Iz Hesketh

Biography

Iz Hesketh (born 22 September 1997) is a British actress of British and Italian heritage who is a transgender woman and performs as a drag artist. Best known for portraying the transgender teenager Kitty Draper in the Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks from January to August 2024, Hesketh has appeared in other productions including the Disney+ series Renegade Nell (2024) and the short film Tip Toe.

Hesketh, a working-class individual from northwest England, began hormone replacement therapy around 2023, reporting subjective benefits such as euphoria, and initiated a GoFundMe campaign in February 2024 seeking £20,000 toward facial feminization surgery to further modify her appearance, raising over £10,000 from public donations by mid-2024. Her role in Hollyoaks involved a storyline centered on youth transitioning, for which she received a Best Newcomer award at the Radio Times Soap Awards.