Nicola Stapleton
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| Nicola Stapleton | |
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| Born | August 9, 1974  London, England |
Nicola Stapleton (born August 9, 1974 in Elephant and Castle, London) is an English actress. Stapleton began her career at an early age. She is most famous for her work on British television, in particular her roles as Mandy Salter in BBC's EastEnders and Janine Nebeski in ITV's Bad Girls.
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[edit] Early life
Stapleton grew up off East Street, which runs down the middle of the Old Kent Road in South London. She and her younger brother Vince were born to working class parents, Kate—a cleaner from Scotland— and Vincent Stapleton, who ran a car hire business.[1]
She attended the Townsend Primary School in South East London, where her parents were advised by a teacher "to channel her energy into something positive."[2] As a result they sent her to the Sylvia Young Theatre School, where Denise Van Outen, Dani Behr and her future EastEnders co-star, Daniella Westbrook, were among her contemporaries.[3]
[edit] Career
[edit] Early career
Stapleton's career in showbusiness started at the early age of six and at the age of 9 she had a minor role as an extra in the Bond movie Octopussy (1983).[1] She made her TV debut in the detective series, Dempsey & Makepeace (ITV), in 1985 and she went on to have roles in feature films such as Little Shop of Horrors[4] (Geffen Pictures, 1986); Hansel and Gretel (Paramount, 1988); Snow White (1988) and Courage Mountain (Paramount, 1990).
At age 12 she played the part of Sally in the 1987 Children's BBC production, Simon and the Witch. She also had a minor role in the successful BBC sitcom, Bread.
[edit] EastEnders
Stapleton is perhaps best known for her role as the wayward Mandy Salter in the popular BBC soap opera EastEnders, which she played from 1992-1994. During her stint in the soap, Stapleton's character was featured in storylines about child and drug abuse, homelessness and prostitution.
Her EastEnders character was also featured in a special episode of the popular science fiction series, Doctor Who, which was entitled Dimensions in Time (1993). The episode was specially screened as part of BBC's annual fund-raising event, Children in Need. Viewers were asked to phone in and vote which EastEnders character, Mandy or 'Big' Ron, would appear in the show. Two versions were filmed for each voting outcome, but the Mandy version won with 56% of the vote.
Stapleton grew tired of all the attention she received from being in such a high-profile show, so she quit the role in 1994.[5] In an interview in 2005 Stapleton commented: "Working on EastEnders was so high-profile it put me off working on soaps for a while…I've been asked a number of times to go back but I've done a lot of really credible stuff in theatre, and I thought, 'It took me a long time get here. I'm not ready to go back to Mandy just yet'…The publicity with something regarding EastEnders is huge and sometimes you end up feeling like a famous person rather than an actress - I wanted my work to be more fulfilling than that."[6]
[edit] Other roles
Stapleton's subsequent TV credits have included; The Thin Blue Line (BBC, 1995); The Bill (ITV, 2002); Casualty (BBC, 1999) and Casualty@Holby City (2004); Harry Enfield and Chums (BBC); Audrey and Friends (2000); Brinks Mat: The Greatest Heist (2003) and Jane Hall (ITV, 2006), among others.
She has also appeared in feature films including: Urban Ghost Story (Living Spirit Pictures, 1998); the 1999 film The Killing Zone; It Was an Accident (2000); South West Nine (2001); Goodbye Charlie Bright (2001)'; Lava (2002) and Chunky Monkey (2004).
In 1998 she was cast in Channel 4's successful Young Person's Guide to Becoming a Rock Star. She played Joe Nardone, a sex-mad guitarist in a Scottish band, which goes from playing pubs to netting a record deal via a string of wild parties.
Stapleton is more recently known for playing the prisoner Janine Nebeski in the seventh and eighth series of ITV prison drama Bad Girls (2005-2006). In the final series her character embarked on a romance with male prison officer, Donny Kimber who was played by her ex-EastEnders co-star, Sid Owen.
On 5 November 2006 the Stapleton family appeared on Celebrity Family Fortunes, headed by Nicola and that same month Stapleton guest-starred in the ITV police drama The Bill; her second role in the programme to date.[7] She acted alongside Birds of a Feather star Linda Robson, to form a drug-addicted mother-daughter duo. She will play the role of Louise Parker in the 2007 Lynda La Plante televised mini-series, The Commander: The Devil You Know.
On stage Stapleton has appeared in Cockroach Who at The National Theatre; Of Mice and Men, which toured the UK; Scissor Happy at the Duchess Theatre (1997); Essex Girls, Corner Boys and Four Star Hotel, which were all shown at the Royal Court Theatre.
Nicola also appeared on a TV Goodies/Baddies special of Weakest Link.
[edit] Personal life
In 2003 Stapleton's father was jailed for his part in an £11million VAT computer-chip fraud. Her brother was also fined £10,000, for helping in the fraudulent business, which involved importing VAT-exempt microchips from EU countries and selling them to firms with added VAT, before claiming money back from Customs and Excise. Nicola Stapleton provided the £125,000 bail for her brother during the trial.[8]
In addition to acting, Stapleton is also a trained singer and gymnast. She is close friends with actress Dannielle Brent, who she acted alongside in ITV's Bad Girls.[6] In the past she has been romantically linked to the actor Paul Danan.[9]
[edit] References
- ^ a b "The first time I...", The Mirror, 5 December 1998. Retrieved on 2007-06-20.
- ^ "I've Waited 10 Years to Kiss Sid Again", Sunday Mail, 9 July 2006. Retrieved on 2007-06-20.
- ^ "Cheeky returns to the chalk face", TheLondonpaper, 20 December 2006. Retrieved on 2007-06-20.
- ^ "Nicola Stapleton's CV at PDF", PDF. URL last accessed on 2007-02-22.
- ^ "Stapleton; Bad Girls Star Puckers up for EastEnder", Sunday Mail; Glasgow. URL last accessed on 2007-02-22.
- ^ a b "We'd love to share a TV lesbian kiss.. we could practise at home", Sunday Mirror, 19 June 2006. Retrieved on 2007-06-20.
- ^ "Gaffney, Robson and Stapleton to guest on 'The Bill'", Digital Spy. URL last accessed on 2006-09-25.
- ^ "Cannabis shock in VAT fraud swoop", The Independent, 13 July 2003. Retrieved on 2007-06-20.
- ^ "Hot Gossip", Sunday Mail, 25 July 1999. Retrieved on 2007-06-20.
