Ann Marie Lewis, who had been teaching acting there on a voluntary basis noticed the nine-year-old\u2019s talent very early on. Since joining her company, the Lewis Talent Agency, Bitania has secured several high-profile screen and photographic gigs.<\/p>\n
It follows a difficult few years for Bitania, from Ethiopia, who had moved to Ireland at the age of four with her mother Lemlem.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t know any English,\u201d Bitania told the Irish Examiner.\n <\/p>\n
The nine-year-old knew she had made it after spotting herself staring back from a billboard.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was on billboards all over Ireland.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n Our teachers took us to the playground, and I could see myself looking back on an ad for MiWadi FAI football camps.\n <\/p>\n
“It was a bit embarrassing because I was only in second class. Not all of the children could see the billboard because it was too high for them. That was when I was in Bunscoil Chr\u00edost R\u00ed in Turners Cross,” she said.”<\/p>\n
Bitania is now a third class pupil of Scoil Mhuire Killorglin after moving to Kerry with her family last July.<\/p>\n
The little girl is no stranger to the screen, having appeared in RT\u00c9 KIDSjr\u2019s Auntie B\u2019s Fantastic Facts. However, she took on her most meaningful role yet in a short film by British based Jason Henry Hogan titled White Knuckle Summer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Set to be released in the coming days, the story centres around two little girls whose worlds collide to form an unbreakable friendship. Bitania\u2019s mother was also cast in the movie after the director approached her to come on board.<\/p>\n
![\"'It](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/4986383_10_articleinline_Bitania_20Ayele_20Killorglin_201.jpg\" "\\"'It")
‘It was meant to be just Bitania and her on-screen dad, but they changed the script so that I could play her mother.’<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t planned,\u201d Lemlem said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was reading lines with Bitania, and they thought I was good at acting. It was meant to be just Bitania and her on-screen dad, but they changed the script so that I could play her mother.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bitania had been selected from a number of children across Britain and Ireland to star in the film. Due to the movie’s theme, the director had been adamant he wanted a child with firsthand experience of direct provision to play the part.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe little girl in it lives in a hotel,\u201d Bitania said. \u201cThere are people protesting outside because they don\u2019t want her and the others to be there. Her own friend\u2019s mum doesn\u2019t want them playing together.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The actor was able to draw on her own experiences for the project.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt can be hard living in a hotel with other people. I can remember one woman banging on the door and shouting at me just for going into the bathroom. That was scary,” she said.<\/p>\n
“I had a lot of fun too though. One lady made me a beautiful cake for my birthday. I will always remember because I wanted to be a Disney princess and this looked just like the Disney castle. It even had the number six on it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bitania has high hopes for the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would really love to be an actor when I grow up. I love watching movies with my dad. Every one of them he recommends, I say I don\u2019t want to watch. By the end of them, I am usually asking when the sequel is coming out.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Lemlem](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/4986386_10_articleinline_Bitania_20Ayele_20Killorglin_203.jpg\" "\\"Lemlem")
Lemlem says she would also like to pursue acting from her time on the project with her daughter.<\/p>\n
Lemlem, who is a chef, would also like to pursue acting.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really enjoyed working on the film, even though it was difficult at times. One of the scenes showed protests at the centre, and it was so real. You could even see the eggs being thrown and people crying. I\u2019m really lucky that it was quiet on the Kinsale Rd, and we never had to deal with protests.<\/p>\n
“I have experienced judgement though because of my skin colour and accent. I\u2019m so grateful for the kindness of people who helped us when we were in the centre on Kinsale Rd.<\/p>\n
“It was hard when I brought over Bitania first because she wasn\u2019t used to the culture. She didn\u2019t want to eat the food because it was so different. For a while, I could only get her to eat cornflakes. Although we missed home, I wanted her to be safe. I didn\u2019t want her growing up in a civil war.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
White Knuckle Summer is set to premiere at the British Film Institute in London on Monday, March 2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A direct provision centre is the last place one might expect to be scouted by a talent agent.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323914,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[7328,61,1629,60,43],"class_list":["post-323913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-film-tv","tag-ie","tag-immigration","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}