DATE OF BIRTH : 1972
HEIGHT : 5ft 2
LIVES : Chingford, Essex.
CHILDREN : Samantha has two children, her first born in December 1995.
STUDIED : Went to school in Chingford, and found it hard as a dyslexic, ‘I just thought I must be stupid, but now I have been taught how to deal with it.’ At 17 she went to the Academy of Live and Dramatic Arts (1987-90). She has also done a four month diploma course studying massage and anatomy.
PREVIOUS JOBS : Worked as a cinema usherette in Chingford.
HOBBIES : Tennis, cycling, swimming, herbal medicines, reflexology
ON CHARACTER HELEN : ‘She’s fun loving, irrepressible, young and exciting and wants to learn learn learn.’
LIKE HELEN? : ‘She is a lot more feminine than I am, she is meticulous, straight forward, whereas I am a lout. She is very removed from me, which is healthy. I am more casual than she is.’
ON DOCTORS AND NURSES : ‘I totally admire nurses and doctors, they’ve got to be able to switch on and switch off, to keep their emotion in check.’
ON LEAVING CASUALTY : ‘Working on CASUALTY was a real dream, I was very sad to leave but I had to move on.’
ON CHILDHOOD : ‘I was a really bad girl. I was very cheeky and mischievous. I was the daredevil of the class, always having a laugh. I wasn’t diagnosed as hyperactive but I was on the edge of it. I was a bit of a rebel.’
TELEVISION CREDITS : Preston Front; Original Sin; Chef; Young Jung; Men of the World; Casualty; Academy; Teenage Health Freak; The Good Sex Guide; Life and Times of Henry Pratt; Gone to the Dogs; Milking the Chocolate Man; Life on One; Doctors
FILM CREDITS : The Young Poisoner’s Handbook; Playground Rules; Educating Rita
THEATRE CREDITS : Noise; The Gate; Wasted; The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe; To Kill a Mockingbird; Balm in Gilead; Richard III; Under the Blue Sky
RADIO CREDITS : The Archers; Teen Lurve
BOOKS : Appears in ‘CASUALTY : The Inside Story (Revised & Updated) by Hilary Kingsley.
AGENT : JLM, 4th Floor, Holborn Hall, 193-197 High Holborn, London WC1V 7BD.
DID YOU KNOW?
* Samantha was cast to play Richard Chamberlain’s daughter in a mini-series but when he pulled out, Martin Shaw took over, giving Samantha’s part to his own daughter instead.
