The actor with Down's Syndrome who inspired new agency to find work for disabled performers

Ms Bryden, who has Down’s Syndrome, was the star of Down’s with Love, a play tackling the issue of love and disability, in which two of Ms Wilson’s able-bodied clients at Network Artist Management were also performing.

Now, working alongside Cutting Edge Theatre run by Suzanne Lofthus, which produced the play, Ms Wilson has launched a branch of her agency specifically to find work for disabled actors to fill a “massive gap” in the industry.

Network Access, which is run alongside Edinburgh-based Network Artist Management, has four actors, including Ms Bryden - with a variety of different disabilities - on its books.

Ms Bryden, from Cupar, hopes the formation of the agency will help her realise her dream of becoming a soap opera star.

“It gives me hope for the future,” she said. “I’ve got a lot of auditions coming up.”

Ms Watson said she had been “amazed” by Abi’s performance.

“I’ve known Susanne for a long time and have always supported her projects,” she said. “But it was when she brought Down’s With Love to the Fringe in 2016 that I first saw Abi on stage.”

Parts of the play had been co-written by Ms Bryden, as the voice of someone who had experienced some of the same issues as the character in the play.

Ms Watson said: “Two of our clients had been cast alongside Abi, so I had gone along to see it at the Fringe.

“I was amazed how creative Abi was and the direction she had and how she wanted to work in the industry. Susanne was telling me how few projects there were that she could potentially work on.

“It was really from then that we kept having conversations about how we needed to find a way to get Abi out there. There is very little representation of disabled people on stage and screen.”

Ms Bryden hopes to become a screen actor. She has recently filmed a TV commercial for a telecoms company and is also awaiting the outcome of auditions she has attended for a role in a soap filmed in England.

The agency is also speaking to screen writers to raise awareness of a lack of disabled roles.

“It’s really up to them to be writing in disabled roles,” she said. “It has been ten years since I first saw Abi on stage, but I wanted to wait for the right time. Our industry feels more open than ever now, it feels like people are listening finally and being more openminded.”

Theatre producer Ms Lofthus, who is behind the Easter Play in Edinburgh through Cutting Edge Theatre, said she was happy to be working with Network Access.

“There's a massive gap in Scotland,” said Ms Lofthus. “There are some agents who do represent disabled people, but there's not a specific agency which is designed to support disabled actors in Scotland.

“One of the things that we have always felt is that there's a severe lack of positive representation of disabled people in Scottish screens, on Scottish screens and in theatre, there's hardly any positive representation.”

She added: “In the future, the aim is that they should be able to audition for any theatre company or any film, irrespective of disability. We don't want to pigeonhole them.”

Ms Lofthus, who also runs theatre courses for both disabled and non-disabled young people through Cutting Edge Theatre, said there was no full-scale drama course in Scotland which is accessible for people who are learning disabled to train in the performing arts, adding that she was considering launching a dedicated course in the future.

She said: “The question is, what do you do if somebody [with a learning disability] comes to you and says, ‘I want to be represented by you. I want to be on your books’, and they don't feel that they're ready yet, but they maybe have some potential.

“You can't say, ‘Go away to drama school for a year’. It's not there. So probably next year, we'll be looking at setting up an advanced drama class for people who have the ability to work professionally in the industry, but don't have the skills.”