Shelley Longworth
Shelley Longworth is an actor, born 1976.
Most of Shelley Longworth's working life has been spent in a booth. She has voiced children's television for the better part of two decades, on Fimbles, Little Princess, Big Barn Farm, OOglies and, most durably, The Octonauts, plus Chick P in the martial arts cartoon Chop Socky Chooks and Billy in Stan Lee's Superhero Kindergarten. Preschool voice work pays the rent and collects none of the credit, and it is genuinely difficult: pitch, energy and clarity held level for hours at a stretch.
On camera she is best known as Sam Wood in Benidorm, the holiday resort sitcom, a role she played in two separate stretches, from 2011 to 2012 and again from 2017 to 2018. She also co-starred in the 2007 sketch series It's Adam and Shelley.
Film has taken her in supporting parts across a wide spread of tones: Norrine in Vampire Academy, Miss Samson in Suffragette, Sarah in the 2025 drama Steve. It is the shape of a career built on reliability rather than on a single breakout, and it is a far more common shape than the industry likes to admit.
Movies (3)
TV (6)
Where to start with Shelley Longworth
To see her on camera rather than in a booth, go to Benidorm, where Sam is one of the better things in a sitcom broader than its reputation deserves.
For the voice work, Octonauts is the one the children in your house already know by heart, and Chop Socky Chooks is the odder, funnier option for the adults who wandered in halfway through.
The film credits are supporting turns worth catching in passing: Suffragette is the serious one, Vampire Academy the campy misfire that has since found its people, and Steve the most recent. Stan Lee's Superhero Kindergarten rounds out the children's list if you are working through the voice roles.