Rachel Bright

Rachel Bright
Nationality	British
Occupation	Actress
Notable work	EastEnders

Rachel Bright is an English actress, best known for her role in the BBC soap opera EastEnders as Poppy Meadow.

Bright graduated from the Birmingham School of Acting, part of Birmingham City University, in 2007 and has since been based in London. She has adopted various acting roles since then, from an open air puppetry play, a punk rock musical feature film Silly Billy for Jackson Films, to Cross Purpose, a 1940s drama performed in the heart of London's fringe. She has appeared in short films Red Balloon and Sometimes the Moon Is Velvet. She appears as 'Anna' in the 2012 UK feature film Life Just Is.

Poppy was introduced in two episodes on 11 and 13 January 2011, in "filler" scenes which were substituted for scenes cut from the controversial baby swap storyline, in which Ronnie Branning (Samantha Womack)'s son James, dies of sudden infant death syndrome and she secretly swaps him with Kat Moon (Jessie Wallace)'s son, Tommy." A spokeswoman for EastEnders confirmed that the scenes had been edited following viewers' strong response to the story, but said that no complete scenes were removed: "Given the audience response to this storyline, we felt on this occasion that it was appropriate to respond and make some changes. The vast majority of material remains intact and we don't believe that those trims we have made will weaken or detract from the overall storyline for viewers." In an interview with the Daily Mirror, Bright stated that her first scene was her favourite throughout her tenure, as "all [she] could think was, 'I'm sitting on a bench in the Square!'".Kylie Babbington, who played Jodie Gold, revealed in May 2011 that Poppy would be returning and would have comical scenes. Bright made her return on 30 June 2011. Poppy and Jodie were reportedly used to add humour to the soap, in the style of reality-drama series The Only Way is Essex, though The Sun's Colin Robertson assessed that this venture had failed. On 24 October 2011, it was announced that the pair were to leave the show; they made their final appearance on 14 November 2011. According to an EastEnders spokesperson, there is potential for Poppy to appear again in the future. In an interview with Inside Soap, EastEnders executive producer Bryan Kirkwood said of a possible return, "We may see Poppy pop up as I'm a big fan of Rachel Bright and the character, but Kylie is keen to pursue other roles."

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