When Aimee Lou Wood, Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA) alumna and breakout star of Sex Education’s trio of hit seasons, was three, she kept singing Toni Braxton’s Un-Break My Heart to her dad’s friend, Kit.

“I’d add his name in and sing ‘Un-break my heart, Kit’ and would perform it in front of him,” she laughs over Zoom in her characteristically northern drawl. “I was a weird little kid who just had this wild overactive imagination. I don’t even think I realised that I loved performing.”

What started as a writing bug – Wood’s childhood in Stockport was populated with her writing plays and stories – soon matured into an adoration of performing. A move to London at 17 to pursue acting at RADA led to her falling in love with theatre, which, upon graduation, segued nicely into her audition for the role of Lily in Sex Education. It was at her third audition that the show’s casting directors told her they saw her more as Aimee.

“I initially thought, ‘I can’t be Aimee – she’s described as pretty and popular’ and I wasn’t sure that felt right,” Wood explains. “But as soon as I read the script, I got it. I mean, it’s literally me.”

Filming is underway for the highly anticipated fourth season of Sex Education, which sees Wood reprise her role of Aimee and Schitt’s Creek’s Dan Levy join the cast. For the third season alone, 55 million people tuned in to watch the show on Netflix.

Its success isn’t a surprise to Wood. “There’s a lot of catharsis to be found in Sex Education, and that’s the point – you know watching it that whatever you’re going through, it is all going to be OK. At the heart of the show is talking, it genuinely believes in therapy and healing and I think that makes people feel safe when they’re watching it,” she says.

Thanks to the success of the show, it’s not just TV roles that are coming her way. Her first lead film role in Living, with Bill Nighy, is set for release this year and is adapted from the 1952 Japanese film Ikiru, with a screenplay by Kazuo Ishiguro (Never Let Me Go). There’s also another smaller role in The Electrical Life Of Louis Wain, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Claire Foy. Fashion brands are similarly clamouring for a piece of Wood’s ascending star.

She’s been the face of Levi’s and heads up Swarovski’s Note To Self campaign, a content series that features Wood expressing herself dressed in the brand’s jewels. In celebration of Wood’s candour and honesty, Stylist asked the actor what advice she would give to her younger self.

Sex Education’s Aimee Lou Wood has a few words of advice for her younger self