I was on Benefits Street but you wouldn’t recognise me out and about – I’m a model but I’ve still got a council house
SHE was the single, struggling teen mum who starred in one of the most controversial TV docu-series of all time.
But Sherrell Dillion’s glitzy life is now a million miles away from Benefits Street, the five-part Channel 4 programme that followed the lives of residents in a poverty-stricken area of Birmingham.
“Tom Cruise and I are on first name terms,” the 36-year-old mum-of-two proudly claims.
“I was an extra in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One and stood next to Tom filming a scene as a double agent.
“I was also a passenger in the airport in another scene.
“I called him TC and he called me SD. He’d always say hello whenever we ran into each other.”
Benefits Street divided the nation when it aired in 2014.
Many thought the fly-on-the-wall series, which revealed the antics of residents on James Turner Street, 90 percent of whom lived on benefits, held a mirror up to all that was wrong with the welfare system, while others felt it was cruel and exploitative.
Residents were seen committing crimes, including a demonstration on how to shoplift, taking drugs and discussing benefit fraud.
“It portrayed many as too lazy to seek employment and was mentioned in the House of Commons, prompting political debate on the topic of welfare.
The first episode, which pulled in 4.3million viewers, made instant stars of White Dee, Fungi, real name James Clarke, who died in 2019, 50p Man, real name Stephen Smith, and Sherrell.
“I was trolled and written off by vile internet keyboard warriors,” she tells Fabulous for Telly Timewarp, our exclusive series where we revisit the lives of small screen icons.
“They tried to ruin my life with their comments and reckoned I’d be on government handouts forever, but they were wrong.”
“Trolls loved to attack my modelling career,” she adds.
“Some told me I was unattractive, others called me a ‘wannabe’, haters even moaned ‘I wasn’t all that’.
“I laughed because people will complain about anything.
“Haters are gonna hate. I reckon I am doing something right if ‘keyboard complainers’ are having a go.”
According to the model-mum, White Dee and the Fungi were hit hardest by trolls.
“White Dee turned that into a career so she got the last laugh though,” she says.
Sherell doesn’t regret appearing on Benefits Street and says she’d do it all over again.
“I didn’t feel exploited by the show. I knew what I was doing. We told our own stories in our own words.
“You had to have a tough skin which I have.”
Sherrell, who went by the nickname SB or sexy b**** was viewed as a hardworking mum who was bringing up two children on her own.
Sherrell made it clear to TV viewers that she wanted to become a top model – an ambition that has since come true.
She has made a successful career from freelance modelling to film work.
The mum-of-two, a girl, 12, and boy, 17, is self-employed but still receives Universal Credit for her girl and lives in a council house.
“Three years ago I went self-employed,” she says. “That means my Universal Credit is dependent on my career development. I am just like hundreds of thousands of other single mums returning to the workplace..
“Being an extra in these huge, A-list movies is a joy and it’s getting me exposure for all the right reasons. I am Sherrell the actress, not the former teen mum on benefits.”
Sherrell stood in as Beyonce’s body double for a Madame Tussauds wax figure that was created in 2020.
“I was selected from hundreds of models to stand in for Beyonce because our figures were the same,” she says.
“Beyonce and her management team saw my picture and signed off on my body being used. It was a huge honour.”
She says she has also worked as an extra in Lenny Henry’s new film about the Windrush Scandal and in Tyler Perry’s upcoming Netflix movie, Six Triple Eight, which also stars Kerry Washington and Oprah Winfrey.
Sherrell has also been flown to Milan, Barcelona and Paris for her modelling work, and has appeared in Black Beauty magazine as a hair model.
“It’s been a whirlwind,” she says. “Benefits Street did not help me. I am hired because of my looks, my confidence and my ability to model different looks. I’m showing my kids your dreams can come true.”
Sherrell admits her glamorous makeover will shock people. “Most people who follow my Instagram or see my shoots don’t even recognise me from Benefits Street,” she says.
“I look so different. I haven’t had any plastic surgery, Botox or fillers. I just use a lot of baby oil to stay young.
“If someone does make the connection or recognise me from Benefits Street they are always shocked at how different I look.
“Sometimes I have to pull out my old pictures and show them my Instagram for them to realise the change I have gone through. They are dumbfounded and gobsmacked.
“They ask me about Benefit Street and if I still hang out with White Dee and the crew.
“I saw White Dee in Birmingham the other day and we chatted,” she says.
“She and I as well as Black Dee also message each other on social media.”
But sometimes Sherell pretends not to be SB just to see what people say about her before confessing who she is.
“People always blush with embarrassment when I do that. It’s fun to go ‘undercover’ and see what people really say. It’s always been positive. Trolls, I find, are gutless in person.”
Sherrell says: “One day I will buy a property. My kids and my career are my focus now.”
The mum of two no longer lives in the house around the corner from James Turner Street.
She moved to a different part of Birmingham eight years ago.
According to Sherell her old house, which was featured on the show, was infested with mice.
“I had to move out,” she says. “I had to make myself homeless for a short period before moving to temporary accommodation until the council could find me new digs in a different part of town.”
Sherrell, who left school at 15 and became a mum at 19, was inundated with support after talking about domestic violence on the show.
“I spoke about being a victim of domestic violence on Benefits Street and got so many letters from women experiencing the same thing,” she says.
“Supporting charities for those recovering from abuse is a passion.
“When women heard I’d been hit, pushed and abused in other ways it made a real connection and they knew they were not alone. My openness made them feel like they could speak out. It was the truth about what happened.”
Sherrell, who is currently single, is now studying for a business degree at the University of Wales.
“I had to do a course to get my GCSEs, started the degree in January 2020 and I graduate in September,” she says.
“I can’t believe it. I want to become a mum-preneur and sell T-shirts with inspirational sayings on them. I’m proof dreams can come true.”