THE original Teletubbies sun baby looks unrecognisable 21 years on from her famous role and is now working in the security industry.
Jess Smith became one of the most famous faces on kids’ TV back in the late 1990s as the baby who appeared inside the sun on the popular BBC show.
Teletubbies’ sun baby Jess Smith is now all grown up
Jess became one of the most famous faces on kids TV back in the late 1990s
But while she played a major part of many kids’ childhoods (and their parents), Jess doesn’t remember anything from being on the programme.
She’s now leading a happy life in coastal town Whitstable and has plans to travel.
She told the Star: “I now work for a security company based in Medway, managing the administrative side of the process.
“Unfortunately I don’t remember anything from the original filming [Teletubbies]. I’ve been told I was placed in front of a mirror and was laughing at myself.”
She recently made an appearance on the rebooted Big Breakfast where fans were delighted to see her all grown up.
One wrote on Twitter: “The sun baby! How cute! :).”
A second posted: “Awww,” while a third quoted the Teletubbies catch phrase: “Eh oh.”
Jess last appeared on Teletubbies in 2001, but a recent picture of her as an adult went viral and interest in her spiked.
The picture saw Jess holding a little girl, with many mistaking the child as her own, including BBC Radio 1 presenter, Greg James, who tweeted: “This has made me feel 800 years old”.
However, the Teletubbies official Twitter account clarified who was in the picture, writing: “This is the original Sun Baby, Jess Smith, with our new Sun Baby, Berry! Seeing Jess all grown up makes us feel old too!”
Back in 2017, Jess opened up to BBC South East about how she landed the golden gig.
She said: “I was being weighed at the hospital.
“My mum took me and it just happened to be the same time that the producer of the old series had come in and wanted the hospital to get in contact with them if they’d seen any smiley babies.
“It was just a case of sitting in front of a mirror and a camera and my dad playing with toys and race cars and that sort of thing to try and get me to laugh at the camera.”
Teletubbies began in 1997, with children all over the country falling in love with the characters Dipsy, Laa-Laa, Tinky Winky and Po.
Jess left her role in 2001
Jess told how she was picked out as a ‘smiley baby’ in hospital
