Michelle Ryan life and biography

Michelle Ryan is an English actress.

She is best known for portraying the role of Zoe Slater on the BBC soap opera EastEnders. In 2007, she starred in the short lived American television series Bionic Woman. She has appeared as the evil sorceress Nimueh in the 2008 BBC TV series Merlin, and as Lady Christina de Souza in the Doctor Who episode "Planet of the Dead".

Michelle Ryan was born in Enfield, Greater London, and was a student at Chace Community School. 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. She left the series in late 2005 and has since stated that she has no intention of returning to EastEnders.

She landed her first professional role at age 15, portraying Zoe Slater in the BBC soap opera EastEnders from September 2000 through 2005, affecting a cockney accent for the role instead of her normal London accent. While doing EastEnders she also had guest appearances in The Worst Witch, Burnside and Comic Relief 2003: The Big Hair Do. She left EastEnders in 2005 announcing a desire to pursue other opportunities in film and theater. Grateful for her experiences with EastEnders, she would later say that her involvement with the show served as a type of dress rehearsal for her work on the television series remake of The Bionic Woman. It did not take long for Ryan to find work after leaving the soap opera; during the summer of that same year Ryan appeared in a run of the King's Head Theatre production of Toby Young and Lloyd Evans' Who's the Daddy?, a play based on the David Blunkett paternity suit.

Ryan would go on to audition to replace Billie Piper as the Doctor's Companion in the Doctor Who series, though the role would ultimately be won by Freema Agyeman instead. Ryan would win an appearance on an episode of Marple in 2006 and later that same year would also appear in the independent film Cashback. In 2007 Ryan would appear in the role of Maria in the adaptation of ITV's Mansfield Park with Billie Piper and later that year as Lila in the film I Want Candy co-starring Carmen Electra and Mackenzie Crook. Later that year she would also win out over intense competition and appear as the title character Jaime Sommers in the remake of The Bionic Woman. An American production on the NBC network, the role called for an American character and Ryan affected an American accent for the part (excepting the episode, "The Education of Jaime Sommers", in which the character is called upon to infiltrate a university as an English transfer student; for this episode Ryan adopted an Oxfordshire accent). Ryan has had professional dance training and also pursued training in the Israeli martial art Krav Maga; she attributes her ability to cope with the physically demanding aspects of the role to both of these. She also pursued training in sign language for the part.

Ryan had been offered the role of Lexi in the film Adulthood but when production was delayed she dropped the role to pursue The Bionic Woman. On Red Nose Day 2007, Ryan appeared in a newly written and recorded Mr. Bean sketch for Comic Relief. In May of that same year she revealed that she had auditioned for the role of Vesper Lynd in the film Casino Royale, but ultimately the role would go to French actress Eva Green. The next year she would go on to appear in the Welsh independent film Flick starring Faye Dunaway and Leslie Phillips. In 2009 Ryan appeared in an episode of the television series Doctor Who and would win the lead role for the filming of the pilot of Mr. Eleven. 2010 proved to be a much more busy year for Ryan, and she would appear in four films: 4.3.2.1., Huge, No Ordinary Trifle and Girl Walks Into a Bar.

An attractive actress, Ryan was listed among FHM's 100 Sexiest Women in each year from 2002 through 2007, being ranked #4 in 2005. Ryan is registered with Independent Models in London, and is a patron of children's cancer charity CLIC Sargent. She was engaged for a time to Tommy Williams but the relationship ended, and Ryan remains unmarried.

Read more