When Sam Sherpa-Moore landed a cameo in the Doctor Who Christmas special Joy to the World , playing the iconic Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, few knew the remarkable twist behind his casting. The 24-year-old actor, from Bloxham, Oxfordshire, wasn’t just stepping into the shoes of a famous mountaineer - he was playing his great-great uncle.
Sam is a descendant of the legendary Sherpa who first summited Mount Everest with Sir Edmund Hillary in 1953, an achievement which cemented Tenzing Norgay as a global hero and spiritual icon. But the star’s role in Doctor Who came about almost by accident. Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat, the masterminds behind the show, had initially been searching for a Sherpa actor to play Tenzing.
They saw Sam’s profile on the casting platform Spotlight and thought it was an interesting coincidence - only later realising that he was related to the man they were casting. “I just sent in a self-tape,” Sam recalls, “and then my agent called and said they wanted me to play Tenzing Norgay. They didn’t know I was related to him when they first saw my profile. They wanted a Sherpa, and then they found out I was the great-great nephew of Tenzing. It was just a funny twist of fate.”.
Sam's role was initially small, but once the producers realized the connection, they expanded his lines and gave him a more pivotal part. In one scene, Sam, playing Tenzing at Everest Base Camp, shares a tense moment with the Doctor, portrayed by Ncuti Gatwa. The two actors bond during a comedic exchange involving a “ham and cheese toastie” and a “pumpkin latte,” breaking the tension with some much-needed humour.
