Michelle Ryan was born on April 22nd, 1984 in Enfield, Middlesex, England. She attended Chace Community School. A member of a local theatre group since she was 10, Ryan was picked for her role in EastEnders when she was 15 and first appeared on the show in September 2000.
She started her career performing in a Dance Gala at The London Palladium with "Wayne Sleep" (1998), her first television role was "Dolores" in the children's program, The Worst Witch: Fair Is Foul and Fouls Are Fair (2000).
Michelle's shot to fame as "Zoe Slater" in the hit BBC Soap, EastEnders. She was on the show from 2000-2005 and credited as appearing in over 530 episodes of the half-hour soap. Michelle first appeared in the show on September 18th 2000. A two hander episode in which her character, "Zoe Slater", shared the screen with her mother, "Kat Slater", drew an audience of 19 million viewers and went onto win "Best Single Episode" at the British Soap Awards (2002). Ryan was also nominated in the category of Best Actress at the British Soap Awards (2005).
Her first movie role came in 2005 with Sean Ellis' Cashback (2004). Then appearing, alongside Faye Dunaway, in Flick (2008), which was nominated for the Raindance Award at the British Independent Film Awards, and I Want Candy (2007) with Carmen Electra. She has taken other independent movie roles in Noel Clarke's 4.3.2.1. (2010); Girl Walks Into a Bar (2011) with Josh Hartnett, Danny DeVito and Carla Gugino; The Man Inside (2012) with Ashley Walters and Peter Mullan (2012); and Cockneys vs Zombies (2012) with Harry Treadaway (2012).
She started her career performing in a Dance Gala at The London Palladium with "Wayne Sleep" (1998), her first television role was "Dolores" in the children's program, The Worst Witch: Fair Is Foul and Fouls Are Fair (2000).
Michelle's shot to fame as "Zoe Slater" in the hit BBC Soap, EastEnders. She was on the show from 2000-2005 and credited as appearing in over 530 episodes of the half-hour soap. Michelle first appeared in the show on September 18th 2000. A two hander episode in which her character, "Zoe Slater", shared the screen with her mother, "Kat Slater", drew an audience of 19 million viewers and went onto win "Best Single Episode" at the British Soap Awards (2002). Ryan was also nominated in the category of Best Actress at the British Soap Awards (2005).
Her first movie role came in 2005 with Sean Ellis' Cashback (2004). Then appearing, alongside Faye Dunaway, in Flick (2008), which was nominated for the Raindance Award at the British Independent Film Awards, and I Want Candy (2007) with Carmen Electra. She has taken other independent movie roles in Noel Clarke's 4.3.2.1. (2010); Girl Walks Into a Bar (2011) with Josh Hartnett, Danny DeVito and Carla Gugino; The Man Inside (2012) with Ashley Walters and Peter Mullan (2012); and Cockneys vs Zombies (2012) with Harry Treadaway (2012).
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Michelle's UK TV roles include BBC's Jekyll (2007) and ITV's Mansfield Park (2007) before landing the much sought-after lead as "Jaime Sommers" NBC's 2007 reboot of the 1970's hit show Bionic Woman (2007). Following Bionic Woman's cancellation after just 8 episodes Michelle returned to the UK and guest starred in Merlin (2008), "Lady Christina de Souza" in Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead (2009) and with Olivia Colman in Mister Eleven (2009) for ITV.
Alongside her TV and Film work, she has appeared in theatre productions "Who's the Daddy" (2005) at the Kings Head Theatre in Islington, "The Talented Mr. Ripley" at The Royal Derngate Theatre in Northampton (2010) playing the role of "Marge", opposite Kyle Soller, and as the lead role of "Sally Bowles" in "Cabaret" at The Savoy Theatre, London (2012).
Michelle Ryan went back to work Stateside for a 6-episode arc in the USA Network spy drama Covert Affairs(2013), before returning to the UK in 2014 to appearing in an episode of the 3rd series of the BBC crime series 'Death in Paradise' There was the sci-fi thriller 'Andron (2015) with Alec Baldwin and Danny Glover and several shorts and indie movies , such as 'The Last Photograph (2017), Black Sand: A Sandman Story ( 2017), Sonium (2019) and the French short 'Le Jugement Dernier'
2018 saw Michelle start to attend several media fairs and conventions, where she engaged with fans, these included with shows with Showmasters, as well as the Doctor Who fan convention Whooverville, which takes place every year in Derby.
What can often go unnoticed is Michelle's voice-over work for books and commercials, which one might say is the point. Michelle has narrated a Doctor Who audio book, 'The Rising Night', and been part of full cats audio books for the Alien franchise and Big Finish Doctor Who titles. Voice-over commercial work has included big brands such as Boots, Virgin Active, L'Oreal and Nationwide.
Michelle is active in numerous charities, from CLIC Sargent, a charity that helps young people going through cancer, to The Big Cat Sanctuary, a registered animal charity whose aim is to contribute to global conservation, The Total Green School Awards which encourages environmental education in schools and rewards outstanding projects and appeared in the 'Mr Bean's Wedding' Comic relief sketch in 2017 .
Alongside her TV and Film work, she has appeared in theatre productions "Who's the Daddy" (2005) at the Kings Head Theatre in Islington, "The Talented Mr. Ripley" at The Royal Derngate Theatre in Northampton (2010) playing the role of "Marge", opposite Kyle Soller, and as the lead role of "Sally Bowles" in "Cabaret" at The Savoy Theatre, London (2012).
Michelle Ryan went back to work Stateside for a 6-episode arc in the USA Network spy drama Covert Affairs(2013), before returning to the UK in 2014 to appearing in an episode of the 3rd series of the BBC crime series 'Death in Paradise' There was the sci-fi thriller 'Andron (2015) with Alec Baldwin and Danny Glover and several shorts and indie movies , such as 'The Last Photograph (2017), Black Sand: A Sandman Story ( 2017), Sonium (2019) and the French short 'Le Jugement Dernier'
2018 saw Michelle start to attend several media fairs and conventions, where she engaged with fans, these included with shows with Showmasters, as well as the Doctor Who fan convention Whooverville, which takes place every year in Derby.
What can often go unnoticed is Michelle's voice-over work for books and commercials, which one might say is the point. Michelle has narrated a Doctor Who audio book, 'The Rising Night', and been part of full cats audio books for the Alien franchise and Big Finish Doctor Who titles. Voice-over commercial work has included big brands such as Boots, Virgin Active, L'Oreal and Nationwide.
Michelle is active in numerous charities, from CLIC Sargent, a charity that helps young people going through cancer, to The Big Cat Sanctuary, a registered animal charity whose aim is to contribute to global conservation, The Total Green School Awards which encourages environmental education in schools and rewards outstanding projects and appeared in the 'Mr Bean's Wedding' Comic relief sketch in 2017 .
Michelle runs the London Marathon in 2012 to raise money for CLIC
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Matt Humphrey photo as part of a 31 portraits in 31 days - 2011
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Michelle is a popular guest at red carpet and promotional events.
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Did you know...
- Michelle was consistently voted one of England's sexiest women by readers of the men's magazine FHM. She was ranked #70 in FHM's 100 Sexiest Women in 2002, #21 in FHM's 100 Sexiest Women in 2004, #4 in FHM's 100 Sexiest Women in 2005 and #59 on FHM 100 sexiest women in 2007.
- She auditioned for a role in the 2006 film Casino Royale that was later given to Eva Green.
- According to the British newspaper The Sun, Ryan auditioned to replace Billie Piper as the Doctor's companion in Doctor Who; however Freema Agyeman was ultimately chosen for the role.
- Michelle was given the role of Lexi in the film Adulthood. However filming was delayed so Ryan dropped out of the film when she was cast in Bionic Woman. The role of Lexi was then given to her former EastEnders co-star Scarlett Alice Johnson.
VOICE-OVER/COMMERCIALS
