Zaraah Abrahams

Zaraah Abrahams
Born	Zaraah Abrahams 27 March 1987 (1987-03-27) London, England
Occupation	Television actress
Website
www.zaraah

Zaraah Abrahams (born 27 March 1987) is an actress who is most famous for starring in Waterloo Road and competing in Dancing on Ice.

Early life

She is of Iraqi and Barbadian descent on her mother's side and of Jamaican descent on her father's side. She grew up in Brixton, South London and is the eldest of 3 siblings. She attended the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts for her secondary education, landing the role of Magda in the TV Adaptation of Jacqueline Wilson's Girls in Love while still a pupil there. At the age of 18 she left London to pursue a career in acting in Manchester after landing the role of Joanne Jackson in Coronation Street.

Career

She previously starred as Magda in the CITV show Girls in Love and as Joanne Jackson in the ITV soap Coronation Street. In 2008, she joined the cast of Waterloo Road in a recurring role as student Michaela White. The character became part of the core cast for the fourth series in 2009 and remained with the show until her exit at the end of the fifth series in 2010. In 2011, Abraham reprised the role of in the online spin-off series Waterloo Road Reunited.

Dancing on Ice

She took part in ITV1's Dancing on Ice 2008, as a replacement for the injured Michael Underwood. Her partner was skater Fred Palascak, who was originally eliminated in week one of the competition with his partner Sarah Greene. She was listed as a reserve before being announced as Underwood's replacement.

For the majority of her time in the competition she has ranked third or fourth on the scoreboard.

In her first week (week three) Abrahams scored 18.5, coming fourth on the leaderboard beating six original celebrities including Samantha Mumba and Linda Lusardi.

Then, in the following few weeks, she achieved some very respectable scores, except in Week 7. She survived three consecutive skate-offs against the Skate-off King, Steve Backley, Linda Lusardi, and Greg Rusedski.

Zaraah reached the semi-final with Chris Fountain, Suzanne Shaw and Gareth Gates. Despite being the favourite to be eliminated, Zaraah came third on the leaderboard, beating Gareth Gates, scoring 27.0, her highest mark. She was in the skate-off with Gates, being saved by all the judges. Zaraah had earned her place in the Final with Chris Fountain and Suzanne Shaw.

Abrahams scored 26.0 in her flying and skating routine, being praised for her elegance. In the flying round she was second on the leaderboard, beating Chris Fountain. In the favourite routine round Zaraah scored 26.5, performing her Diamonds and Pearls routine from Week 5, which had scored 22.0. She came third in this round and with a joint score of 52.5, she came third on the leaderboard, behind Chris Fountain, who scored 54.5, and Suzanne Shaw who scored a full score of 60.0, the first in a Dancing On Ice history. Phillip announced that Zaraah had come third, meaning she had lost out on Bolero. Zaraah thanked everyone and praised the show, saying it was the best thing she'd ever done.

Abrahams survived four skate-offs, breaking the record alongside Steve Backley, whom she beat in her Week Six skate-off. Zaraah was known as the Skate-Off Queen.^{[citation needed]}

Abrahams then travelled around the UK with Torvill and Dean on the Dancing On Ice Live Tour, before finally competing in the Christmas Special with Team Torvill.

Hole in the Wall

Zaarah appeared on Hole in the Wall, in 29 November 2009. As she was in the Red team, with her captain Joe Swash, she lost and had nothing to give to charity.

Filmography

Television
Year	Title	Role	Notes
2003	Girls in Love	Magda	2003-2005 (27 episodes)
2005	Coronation Street	Joanne Jackson	2005-2007 (176 episodes)
2007	Waterloo Road	Michaela White	2007-2010 (56 episodes)
2011	Waterloo Road Reunited	Michaela White	2011 (6 web episodes)

External links

• Zaraah Abrahams at the Internet Movie Database