GRADUATE actor Timothy Platt is the cream of the Milk International Children's Festival in Toronto, Canada.

Just days after graduating in Acting Studies 20-year-old Timothy landed a plum job with a top educational touring theatre in the UK.

The troupe was then spotted by a director and invited to Canada on all-expenses paid trip to perform at a top children's drama festival in Toronto.

Now, instead of working as a barman at a Bolton pub, talented Timothy is treading the boards at the city's prestigious York Quay Centre.

Timothy showed a talent for drama when he was eight years old as a member of the St Philips Junior drama workshop in Bolton.

Later, at Canon Slade School, he continued with his interest in drama and left with three A levels in Drama, Performing Arts and Theatre Studies.

Timothy graduated early from the Arden School of Theatre, part of Manchester University, with a BA in Acting Studies.

His proud mum Barbara Platt said: " He graduated on a Wednesday, the following Tuesday he went to London and two days later he had been selected as part of the company.

"Then when he was appearing in Breathing Space with the M6 Theatre Company at a school in Durham a director saw them and asked them to go to Canada with the play.

"They have been treated like royalty -- a big limousine with blacked out windows picked them up at the airport and they have been put up at a fabulous hotel."

Now in Toronto, Timothy is performing the play every day with the original cast but still has enough time for sightseeing.

His mother, Barbara said: "They are being treated like royalty with all expenses paid and they were even met at the airport by a limousine with tinted windows."

Mrs Platt says the acting comes through her family. Her grandfather, who suffered severe arthritis, was often taken to the pub in a wheelbarrow by his friends because he was such an entertainer.

She added that her father, Frank Walker, was a well known local comedian and Mrs Platt has also been involved in local amateur dramatics for many years.