The show became Netflix’s most-watched series globally in the first week of its release.

She told The Sunday Times: “Now I’ve got to a place in my career where I can slow down, enjoy it and revel in the creative side a bit more,”

Grace Beverley

 

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Grace Beverley started out by posting workout videos from her room at the University of Oxford. She now owns three business companies, her activewear brand TALA, fitness app Shreddy and also sells daily planners via The Productivity Method.

Giving her one piece of advice, Grace said: “Identify what isn’t currently working for you so that you can alleviate it. A pivot doesn’t necessarily need to be 180 degrees, it can be 45 degrees and that can still be hugely effective.”

Amelia Dimoldenberg

Famous for her YouTube interview series Chicken Shop Date, Amelia Dimoldenberg has gone from interviewing minor celebs in a chicken shop to flirting with Andrew Garfield on the Golden Globes red carpet.

She started Chicken Shop Date in 2014 and has now gained over 2.3 million subscribers recently. interviewing big stars like Paul Mescal and Shania Twain.

“After ten years of Chicken Shop Date, I feel so proud to have stuck with something until everyone saw the potential I always did,” she said.

Leah Williamson

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England and Arsenal football player Leah Williamson led the Lionesses to victory in the European Championships in 2022. It was England’s first football trophy in 56 years.

Giving her one piece of advice, Leah said: “The best career advice I’ve ever received is to just be true to who you are. Always believe in yourself and never take no for an answer.”

Bukayo Saka

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Another footballer to make the list, Bukayo Saka signed his first long-term contract with Arsenal at only 18. Now 22, he has had to deal with racism and abuse after his decisive penalty was saved in the final of the Euros against Italy in 2020 but has come out on top, becoming Arsenal’s Player of the Season for a second consecutive season.

Keir Mather

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Keir Mather, at 26, is the youngest MP in the UK. Labour MP for Selby and Ainsty, he overturned a 20,000 Tory majority where the average age of voters is 55.

Top of his list of priorities in parliament is pushing for more support for people struggling with the cost-of-living crisis and tackling insufficient provision for children with special educational needs.

CMAT

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“I signed my first record deal at 25, which by the standards of the pop music industry is middle-aged,” says CMAT, country-rock singer whose real name is Ciara-Mary-Alice Thompson.

She released her debut album, If My Wife New I’d Be Dead, in 2022, and the follow-up, Crazymad, for Me, arrived last year. Both records went to No. 1 in Ireland. This year, she made the BBC Sound of 2024 longlist and was nominated for International Artist of the Year at the Brit Awards.

Nicholas Galitzine

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In May, Nicholas Galitzine will appear opposite Anne Hathaway in The Idea of You, a rom-com film adaptation of the 2917 book inspired by Harry Styles. Before this, Nicholas made his name starring in Red, White & Royal Blue and Purple Hearts, as well as in the comedy Bottoms.

His big piece of advice is: “In moments of doubt, I trust all the hard work that’s taken me this far. You need a healthy balance of work ethic while keeping a sense of freedom and play. Trust your instincts.”

Luke Littler

Luke Littler began playing darts on a magnetic darts board when he was 18 months old. By eight years old, he was using a full-height board and throwing the darts the official competitive distance of 7ft. At only 17, when he reached the final of the World Darts Championship in January, he went from being relatively unknown to one of the sport’s biggest names.

Joe Seddon

Attending a state school in Morley, West Yorkshire, a former textiles and coal mining town, Joe Seddon says attending Oxford University “was never on my radar”. But whilst studying PPE at Oxford, Joe used the last £200 of his student loan and his self-taught coding skills, to found the Zero Gravity website and app.

It identifies ambitious students from low-opportunity backgrounds and connects them with mentors, masterclasses and scholarships, as well as internships and job opportunities with major UK firms such as HSBC. The app has supported more than 8,000 students to get into top universities, including 800 into Oxbridge.

Hannah Chappatte

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In her final year at Bristol University in 2019, Chappatte became fixated on the fact that although 2.9 million students go to university every year, there was no marketplace that allowed them to compare housing options.

So she founded Hybr, the student-letting platform in 2020. Four years on, the company has helped 30,000 students and has signed up 30 educational institutions, from the LSE and UCL to the University of Bristol. It has also generated more than £15 million in sales for its clients.

Josephine Philips

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While studying for a degree in physics and philosophy at King’s College London, Josephine stopped buying fast fashion.“I learnt that the fast-fashion industry was based on the exploitation of women of colour. I started to realise the importance of quality clothing with longevity,” she says. Yet she was surprised to find most tailors were cash-only, collection-only and relied on paper tickets.”

So she started up SOJO, an alterations platform that offers door-to-door clothing repairs. Today, the app has raised £2.1 million in investment and SOJO runs a permanent base inside Selfridges, as well as becoming the official tailoring partner for brands such as Nobody’s Child, Ganni and Nanushka.

Jack Draper

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Touted as Andy Murray’s successor, 22-year-old Jack Draper is currently 43rd in the world rankings and British no.2. “I knew tennis was going to be my career when I was 12,” he told The Times.“I’m at a ranking now where my childhood dreams are in front of me. I really want to be one of the best players in the world.”

Jack Draper made the last 16 in the US Open in September, his best grand slam result to date, and is estimated to be worth £3 million from prize money and endorsement deals.

Leo Reich

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Cambridge grad Leo Reich is a comedian who, according to The Times, “simultaneously embodies and skewers the vanity and narcissism of Gen Z, while articulating very real fears about financial insecurity, climate change and political turmoil.”

Four years into his career, he has picked up numerous comedy awards and had a sold-out show at EartH in Hackney, which was recorded for an HBO special. He is now filming Lena Dunham’s new Netflix series, Too Much.

Jamie Chadwick

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Jamie Chadwick is Britain’s most successful female racing driver and is breaking down barriers for women in motorsports. She started go-karting aged 11 on the Isle of Man. “I wasn’t particularly talented when I first started but I just remember loving it and immediately wanting to go back,” she says.

She is now a three-time W-Series Champion, the only female driver to win a Formula 3 race and an MRF Championship, and the only female and youngest driver yet to win a British GT Championship.

Her main piece of advice is: “Don’t let anyone put you off. There are so many more opportunities out there than people realise. Don’t be afraid to put yourself out of your comfort zone.”

Ahana Banerjee

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Another one to also feature on the Forbes 30 Under 30 List Ahana Banerjee founded Clear, a skincare app during her final year studying physics at Imperial College London.

“I had an app to track my period, my diet and my exercise, but nothing for my skin,” she told The Times. “I wanted to find other people with the same skin type as me and find out exactly what they were using and what was working.” Her app now has 17,500 users worldwide and has raised $1 million in investment.

Caleb Azumah Nelson

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The oldest on the list, Caleb Azumah Nelson secured an agent for his award-winning debut novel Open Water while he was working at the Apple Store. From that point onward, life was “like a fever dream”.

His writing, which explores black culture, masculinity, love and grief, has earned him the Costa first novel award and recognition on the American National Book Foundation’s “5 under 35” list of promising debut writers. Now he is directing TV adaptations of Open Water and his second novel, Small Worlds.

Louis Rees-Zammit

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23-year-old Wales rugby union star turned NFL player Louis Rees-Zammit won the Six Nations Championship with Wales and in March moved over to American Football where he now plays for the Kansas City Chiefs. His big piece of advice is: “My father told me not to have any regrets. And I knew I would regret it for the rest of my life if I never gave American football a real go.”

Maximilian Davis

28-year-old Maximilian Davis is the creative director of the Italian heritage brand Ferragano. He has been credited with injecting a new vitality into the 96-year-old fashion house and at last year’s Fashion Awards was named British Womenswear Designer of the Year. His main piece of advice is: “Act like you’re in the job you want in three or four years’ time.”

Mya-Rose Craig

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“I was an opinionated 12-year-old on the internet and lots of people didn’t care about what I had to say until I turned 18,” says the UK’s best known young ornithologist, Mya-Rose Craig. “I had to learn how to articulate myself.”

She did, and 14 publishers fought over the rights to her memoir, Birdgirl, which became a bestseller when she was only 20. She is now finishing a degree in human, social and political sciences at Cambridge University, so, momentarily, the birdwatching that launched her career has become a “form of mindfulness”.

Abby Cook

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Blue Peter presenter Abby Cook discovered wheelchair racing when she was 12. Abby has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which affects connective tissue and causes pain and fatigue, so she uses a wheelchair to get around. She was then asked to be a Blue Peter presenter off the back of her TikTok.

“They asked if I wanted to become a new presenter and I thought, “Yeah, why not? You only live once,” she says. Abby is now the show’s 42nd presenter and a mega fan who can name all her predecessors.

 Harry Gestetner

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Harry Gestetner moved to the US from London when he was 15 and created his app Fanfix from his college dorm room. It allows influencers to profit from their fan bases by offering a monthly paid subscription for content such as personal DMs, vlogs and social media posts.

By the time he graduated two years later, the company had been acquired for a reported $65 million.

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Featured image via Netlflix, YouTube and Instagram.