Tamzin Outhwaite was born on 5th November, 1970 in Ilford, Essex.

It was watching Natalie Wood in West Side Story when she was very young that first excited Outhwaite about acting.

As a teenager, she attended the Stagestruck Theatre Company and when she was 16, Tamzin Outhwaite left school to go to the London Studio Centre to study dance, but changed course to drama. She won the award for best all-rounder.

Tamzin Outhwaite then had eight years in various acting roles, including the theatrical musicals, Grease, Carousel and Oliver; and parts in television shows including The Bill and Men Behaving Badly.

She acted in They're Playing our Song and then Alan Ayckbourne cast Outhwaite in Absent Friends. Soon after that, when she was 28, Tamzin Outhwaite landed her famous role as Mel in Eastenders, which she played for over 3 years, leaving Albert Square with Mel pregnant with her dead husband's baby.

Since leaving Eastenders Outhwaite has performed in a variety of quality productions in film, TV and theatre.

She picked up a Variety award for her role in Out Of Control, which won the Edingburgh Festival award for best British film.

Her television perfomances include roles in Red Cap, Frances Tuesday and Final Demand. Whilst on the stage Outhwaite has played a dysfunctional woman in the Royal Court's Flesh Wound. Also at the Royal Court, Outhwaite has played an abusive woman in Breathing Corpses.

On the personal front, Tamzin Outhwaite's engagement to Marty Benson was called off, and relationships with snowboarder Jamie Baker and DJ Steve Ellington didn't work out.

As at June 2005 Tamzin Outhwaite was reportedly dating actor Tom Ellis and had parts lined up in a BBC drama, Hotel Babylon and an ITV series, Walk Away and I Stumble. 

Credit: biogs.com