'Starring in Ted Lasso has literally changed my life'

"Ted Lasso has literally changed my life."

Robyn Cullen usually plies her trade as a goalkeeper in the fifth tier of English women's football, but is now making as much of a name for herself away from the pitch.

The 19-year-old Oxford City player features as a recurring character in the latest series of Apple TV's Ted Lasso - playing a goalkeeper named Robyn.

Series four of the hit show sees Jason Sudeikis' eponymous American manager take control of fictional club AFC Richmond's new women's team.

"When the first episode that I was in came out, our living room was full," Cullen said.

"My mum has watched it so many times - she watches each episode by herself first, then with me or my dad and then again by herself in the evening.

"She just can't believe it, it's very cute."

Cullen began her football career at Chelsea, then moving to Wycombe Wanderers, before ending up at Oxford City this summer.

It was a family friend working in the TV industry that first suggested she expand her horizons, and audition to be a background actor for the latest series of Ted Lasso.

"My mum's friend basically said: 'I know what this is casting for, get Robyn to go for it because it will be an absolute laugh, and she might get it, she might not'," Cullen said.

"Obviously, I'm a Ted Lasso fan so I went for it and I thought 'this is hilarious, there is no way this is ever going to happen'.

"So I sent in my headshots and some videos of me playing football and then I just kept getting callbacks. I was so confused."

Fast forward and Cullen found herself on set alongside the show's stars - including Sudeikis, Hannah Waddingham and Brett Goldstein.

"I came in as an extra just on the football team, and I was not meant to be in many scenes - just the background and football stuff," she said.

But in the first week, an injury to an actor playing a more prominent member of the team gave Cullen the chance to step into the role.

"They asked me to take her place, so I then moved up and all of a sudden it got very real and then there were loads of cameras and I was on Ted Lasso.

"I was absolutely over the moon," Cullen, who features in every episode of the series, bar the first, said.

She said the writers based the characters "off of ourselves" for the "core eight" members of the on-screen team.

"Each one of the core eight kept our own names and then had a play on our last name - so I was Robyn Batman," she said.

The 10-episode series comes off the back of a major increase in the exposure of, and participation in, women's football - both in the UK and across the globe.

"It's absolutely amazing, I feel so grateful to be able to be a part of that," Cullen said.

"I've seen how women's football has taken off over the years, obviously, as a player myself... this is us, this is what we can do and we are important.

"It's just so lovely for people to be able to see that and so lovely for that to be celebrated especially by a network as big as Apple TV."

Looking to the future, Cullen said she would hopefully be back on the pitch for Oxford City "soon" following a recent injury, before hinting that a return to the fictional pitch at AFC Richmond might also be on the horizon.