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Rachel Tucker

Rachel Tucker
Rachel Tucker Hampton Court 2009.jpg
Tucker performing at Hampton Court Palace in 2009
Born Rachel Kelly Tucker
(1981-05-29) 29 May 1981 (age 35)
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Occupation Actress, singer
Years active 2005–present
Spouse(s) Guy Retallack
Children 1
Website www.racheltucker.co.uk

Rachel Kelly Tucker (born 29 May 1981) is a Northern Irish singer and actress who competed as one of the finalists in the BBC talent show-themed television series I'd Do Anything in 2008. She is perhaps best known for playing Elphaba in the hit musical Wicked in the West End, where she played the role longer than any other actress in the production's history, and on Broadway.

Tucker was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and grew up singing on the cabaret circuit from the age of 15 with her father, Tommy (Tucker) Kelly and sister Margaret Kelly under the group's name Tucker Kelly and the Kelstar. She was a member of the Arts Youth Theatre during the late 1990s featuring in shows such as Ecstasy and Our Day Out. She then went on to feature in Michael Poyners version of the Rockin Mikado as Katisha. She also featured as a contestant with sister Margaret on Michael Barrymore's My Kind of Music singing "Man! I Feel Like a Woman!". She also competed in the talent show Star for a Night making the final with her performance of "Kids".

Tucker trained at the Royal Academy of Music. She worked with Any Dream Will Do winner Lee Mead in the 2005 United Kingdom tour of the Rock musical, Tommy as Sally Simpson. In December 2007, Tucker appeared as Dorothy Gale in the Royal Shakespeare Company adaptation of The Wizard of Oz at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast. The Stage described her performance as "looking and sounding uncannily like the legendary Garland." For her performance, she was nominated for an award in the 2008 TMA Awards. Tucker recorded a version of the civil rights anthem "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around" which was used in a television advertisement for Libresse in 2005 entitled "March".


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