Holly Matthews

Holly started professional acting at the tender age of 11. After writing to Helen Gregory (the producer of Byker Grove) without her parent's knowledge she was then asked to audition and although she was too young for the original part she auditioned for, the producers liked her and wrote in the part of Emma Miller. Her character Emma was in the show for 7 long years where she had many exciting storylines and worked with many established actors and directors. Her character eventually left the show to seek fame and fortune as a singer in London. In real life, like life imitating art Holly had also been in talks with top London record producers and had signed a recording contract with Sony UK. Holly's single 'Little Miss Perfect' which was released under the name Summer Matthews reached number 28 in the UK charts and number one on the Chart show. The video was played constantly on the music channels MTV, The box, Flaunt and TMF. During her promotional tour for the single Holly raised her profile appearing on shows such as Top of the Pops, MTV, TRL, Nickelodeon , cbeebies, CBBC, Trouble, Blue Peter (1958), Lorraine Kelly's show and the The Saturday Show. She also appeared in huge UK magazines TOTPS, Hello, J17, Shout, Sugar, More, Hot stars, Elle Girl and newspapers the Daily Star and the Daily Mail. After her single release Holly was eager to get back to her acting roots and was awarded a place at the critically acclaimed London drama school, East 15 where she refined her skills and learnt more about her craft. Holly was then offered the high profile role of Leigh-Ann Galloway, the school bully on the BBC's prime time, award winning TV drama Waterloo Road where she starred with great British actors such as Denise Welch, Angela Griffin, Jason Merrells and Jamie Glover. After her role as Leigh-Anne, Holly continued to get roles in the UK's top TV programmes, The Bill (1984), Doctors (2000) and Criminal Justice (2008). She appeared in pantomime for several years and played the part of Juliet in a theatre tour of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. She is also a presenter on BBC radio 7.