News & Updates

Back again! I'm sorry it took me so long to make this post; it was actually super hard to try find clips from The Crossing! Anyway, I finally managed to add all 10 clips to our Youtube Channel and over 400 screencaps to the gallery! If any of you are interested in seeing the full episode, it is still available on the bbc iPlayer until Thursday. Of course this only applies to UK residents saddly.

Did you guys manage to catch Ramona as Megan in The Crossing? It was so cool seeing her in a totally different role to Karen Brockman. It must have been funny for Ramona to have a proper script! I really enjoyed her performace. Little Ramona has some serious acting chops. If you missed it, watch the clips!

I have some pretty cool news guys! Thanks to my friend Lisa, I discovered that Ramona has been nominated for a Young Artist Award in the category of Best Performance in a Voice-over Role, Young Actress for her role as Gwen in Arthur Christmas! The YAA's are american awards, the first nomination Ramona has ever received outside of the UK! She was nominated because Arthur Christmas had such a wide release. Unfortunatly for us, we can't vote in these awards because the winners are picked by YAA members. The ceremony will be held on May 6th in California, USA. I highly doubt Ramona will attend, but it's still awesome for her to be recognised in the states for the first time. Best of luck to Ramona, here's hoping she wins!

BEST PERFORMANCE IN A VOICE-OVER ROLE
Young Actress
Abigail Breslin - "Rango"
Nissae Isen - "My Big Big Friend"
Emily Alyn Lind - "Prep and Landing"
Ramona Marquez - "Arthur Christmas"
Grace Rolek - "Happiness is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown"
Alexandria Suarez - "Dora the Explorer"

The BBC has published a more extensive summary of The Crossing and Ramona's role as Megan. I am really excited to see Ramona in this role! It's going to be her first time in a lead part playing a very serious character. Be warned that the summary is spoiler heavy!

The Crossing: Kathleen enjoys being a lollipop lady at the local school, especially as it has led to her close friendship with ten-year-old neighbour Megan. Both Kathleen and Megan have been through tough times recently; Kathleen's mother has recently died, while Megan's mother has run off with another man. Megan's dad Jimmy isn't coping well, leaving Megan to do much of the cooking and cleaning around the house. Kathleen leads a quiet life; her sister Brenda emigrated to Canada two years ago, leaving Kathleen to look after their mother alone, and despite her sister's attempts to get Kathleen online, contact is limited.
Megan has started getting into trouble at school and, in an effort to steer her on the straight and narrow, the teachers suggest Megan and Jimmy read a story for the Christmas show. Megan knows Jimmy is too busy working to join her in the show, so asks Kathleen. Megan is thrilled at the prospect, but it's Kathleen's worst nightmare - she's always struggled with her literacy skills, and reading to an audience fills her with terror.
Kathleen makes more and more excuses to avoid Megan and rehearsals. Megan's confused and hurt, and feels Kathleen is abandoning her just like her mother did. Megan's behaviour gets worse at school, resulting in a near-miss on the school crossing which could have had serious consequences. Horrified that she's provoked Megan's bad behaviour, Kathleen convinces the headteacher to give Megan another chance. A written apology backfires on them both, and Kathleen is forced to come clean to Megan about her literacy problems.
Kathleen realises that she's been cutting herself off from the world, and that it's about time she asked for help and tried something new. She has a heart-to-heart with Megan's dad Jimmy - Kathleen lost her childhood and most of her adulthood looking after her mother - she doesn't want the same to happen to Megan. But, still hurt by Kathleen's lies and secrecy, will it be too late to patch things up with Megan? - SOURCE

Hi Guys! First of all, let me apologise for being a tad late with this update. I didn't have internet access yesterday which is why I couldn't post. Anyway, as I'm sure many of you know, the Outnumbered Sport Relief Special aired yesterday on BBC1! They had a really great line-up on the Sport Relief live show and the Outnumbered sketch was one of the best. In it, that cast were joined by Chelsea player Frank Lampard and his tv personality girlfriend Christine Bleakley! All of Ramona's scenes were with Frank which was pretty cool.

The story was that Karen had won a competition to be a mascot for the Chelsea team during one of their games. She ends up being paired with captain Frank Lampard who, in typical Karen style, she proceeds to interrogate. Ramona was so fantastic in her role! Plus she looked super cute in her little Chelsea kit. You can watch the full video below!

I've also added a whole bunch of pictures from the special to the gallery. You can find screencaps, episode stills, promotional images and a very cute behind the scenes photo with Frank and Christine there now. Make sure you take a look!

It turns out I was right about The Crossing airing soon! Very soon for that matter. The Secrets & Words series will begin airing on Monday March 26th and continue, one episode a day, until Friday March 30th. Ramona's episode The Crossing will air on Thursday March 29th, less than two weeks from now! Every episode airs at 2.15-3.00pm on BBC1. I know most people will be in school, work or college at that time which is unfortunate, but if you can tune in please do! We will hopefully have clips from Ramona's episode here after it airs. It should also be available on the BBC iPlayer for those living in the UK.

Hello again everyone! Finally we have some information about Ramona's newest project The Crossing which I posted about a few weeks ago. It turns out The Crossing is a stand alone episode which is part of the BBC's Secrets & Words five part drama series. Secrets & Words will tackle the theme of adult literacy. You can find some more info about Ramona's episode below. Her character's name is Megan!

The Crossing, written by Arthur Ellison, explores the unlikely friendship between lollipop lady Kathleen, and 10-year-old Megan, whose mother has left her to run off with another man. But will Kathleen’s inability to read and write jeopardize the relationship and leave the little girl feeling abandoned for a second time? - SOURCE

Today is a day of celebration here at Ramona Smiles because February 24th is Ramona's birthday! Yes that's right, today our little superstar turns 11! It's hard to believe the tiny 5-year-old from season one of Outnumbered is now 11. We are so very proud of everything Ramona has done in this past year. She achieves more and more every year and is always flawless in each role she takes on. When this site first opened Ramona was only nine years old! We are so happy to have supported Ramona for so long & we will continue to do so for many more years to come.

Ramona, from your friends and fans here at Ramona Smiles we wish you a very Happy Birthday and a great year being 11! Eat lots of cake and have a fabulous day with your family. You are a continuous inspiration to us all.

Funnily enough, today also happens to be the day The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is released in the UK! So if you want to celebrate Ramona's birthday, why not go check it out? If you do, make sure to let us know what you thought!

Great news! According to Tyger Drew Honey's most recent newsletter, the Outnumbered cast will be shooting a special for Sports Relief next week! You might remember the special Ramona, Daniel and Hugh did in 2010 for sports relief. The live show will be on Friday 23rd March so we can expect to see the special then. Apparently the cast are shooting with a sporting superstar which we'll find out more about later. Read Tyger's newletter below.

Next week the Brockman family will be getting back together to support ‘Sports Relief’, so really excited to be getting together with the gang again. The comedy sketch our great writers and directors have planned is with a sporting superstar so should be a really cool day. I’ll tell you a little bit more about how that all went that in my next blog, as well what other stuff I’ve been up to.