The National Youth Theatre is a registered charity in London. It is committed to the creative, personal, and social development of young people through the medium of creative arts; to this end, it aims to use theatre to aid the personal and social development of young people. It was founded in 1956 as the world's first youth theatre and has built a reputation as a breeding ground for renowned British actors such as Daniel Craig, Daniel Day-Lewis, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Colin Firth, Derek Jacobi, Ben Kingsley, Rosamund Pike, and Helen Mirren, as well as singers such as Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Ed Sheeran.