Kellie Bright
| Kellie Bright | |
|---|---|
Bright in 2016
|
|
| Born |
Kelly Denise Bright 1 July 1976 Brentwood, Essex, England |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1989–present |
| Notable work |
The Upper Hand (1990–96) Bad Girls (2002) Rock & Chips (2010–11) EastEnders (2013–) Strictly Come Dancing (2015) |
| Spouse(s) | Paul Stocker (m. 2014) |
| Children | 2 |
Kellie Bright (born Kelly Denise Bright, 1 July 1976) is an English actress. She is known for playing Linda Carter in the BBC soap opera EastEnders, for which she won the 2015 British Soap Awards for Best Actress and Best Dramatic Performance. Her other television roles include Joanna Burrows in The Upper Hand (1990–96), Cassie Tyler in Bad Girls (2002) and Joan Trotter in Rock & Chips (2010–11). In 2015, she was the runner-up in the 13th series of the BBC One show Strictly Come Dancing.
Bright has been acting since she was 11, appearing on stage in shows such as Annie and Les Misérables, before landing a place at The Sylvia Young Theatre School. As a child actress, she appeared in several different series' on British television in the late 1980s and the 1990s, including T-Bag and Maid Marian and Her Merry Men. In 1990, at the age of 13, Bright was cast as Joanna Burrows in TV series The Upper Hand alongside Joe McGann, Diana Weston and Honor Blackman which ran for six years.
After The Upper Hand had finished, Bright has said that she struggled to make ends meet. She says, "I didn't have any acting work, so I got a job waiting on tables to pay the mortgage, but it was while The Upper Hand was still on air. Next thing I know, a customer had called a newspaper saying I was there and some photographers appeared out of the blue snapping away." She also worked as a receptionist at a nightclub in London. She continued, "I was getting rejected from one job after another and no matter how much I tried not to take it personally, a part of me couldn't help but think: 'I was too ugly to get that part'." Bright played Kate Madikane (née Aldridge) in Radio 4's The Archers, and was with the series from 1995 until 2014.
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