Vittorio stars in a new BBC short film Rewarding alongside Blue Lights star Seána Kerslake
Prepare to watch Belfast comedian Vittorio Angelone as you’ve never seen him before as he stars in a new short film ‘Rewarding’.
The stand-up and podcaster, who is no stranger to performing, swapped the live audience for a closed set for his acting debut as part of BBC Northern Ireland’s Green Lit initiative.
Rewarding, produced by Conker Pictures, follows co-workers Sinead and Francis as they navigate their first shift together in a private domiciliary care facility in rural mid-Ulster.
READ MORE: Three new NI shorts featuring top stars coming to screens this monthREAD MORE: Foy Vance and special guests announced for CHSq 2026 line-up
Tasked with providing round-the-clock care for adults with learning difficulties and behavioural challenges, Sinead and Francis’s differing approaches are tested to the extreme when one of their clients, Cal, is faced with some bad news on his birthday.
Speaking to Belfast Live ahead of the short airing on BBC Northern Ireland and BBC iPlayer on November 26 at 10.40pm, Vittorio said that when his agent sent the script for Rewarding, he knew it was going to be something special.
He said: “I’d met David, the director, once or twice before as he is a friend of my support act on tour from my last tour, John Maher, and when I got the script through, it was one you read and go ‘oh this is actually brilliant and I would really love to get’.
“There’s an occasional one every now and then where I message my agent and go ‘let’s really gun for this’ and ask if there’s anything I can do either to get this part or a smaller part in it when I’m mad keen to be involved in it.
“I really drilled it with my girlfriend, who’s a proper actor, and she helped me work on the scene – we taped it together and she read in the lines and I spent a lot of time putting in the work.”
After sending the tape away and hoping for the best, Vittorio said it was a “complete buzz” when the team got back to tell him he had the part and he immediately changed his busy schedule to ensure he was free to film in between his stand-up shows.
His character, Francis, is a long-term carer and an immovable object of cynicism and pragmatism.
“It’s a very, very tough job that Matt, the writer, has done himself and I think that really comes across in the script and in the film,” Vittorio explained.
“You can tell it’s someone with experience of that and someone who really cares about that world – I have a tiny bit as well as I did my work experience in school working in a special needs school in Belfast and that sort of felt like an insight into that broader world.
“He felt like a lovely character to play with because he does have the sort of bite and the humour. It’s almost like he’s given up on himself but he hasn’t given up on the people that he looks after – he’s given up on the structures around him but still wants to do a good job for the people he’s looking after.”
While Vittorio did say that stepping onto a set and not getting that live reaction that he would at a stand-up gig was daunting at first, he thoroughly enjoyed his experience on the job and would love to continue acting in the future.
“I found the whole experience very enlivening and exciting, I think especially with something that has such a well-written script.
“Rewarding is being pitched to the BBC to hopefully be picked up for a series and I think that would be ideal as I love the script and I love the team so to be able to continue working on that would be perfect.”
Although not out on our screens just yet, he said that he has had nothing but positive feedback from friends and family who were able to watch the short at screenings in both Belfast and Dublin.
“Well my mum says it’s good so it must be good,” he laughed.
“I think the whole team made a brilliant thing – they’ve really pulled it together in such a lovely way as the humour comes across, but the heart of it also really comes across, which I think is crucial.”
In a week of firsts for Vittorio, he made his Late Late Show debut with another big name in NI comedy in the hosting seat which he described as “very good fun”.
He said: “I was very lucky because I know Kyla Cobbler, who’s a brilliant comedian from Cork, and she was on beside me, and I know Richard Osmand a little bit from having did House of Games and he came and saw my stand-up show in Edinburgh at the Fringe.
“It felt like I had a lot of comfort personalities beside me and I hadn’t met [Patrick] Kielty before, but it felt like we has that comedian bond thing like you are almost hanging out.”
The applications for the next Green Lit Initiative are set to come out very soon and Vittorio encouraged all creatives to give it a go and send their proposals so audiences can get to experience other fantastic scripts and projects such as Rewarding.
Rewarding airs on BBC Northern Ireland and BBC iPlayer, Wednesday 26 November, 10.40pm
For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage here and sign up to our What’s On newsletter.
#Vittorio #Angelone #talks #film #Rewarding #Late #Late #Show #debut #stepping #acting
