'Playing The Unknown character at Glasgow Willy Wonka totally changed my life'

A teenager has said going viral for playing mysterious masked figure The Unknown at a botched Wonka event has “totally changed” her life and helped her to fulfil a “dream” of working with the London Dungeon.

Felicia Dawkins, 16, captivated the internet when she was revealed as the face behind The Unknown, an evil rival chocolate maker to Willy Wonka living in the walls, who scared children at a Wonka event in Glasgow in February.

Since then, The London Dungeon reached out to Felicia to offer her the opportunity to train with their performance team, followed by a guest appearance acting in the attraction on April 7.

Speaking to the PA news agency, Felicia, who is based in Glasgow, reflected on the impact playing the character, which was her first acting job, has had on her.

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The character played by 16 year old Felicia found international fame after clips of the event were shared by frustrated parents.

“It’s so weird that me working as The Unknown for like a couple of hours has totally changed my life,” she said.

“Working at the London Dungeon has been a dream because that’s something I’d love to do when I’m older because I love creepy stuff in general and because they reached out to me.

“It’s been so amazing.”

She reminisced on visiting the Edinburgh Dungeon when she was eight, which was “really really scary” and played a key role in preparing her for her viral act.

“Because the actors captivated me so much, I thought that I could try and captivate the audience for the Wonka event by being creepy,” she said.

Weeks after the viral Wonka event, interest has yet to die down, with talks of a potential movie on the masked villain being discussed on social media and many intent on finding out more on those who starred in the infamous Glasgow experience.

The Unknown at failed Wonka chocolate experience in Glasgow Supplied

Felicia said she “didn’t expect” as big of a reaction as the event got.

“I think it’s funny because at the London Dungeon, people go in there and they know that they’re getting scared, they’re expecting it, but at the Wonka event, they had no idea that there was going to be any sort of jump scare or creepiness,” she added.

“I had to hold back on the creepiness a bit because people didn’t expect it.”

She added that despite captivating audiences in person and online with her performance as The Unknown, she is actually “quite shy”.

“If you’re playing a character, you’re not yourself,” she said. “You can be who you want to be – there’s no limit to how you need to act.”

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Tracey Hanley had booked the event in Glasgow as a surprise for her nine-year-old daughter.

With her London Dungeon stint happening around Easter, she said she is most looking forward to working with the actors.

“They’re professionally trained on how to be creepy and I would love to learn more about that,” she said.

She said while she does not have any “proper acting” gigs as of yet, she will be making some guest appearances “here and there”.

A London Dungeon spokesperson said: “Clearly Felicia is a natural when it comes to the art of the scare!

“It’s an honour to be joined by the acting talent behind the now cult character The Unknown – and we can’t wait to see what she’ll bring to our horribly scary historical figures.