Michelle Ryan

Michelle Ryan
Michelle Ryan at the 2009 BAFTA Awards in London
Born	Michelle Claire Ryan
Occupation	Actress
Years active	2000–present

Michelle Claire Ryan (born 22 April 1984) is an English actress.

She was previously best known for portraying the role of Zoe Slater on the BBC soap opera EastEnders. She has also starred in the 2007 television series remake Bionic Woman. More recently she has appeared as the wicked sorceress Nimueh in the 2008 BBC TV series Merlin, and as Lady Christina de Souza in an Easter 2009 episode of Doctor Who.

Early life and career

Michelle Ryan was born in Enfield, Greater London, and was a student at Chace Community School. Her father is a Fire Safety Officer, while her mother works for Clinique. A member of a local theatre group since she was 10, she was picked for her role in EastEnders when she was 15 and first appeared on the show in September 2000; for the part, she affected an East End cockney accent, rather than speaking her usual Received Pronunciation. In 2005, she announced she was leaving EastEnders to concentrate on work in theatre and films. She has mused that her involvement with the show served as a dress rehearsal for working on Bionic Woman.

Primetime career and other works

Ryan got her first big break playing Sheylla Grands in the series TV show Chosen Ones in the 1st season and Zoe Slater in the BBC soap EastEnders.

During summer 2005, Ryan appeared in a run of Who's the Daddy? at the King's Head Theatre. The play by Toby Young and Lloyd Evans is based on the David Blunkett paternity case.

Ryan had a small role in an episode of Marple which screened in February 2006, and also appeared in a small independent film the same year, Cashback.

In early 2007, Ryan was seen as Maria in a new adaptation of Mansfield Park opposite Billie Piper for ITV and also as Lila in the film I Want Candy, co-starring Carmen Electra and Mackenzie Crook. In February 2007, it was announced that she had been cast as the lead in the new drama Bionic Woman. The series began airing in the United States on the broadcast network NBC in September 2007. Ryan affects an American accent for the role of Jaime Sommers, except in the episode "The Education of Jaime Sommers" in which her character goes undercover as an English transfer student at a university; for this episode, she uses an Oxfordshire accent instead of her natural London accent. She has had professional dance training and attributes to it helping her with the physically demanding stunts required for the show. She also learnt Krav Maga and sign language for the part. Ryan stated the show's cancellation came about because it kept changing direction, and stated it led to her being less ambitious about her career. "I'm more go-with-the-flow now," she said.

On Red Nose Day 2007, Ryan appeared in a brand new Mr. Bean sketch written and recorded for Comic Relief.

In May 2007, Ryan revealed she had auditioned the previous year for the role of Vesper Lynd in Casino Royale, eventually given to Eva Green. In late 2007 she appeared in Flick, a Welsh independent film co-starring Faye Dunaway and Leslie Phillips.

Prior to Bionic Woman, she appeared in Jekyll for the BBC, a modern day version of Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde starring James Nesbitt. It began its six-episode run on 16 June 2007 and was released on DVD in the United States on 18 September 2007, one week prior to her debut in Bionic Woman.

She has also appeared as the sorceress Nimueh in the BBC drama series Merlin.

Ryan is signed to Independent Models in London, and is also a patron of children's cancer charity CLIC Sargent.

In January 2009, the BBC announced that Ryan had been cast as Lady Christina de Souza in the Doctor Who Easter special episode "Planet of the Dead", which was broadcast on 11 April 2009. She had been rumoured for a part beforehand, and is open to reprising the role in future, although "At the moment, when it comes to acting, I'm a bit of a commitment-phobe."

Ryan and Grey's Anatomy star Kevin McKidd are to star in a new one-off drama for BBC Scotland, One Night In Emergency, the story of one man's surreal search for his wife in an inner-city hospital. The cast also features Ewen Bremner, Gary Lewis, Sanjeev Kohli and David Hayman. The film is written by Gregory Burke, author of Black Watch. The drama, which begins filming in and around Glasgow, will be directed by Michael Offer, who directed The Passion and The State Within.

Selected Filmography

Television

Year	Film	Role	Notes
2000	The Worst Witch	Dolores	Episode: "Fair Is Foul & Fouls Are Fair"
	Burnside	School Friend	Episodes: "Exposed: Part 1" and "Exposed: Part 2"
	EastEnders	Zoe Slater	2000–2005 454 episodes
2003	EastEnders: Slaters in Detention	Zoe Slater	DVD special
	Comic Relief 2003: The Big Hair Do	Zoe Slater	EastEnders sketch
2006	Marple	Rose Water	Episode: "By the Pricking of My Thumbs"
2007	Red Nose Day	Kate	"Mr. Bean's Wedding" segment
	Mansfield Park	Maria Bertram
	Jekyll	Katherine Reimer
	Bionic Woman	Jaime Sommers	Lead role
2008	Merlin	Nimueh	Episodes: "The Mark of Nimueh", "The Poisoned Chalice", "Excalibur", "Le Morte d'Arthur"
2009	Doctor Who	Lady Christina de Souza	Episode: "Planet of the Dead"
	Mr Eleven	Saz Paley	Awaiting broadcast

Film

Year	Film	Role	Notes
2006	Cashback	Suzy	Film debut
2007	I Want Candy	Lila
2008	Flick	Sandra Martin

External links

• Michelle Ryan at IMDb