Michelle Collins is acknowledged as one of the countries most popular and talented character actresses. As Cindy Beale in Eastenders she created a memorable femme fatale that the public loved to hate, yet has proved her versatility with a string of critically-acclaimed performances in some of television’s most highly-rated dramas, including Real Women, Single and The Illustrated Mum, which won an Emmy and two Children’s BAFTAs. Michelle have a much deserved reputation for playing tough, contemporary women who also have a touching vulnerability

Michelle’s acting roots are firmly theatrical, having trained at the Royal Court Activists and Cockpit Youth Theatre from the age of fourteen and progressing to Kingsway Princeton College, where she studied drama and theatre. After graduating, she landed a role in Bulgakov’s The Crimson Island at The Gate Theatre, directed by Lou Stein. 

Her career changed direction when, having performed in the video for the Squeeze song Up The Junction, she joined Mari Wilson and The Wilsations as the backing singer; “Candide”. The band spent eighteen months touring the country, working with artists such as Marc Almond, Level 42, Altered Images and Kid Creole and the Coconuts. When the band broke up in 1982, she went back into acting with the help of Tim Roth, securing a part in H.M.V, a pop musical with the late Gary Hutton and Gary Shail, at the Half Moon Theatre.

Michelle’s first TV appearance was with Gary Oldman in the BBC drama Morgan’s Boy. She went on to appear in Gems, a drama starring Janet McTeer and three films: Personal Services, Empire State and Poliakov’s Hidden City. Other TV credits included: two series of Running Wild, a sitcom with Ray Brooks, playing his daughter, a Screen Two production Lucky Sunil, directed by Michael Caton Jones and a BBC play, Pressures.

It was during the filming of Pressures in 1988 that Michelle was spotted by Eastender’s producer Julia Smith. Julia asked her to audition for a new character ‘Cindy’, who would feature in eleven episodes. No one could have imagined that eleven episodes would turn into eleven years.

There were breaks from Albert Square and in 1996 she filmed Real Women for the BBC, a hugely successful drama with Pauline Quirke and Frances Barber, which confirmed Michelle as an actress of considerable stature.

Since leaving Eastenders, Michelle has enjoyed a string of successful dramas, which include two series of Real Women (BBC1)  two series of Sunburn (BBC1) and Daylight Robbery (ITV); The Sleeper (BBC1); Uprising (ITV): three series of Two Thousand Acres of Sky (BBC1): the 2-part series Perfect (ITV); Lloyd and Hill (ITV) , Ella And The Mothers (BBC1), Single (BBC1). Sea of Souls (BBC1), and Can’t Buy Me Love (ITV).

Never afraid to meet new challenges, Michelle made her West End theatre debut in May 2004, co-starring with Stephen Tompkinson in Rattle of a Simple Man, in which she played a 60’s prostitute with a darkly complex past. She has recently finished a run as Ma Baker in Daddy Cool, the West End Romeo and Juliet styled musical inspired by the music of Boney M.

Coming up, Michelle has a guest starring role in Dr.Who, to be screened in April 2007.

Michelle is heavily involved in charitable causes. She is an ‘ambassador’ for Oxfam and has visited Brazil, Kenya, Armenia  and South Africa - promoting the need for the basic right to education. She also continues to be involved with a variety of fund raising projects for Banardos, Stonewall and Breakthrough Breast Cancer.