There’s nothing better than when a soap star heads over to Hollywood and achieves great things, which is why we were delighted to see Rachel Shenton triumph at Sunday (4 March) night’s Oscars. 

The actress and writer is probably best-known for playing Mitzee Minniver in ‘Hollyoaks’, but since leaving the soap in 2013, she’s been focusing her efforts on a wide range of projects – and her hard work has paid off big time. 

Rachel and her partner Chris Overton, won the Best Live Action Short Film for ‘The Silent Child’, which tells the story of a four-year-old deaf girl, learning to communicate. 

Taking to the stage to collect the prize from Tiffany Haddish and Maya Rudolph – who were the presenters of the night, by the way – Rachel composed herself before signing her speech as she gave it. 

“I made a promise to our 6-year-old lead actress that I’d sign this speech. And my hands are shaking a little bit, so, I apologise,” she said. “Our movie is about a deaf child being born into a world of silence.

“It’s not exaggerated or sensationalised for the movie, this is happening, millions of children all over the world live in silence and face communication barriers, and particularly, access to education.

“Deafness is a silent disability. You can’t see it and it’s not life-threatening, so I want to say the biggest of thank yous to the Academy for allowing us to put this in front of a mainstream audience.” 

Soap fans were delighted by Rachel’s win: 

Other stars who were victorious on the night were Allison Janney, Sam Rockwell and Roger Deakins, a British cinematographer who has previously been nominated 14 times, but never won.