A British actress, born in Hackney, East London, to a Welsh mother and a father of English and Flemish descent. At the age of 14, her mother returned to university to study law. In the 1970s, she became a member of the Woodcraft Folk Youth organization and visited Romania with the group. She trained at the Cockpit Youth Theatre from the age of 14, and at Westminster Kingsway College, where she studied drama and theatre. Her most notable works include Personal Services (1987) and Empire State (1987), the TV series Real Women (1998), and Two Thousand Acres of Sky (2001).