Rich annetts julia sawalha biography

Julia Sawalha

Biography []

Prior to Doctor Who []

Sawalha was born in Wandsworth, London, and is daughter of Roberta Lane and actor Nadim Sawalha. Her father was born in Madaba, Jordan. She was named after her paternal grandmother, a businesswoman who had received an award from Queen Noor for enterprise. She is of Jordanian, English, and French Huguenot ancestry.

Sawalha was educated at the Theatre Arts School, a fee-paying independent school which is part of the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts, based at the time in Clapham in south London, which she left at the age of fifteen.

She is part of an acting family; Sawalha's father Nadim appeared in the James Bond movies The Spy Who Loved Me and The Living Daylights, while her sister Nadia starred in the soap EastEnders and is now a television presenter and chat show host with whom she has appeared on Lily Savage's Blankety Blank.

Sawalha made her debut in the 1982BBC miniseries Fame Is the Spur and in 1988, played a small role in Inspector Morse on the episode "Last Seen Wearing". She first gained attention for her starring role in the Baftaaward-winning ITV teenage comedy-drama Press Gang, which ran from 1989 to 1990.

Work on Doctor Who []

In 1990 Sawalha was cast as Raine Creevy, a posh upper-class cat burglar and a new companion for the Seventh Doctor who first appeared in Action at a Distance.

Sawalha continued to play Katie regularly until the season 29 story Nightshade after Sawalha decided to leave.

After Doctor Who []

From 1992 to 2012, Sawalha played strait-laced daughter Saffron Monsoon in the BBC sitcom Absolutely Fabulous alongside Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley. She appeared in the 1995 BBC adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice as Lydia Bennet, with Jennifer Ehle and C

Julia Sawalha expected to achieve a measure of professional satisfaction playing grieving Jan Ward in the spooky new BBC1 drama Remember Me. 

What she didn’t expect was therapy for her broken heart, but that’s exactly what she got. Recognising that her character was going through the same deep-seated sense of loss she herself had been enduring following a traumatic break-up with a boyfriend, Julia channelled her feelings through her troubled character.

‘I didn’t take the part because I thought it would be cathartic but I ended up using it as a cathartic experience,’ says Julia, 46. 

‘Jan’s in the throes of grief over the death of her husband and she’s turned to drink and men to numb the pain. I felt grief-stricken when my last relationship ended. I questioned whether I’d been responsible for the break-up in the same way that Jan questions herself over her husband’s death.

‘My separation was incredibly sudden, unexplained and heartbreaking because for the first time in my life everything seemed so right, I thought he was The One, but I never got any answers from the man in question. 

'There’s a scene where Jan talks about not being able to see her husband yet still feeling his presence, and that’s very much how I felt about my break-up, this sense of his energy still being in my life but him having left it. I’d get tearful reading that scene. It’s odd to cry through a character about something that’s going on in your own life but it helped me get over the break-up.’

Julia doesn’t want to name the man who caused her so much turmoil, saying only that she met him through work three years ago but he wasn’t an actor. She’s previously had what she’s called ‘disastrous’ romances with a number of Britain’s leading actor

Julia Sawalha

Julia Sawalha (born 9 September1968) portrayed the Seventh and Eighth Doctor companion, Katie Tollinger, from 1990-1992. She went on to reprise the character in the spin-off series, Leftover, from 2001-2005 and again in 2010.

Biography 

Prior to Doctor Who

Sawalha was born in Wandsworth, London, and is daughter of Roberta Lane and actor Nadim Sawalha. Her father was born in Madaba, Jordan. She was named after her paternal grandmother, a businesswoman who had received an award from Queen Noor for enterprise. She is of Jordanian, English, and French Huguenot ancestry.

Sawalha was educated at the Theatre Arts School, a fee-paying independent school which is part of the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts, based at the time in Clapham in south London, which she left at the age of fifteen.

She is part of an acting family; Sawalha's father Nadim appeared in the James Bond movies The Spy Who Loved Me and The Living Daylights, while her sister Nadia starred in the soap EastEnders and is now a television presenter and chat show host with whom she has appeared on Lily Savage's Blankety Blank.

Sawalha made her debut in the 1982 BBC miniseries Fame Is the Spur and in 1988, played a small role in Inspector Morse on the episode "Last Seen Wearing". She first gained attention for her starring role in the Baftaaward-winning ITV teenage comedy-drama Press Gang, which ran from 1989 to 1990.

Work on Doctor Who

In 1990 Sawalha was cast as Katie Tollinger, a posh upper-class cat burglar and a new companion for the Seventh Doctor who first appeared in Crime of the Century.

Sawalha continued to play Katie regularly until the season 29 story Transit where her character was killed off after Sawalha decided to leave.

Sawalha later reprised

Julia Sawalha is an English actress known mainly for her role as Saffron Monsoon in Absolutely Fabulous. She is also known for portraying Lynda Day, editor of the Junior Gazette, in Press Gang and Lydia Bennet in the 1995 television miniseries of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Additionally, she played Dorcas Lane in the BBC's costume drama Lark Rise to Candleford and Carla Borrego in Jonathan Creek.

Sawalha was born in London, the daughter of Roberta Lane and actor Nadim Sawalha. She was named after her grandmother, a Jordanian businesswoman who had received an award from Queen Noor for enterprise. She is of Jordanian, English, and French Huguenot ancestry. As part of an acting family, Sawalha's father Nadim appeared in the James Bond movies The Spy Who Loved Me and The Living Daylights, while her sister Nadia starred in the soap EastEnders and is now a television presenter and chat show host.

Sawalha made her debut in the 1982 BBC miniseries Fame is the Spur and in 1988, played a small role in Inspector Morse on the episode "Last Seen Wearing". She first gained attention for her starring role in the Bafta award-winning ITV teenage comedy/drama Press Gang, which ran from 1989 to 1993.

In 1992 she starred in episode "Parade" (S2 E4) of "Bottom" as Veronica Head, a beautiful young barmaid at the Lamb and Flag, whom Richie tries to woo by boasting of his false adventures in the Falklands.

From 1991–94, she starred in the ITV family comedy Second Thoughts and continued with her character, Hannah (Lynda Bellingham's daughter), in the British Comedy Award-winning Faith in the Future (1995–98). In 1994, she played Mercy (Merry) Pecksniff in the BBC production of Martin Chuzzlewit.

From 1992 to 2012, Sawalha played strait-laced daughter Saffron Monsoon in the BBC sitcom Absolutely Fabulous alongside Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley. She starred in the 1995 BBC adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudi