Skins star Megan Prescott brings one-woman show to London’s Soho Theatre this September

Actor, writer and sex-work advocate Megan Prescott is bringing her critically acclaimed solo play ‘Really Good Exposure’ to London’s Soho Theatre. A decade in the making; Really Good Exposure is about a woman’s journey from child stardom to sex work.

After charming and alarming late-aughts viewers in equal measure as the iconic red-haired twin “Katie F*cking Fitch” in Generation 2 of Skins, Megan Prescott found herself needing to explore myriad occupations to keep the rent money coming in as she auditioned for new roles.

Desperate to continue acting, Megan worked as a nanny, a bartender, a bodybuilder, a gin distillery tour guide and a children’s entertainer in order to support herself in the decade following her Skins debut. But, as the cost of living crept ever higher and the jobs flexible enough to fit around auditions stopped paying enough to cover basic expenses, Megan started working as a stripper and subsequently an OnlyFans content creator. It was this last part of the journey, and the attention and risk of social stigma (and the much-needed income which funded Megan taking her show to the Fringe in the first place) that came with it, that formed the inspiration for her debut one-woman show, Really Good Exposure.

The show builds on Megan’s life experience to tell the story of Molly Thomas, a fictional former child star whose career peaked in her teens. Molly, is approaching 30, in a bad place financially and has a career that never quite regained the dizzying heights of her teenage triumphs. Molly is skint. Molly is considering getting into porn. What happened in the intervening years to lead Molly down such a…well, unexpected path? And what, if anything, is waiting at the end of that path for her to find?

Body shaming, peer pressure, mental health stigma, victim blaming and socially accepted sexual harassment were all things that millennial girls could look forward to growing up. The ‘child star to train wreck’ narrative sold newspapers and got clicks online; lots of people made a lot of money from the public rise and fall of these children. But all that comes with the territory – doesn’t it?

Examining the ways in which we treat those who are paid to perform, and why some types of performance are celebrated while others are demonised, Really Good Exposure follows Molly from a child, idolising teen-bride Disney princesses, to a teenager, let loose unchaperoned in a pre-#MeToo world of child stars, to strip clubs and casting couches, to the present-day choices Molly is faced with. Though she has always been paid to perform, Molly will find out how some types of performance are viewed very differently…

To produce this show, and to draw attention to the financial barriers inherent in working in the arts, Megan funded her 2024 Edinburgh run by selling content on OnlyFans. She started her page during the pandemic and has been bracingly honest about how income from OnlyFans has enabled her to continue her acting, writing, and directing career. Last year was the first time she has ever sold full frontal, head-to-toe nude photos on the platform. It was a daunting thing to do for the first time but, as Meg says:

“I am immensely proud to use my own lived experience of these industries to highlight the inconsistencies of how we treat workers based on outdated societal stigma and our own internal bias. We’ve been inundated with portrayals of sex work in the media, often in projects that had absolutely no input from sex workers themselves. We’ve also seen a number of news stories and documentaries come out recently which highlight the ugly side of the acting industry, but actors aren’t often able to speak out for fear of being ostracised and losing work.” Plus… I really needed the money to pay for my Edinburgh Fringe show. Creative careers are financially inaccessible to a lot of people, which is why many people in creative industries subsidise their income with sex work.” MEGAN PRESCOTT.

Megan brings ‘Really Good Exposure’ to the Soho Theatre from 2nd – 13th September. For tickets and more information, visit: https://sohotheatre.com/events/really-good-exposure-by-megan-prescott/