EastEnders star Lewis Bridgeman’s talents stretch far beyond the acting world – he’s a certified genius.
The 18-year old – who lives with anxiety, autism and dyspraxia – made his debut on the Square as Barney Mitchell in June last year – and his character has already found himself at the centre of several huge storylines.
Before joining the BBC soap, at the age of 12, he passed Mensa’s rigorous intelligence test, meaning that his IQ, or intelligence quotient, is among the top 2% of the world’s population.
Mensa International is the largest and oldest high-IQ society globally with the minimum accepted IQ for the group listed at 132.
Lewis’ mum Jayne told Maldon Standard in 2019: ‘His IQ is high but he struggles with social things like making friends. But the Plume (Lewis’ former school) have been brilliant – he’s come on so much,’
‘I was told he was going to have a horrible time at secondary school but it’s been quite the opposite – they’ve been amazing.
‘He has found confidence in himself and now getting this from Mensa has been fantastic for his confidence because someone thinks he is clever.’
She continued: ‘I always knew he was clever, but not to that extent – he started talking early and he was very good at maths and figures at a very early age,’
‘Now we know why we all get beaten by him at quiz games, and how he gets the answers right watching University Challenge.’
Other famous names to be Mensans include former Countdown co-host Carol Vorderman and American actress Geena Davis.
Lewis has had quite a busy few months in Walford, as Barney exposed Sharon Watts’ (Letitia Dean) affair with Grant Mitchell (Ross Kemp).
The revelation had devastating consequences for Sharon’s brother Zack Hudson (James Farrar), who had recently discovered that he is Barns’ birth father.
He’s become desperate to form a relationship with his son – who is still blissfully unaware – but Nicola Mitchell (Laura Doddington) has put a firm stop to that.
After dealing a menacing threat to Zack, she fired him from his job at her bar.
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In Nic’s cruellest act yet, she enlisted teens Joel Marshall (Max Murray) and Tommy Moon (Sonny Kendall) to goad Barney during a training session with Zack.
Barn’ was mortified, and thought Zack had set him up.
We’ve also seen the character battle with his feelings for school mate Avani Nandra-Hart (Aaliyah James), but she’s convinced that their relationship is purely platonic.
Is Barney about to get his heart broken?
