House of the Dragon: Derbyshire tot appears in Game of Thrones prequel

Ziggy Hopkins appeared as baby Princess Helaena Targaryen in House of the Dragon on Sunday.

Her mum Emma Hopkins said: “This has been the hardest secret to keep for almost a year, I’m so glad it’s been shown on the telly now so we can actually talk about it.”

Mum-of-three Emma signed Ziggy to a modelling agency last year and almost straight away was asked to audition for a program called Red Gun at Warner Studios in London.

The 29-year-old from Tideswell said: “We really thought that was the program name, we didn't realise it was a cover name for one of the biggest TV shows in the world.

"When we got down to London all the babies had blonde hair and blue eyes so we guessed that was the brief but knew nothing more.”Ziggy, who was born in March 2021, was just six months at the time when she auditioned and Emma was contacted the next day to say her daughter had got the part.

Emma said: “We went down to the studios a couple of times as Ziggy had to be measured and fitted for her costume and so she could get used to meet the actors she would be working with.”Ziggy and another baby both got the part and filming took place around Halloween last year and her scene was shown at 2am on Sunday morning on Sky Atlantic.

Emma said: “We didn’t know when her scene would be so we’ve been staying up late every night to watch them all.”House of the Dragon is a prequel to the world wide TV series Game of Thrones.

Emma, who runs a youth choir in Great Longstone, said: “My brother is a huge Game of Thrones fan so it's been so hard not to talk about this with him and he’s so proud of Ziggy – we all are.

"I know she won’t remember it but it’s something nice and a bit different too.”

Emma’s other daughter’s Minnie, 4, and Lulu, 3, have also been signed with the modelling agency on the back of Ziggy’s success.