Harley Bird is an English actress and voice-over artist. She is known for being the third voice of Peppa Pig. She took on the role in 2007 and moved away from the role in 2020. She was replaced by 9-year old English school girl Amelie Bea Smith.
Bird was born in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, as Harley Fiona Riley and lives in Tring, Hertfordshire, with her parents, Gill and Craig Riley. She is the second eldest of four children and has two sisters, Taylor and Olivia, and a brother called Rosco. Bird used to attend Tring Park School for the Performing Arts on their Tring Park Associates programme before enrolling into the main school, where she remains.
Career
At age 5 she was signed to Alphabet Kidz Talent Agency. A month later she gained the role of Peppa in the children's animated series Peppa Pig. She replaced the previous actors, Lily Snowden-Fine and Cecily Bloom. She voiced Peppa for seasons 3, 4, and 5 of the series. In her role, she has lent her voice to Peppa Pig in The Official BBC Children in Need Medley as well as various other pieces of show merchandise. Bird has made many TV appearances and radio broadcasts, including presenting a behind-the-scenes feature on CBBC's Newsround and being interviewed in character as Peppa on BBC Radio One's Chris Moyles Show. She became the youngest British Academy Film Award winner ever as she won the Performer award at the 2011 British Academy Children's Awards for her voice-artist work as Peppa Pig. Harley is nominated for 'Most Promising Newcomer' at the British Independent Film Awards 2013. In January 2020, Bird announced that she was leaving the role of Peppa Pig after 13 years in the role. She was soon replaced by Elena "Bee" Brown-Smith, a 5-year old preschooler from Cardiff, Wales. Bird also starred as Daisy in Blueberry, a 2009 short film which won the Audience Award at the Cinequest Film Festival, She also starred as Piper alongside Saoirse Ronan in Kevin Macdonald's How I Live Now, released in 2013. She also starred in Goodbye, a radio drama by Morwenna Banks, her Peppa Pig co-star, that aired on BBC Radio 4 alongside Olivia Colman, Natascha McElhone, Darren Boyd, Alison Steadman, and John Simm. Bird currently plays the lead role of Sammy in Disney Channel's webisode series, So Sammy.
