Brooke Kinsella
Encyclopedia
Brooke Kinsella, MBE (born 19 July 1983) is an English
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...

 actress and author. A graduate of the Anna Scher Theatre School, Kinsella has been acting since childhood. She has had various roles on television and in film. Her most notable role is that of Kelly Taylor
Kelly Taylor (EastEnders)
Kelly Taylor is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Brooke Kinsella. The character was introduced by executive producer John Yorke, in 2001...

, who featured in BBC's long-running soap opera, EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...

, between 2001 and 2004.

Kinsella's family made headlines in the British press in 2008 following the murder of her half-brother, Ben
Murder of Ben Kinsella
Ben Michael Kinsella was a 16-year-old English student at Holloway School. Kinsella was murdered by a gang of black men in Islington, London after an argument in which he was described as "blameless"...

, who was stabbed to death in June 2008. After his death, hundreds of people protested along with Kinsella over knife fatalities in London.

Career

Kinsella attended the Maria Fidelis RC Convent School in Camden
Camden Town
-Economy:In recent years, entertainment-related businesses and a Holiday Inn have moved into the area. A number of retail and food chain outlets have replaced independent shops driven out by high rents and redevelopment. Restaurants have thrived, with the variety of culinary traditions found in...

, graduating with ten A stars, five As and two Bs in her GCSEs. Prompted by her mother, who wanted to encourage her to take up a hobby she enjoyed, Kinsella attended the Anna Scher Theatre School
Young Actors Theatre (Islington)
The Young Actors Theatre is a community theatre school for children and young adults in Islington, London, run on a non-profit sustainable-funding basis.-The school:...

 at the age of 6, and stayed there until she was 16.

She made her television debut at the age of 7 in the BBC children series MUD and has appeared in a variety of other TV productions, including Coming Home
Coming Home (TV serial)
Coming Home is a 1998 British serial directed by Giles Foster. The teleplay by John Goldsmith is based on the novel of the same title by Rosamunde Pilcher. Produced by Yorkshire Television, it was broadcast in two parts by ITV in April 1998.-Plot:...

. As well as appearing in an episode of the BBC series Sunburn in 2000, she has also appeared in the entirely unrelated music video "Sunburn" by British rock band, Muse
Muse (band)
Muse are an English alternative rock band from Teignmouth, Devon, formed in 1994. The band consists of school friends Matthew Bellamy , Christopher Wolstenholme and Dominic Howard...

.

Film credits include the Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...

 film Kid In The Corner (1999) about a child suffering with ADHD, and the controversial ITV film No Child of Mine (1997). In the latter she played Kerry, a young girl who continuously suffered sexual abuse
Sexual abuse
Sexual abuse, also referred to as molestation, is the forcing of undesired sexual behavior by one person upon another. When that force is immediate, of short duration, or infrequent, it is called sexual assault. The offender is referred to as a sexual abuser or molester...

 from her parents, friends and carers, and was forced into prostitution by her father. Kerry finally contacts Childline
ChildLine
ChildLine is a free 24 hour counselling service for children and young people up to 18 in the UK provided by the NSPCC. ChildLine deals with any issue which causes distress or concern, common issues dealt with include child abuse, bullying, parental separation or divorce, pregnancy and substance...

 and is put in a safe house, where she tries to come to terms with what has been done to her. The film was based on a true story, with the names changed to protect the real victim's identity.

In 2002, Kinsella appeared as Liz Chambers in ITV1s cop show The Bill
The Bill
The Bill is a police procedural television series that ran from October 1984 to August 2010. It focused on the lives and work of one shift of police officers, rather than on any particular aspect of police work...

 playing a teenage tearaway. Her character is later the first victim of the original Sun Hill Serial Killer
Sun Hill Serial Killer
The Sun Hill Serial Killer was a major storyline from ITVs cop show The Bill. Known originally as the "River Murders", the storyline spanned several months in 2002 and served as the exit for popular cast regular Cass Rickman...

.

Her stage credits include School Play at Soho Theatre
Soho Theatre
Soho Theatre is a theatre in the eponymous Soho district of the City of Westminster. It presents new works of theatre, together with comedy and cabaret....

 (2001) and a reading of Skyvers by Barry Reckord at the Royal Court Theatre
Royal Court Theatre
The Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre on Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is noted for its contributions to modern theatre...

 in 2006.

Before securing the role of Kelly Smith
Kelly Taylor (EastEnders)
Kelly Taylor is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Brooke Kinsella. The character was introduced by executive producer John Yorke, in 2001...

 in EastEnders, Kinsella had auditioned for the parts of Zoe Slater
Zoe Slater
Zoe Slater is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Michelle Ryan. She made her first appearance on the 18 September 2000...

, Janine Butcher and Sonia Jackson, but was unsuccessful. Kinsella completed the first year of a degree in English, Media and Drama at Buckinghamshire New University before joining the cast of EastEnders. She joined the show for a brief stint in 2001, before returning as a full-time cast member from 2002 - 2004. During her time on the hit soap, Brooke's character weathered prostitution
Prostitution
Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...

, relationship break-ups and confusion over her sexual identity
Sexual identity
Sexual identity is a term that, like sex, has two distinctively different meanings. One describes an identity roughly based on sexual orientation, the other an identity based on sexual characteristics, which is not socially based but based on biology, a concept related to, but different from,...

 prompted by a lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...

 kiss with Michelle Ryan
Michelle Ryan
Michelle Claire Ryan is an English actress.She is best known for portraying the role of Zoe Slater on BBC soap opera EastEnders. In 2007, she starred in the short lived American television series Bionic Woman...

's character, Zoe Slater
Zoe Slater
Zoe Slater is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Michelle Ryan. She made her first appearance on the 18 September 2000...

. The kiss was criticised in the British media as cheap sensationalism and branded as a ratings-stunt. Louise Berridge
Louise Berridge
Louise Berridge is a British writer of historical fiction. Before she became a novelist, she was best known as a television producer and script editor. The most famous post being the executive producer of BBC's EastEnders between 2002 and 2004...

, the one time executive producer of EastEnders, made the decision to axe Kinsella's character in 2004 to allow further character development of her on-screen best friend, Zoe Slater; however, Kinsella maintains it was a mutual decision between herself and Berridge. In March 2008, Brooke said in an interview with Woman
Woman (UK magazine)
Woman is a mainstream weekly title for 30- and 40-something women. Edited by Karen Livermore, it encompasses a mix of celebrity gossip and TV news, real-life stories, and body-confident fashion and beauty tips...

magazine that she would love to return to EastEnders at some point.

Kinsella and her real-life partner Ray Panthaki
Ray Panthaki
Ray Panthaki is a British-born actor, film producer and writer.Born in London, Panthaki is best known for the roles he played on BBC soap opera EastEnders as Ronny Ferreira and as 'Hassan B' the nemesis to Sacha Baron Cohen's Ali G in Ali G Indahouse...

 (who played Ronny Ferreira in EastEnders), played a heroin-taking couple in director Andrew Jones
Andrew Jones (filmmaker)
Andrew Jones is a British screenwriter and director.-Biography:Andrew Jones was born in Britain, in Swansea in South Wales....

's film The Feral Generation
The Feral Generation
The Feral Generation is an award winning British feature film written and directed by Welsh filmmaker Andrew Jones and starring Ray Panthaki and Brooke Kinsella in the leading roles. The film was shot in Swansea and Cardiff, South Wales in 2007 and was the first film to be produced by London based...

, which was shot during the period of December 2006 and January 2007 and premiered at the 2007 Portobello Film Festival. Her debut novel, Friendship Is A Funny Thing is awaiting publication. She was made an MBE
MBE
MBE can stand for:* Mail Boxes Etc.* Management by exception* Master of Bioethics* Master of Bioscience Enterprise* Master of Business Engineering* Master of Business Economics* Mean Biased Error...

 for her work on knife crime in the Queen's Birthday Honours
Queen's Birthday Honours
The Queen's Birthday Honours is a part of the British honours system, being a civic occasion on the celebration of the Queen's Official Birthday in which new members of most Commonwealth Realms honours are named. The awards are presented by the reigning monarch or head of state, currently Queen...

 2011
2011 Birthday Honours
The Birthday Honours 2011 for the Commonwealth Realms were announced on 7 June 2011 in New Zealand and 11 June 2011 in United Kingdom to celebrate the Queen's Birthday of 2011.-Privy Councillors:...

.

Personal life

Kinsella's father left the family when she was four years old and she was subsequently raised by her mother Debbie and stepfather George, who Kinsella has described as her "real dad". She lives in Islington
Islington
Islington is a neighbourhood in Greater London, England and forms the central district of the London Borough of Islington. It is a district of Inner London, spanning from Islington High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the area around the busy Upper Street...

, North London
North London
North London is the northern part of London, England. It is an imprecise description and the area it covers is defined differently for a range of purposes. Common to these definitions is that it includes districts located north of the River Thames and is used in comparison with South...

 and is the oldest of four children; she has two sisters, Jade and Georgia, and had brother, Ben.

Despite being in a relationship with Jamie Brindle during her first year in EastEnders, Kinsella was regularly photographed by paparazzi
Paparazzi
Paparazzi is an Italian term used to refer to photojournalists who specialize in candid photography of celebrities, politicians, and other prominent people...

 on nights out with her castmates, leading the press to speculate at different times that she was dating Joe Swash
Joe Swash
Joseph Adam Swash is an English actor and presenter. He once played Mickey Miller in the British television soap opera EastEnders. He is the older brother of Shana Swash, who played his on-screen younger sister Demi Miller until July 2006. He also won the TV reality show I'm a Celebrity... Get Me...

, James Alexandrou
James Alexandrou
James Alekos Alexandrou is an English actor of Greek Cypriot descent, best known for playing Martin Fowler in the BBC One soap opera EastEnders.-Early life:...

, Christopher Parker
Christopher Parker
Christopher Parker is an English actor and television presenter.- Early career :Christopher Parker’s career began at an early age as a model appearing in print campaigns and TV commercials. . He progressed onto small roles in TV dramas such as The Bill, London's Burning and Judge John Deed...

, singer Antony Costa
Antony Costa
Antony Daniel Costa is an English singer-songwriter and actor. He is best known as a member of the boyband Blue.-Career:One of Costa's earliest television roles was as a pupil in Steven Moffat's sitcom Chalk...

 and Hollyoaks
Hollyoaks
Hollyoaks is a long-running British television soap opera, first broadcast on Channel 4 on 23 October 1995. It was originally devised by Phil Redmond, who has also devised shows including Brookside and Grange Hill...

actors Gary Lucy and Andrew Newton-Lee. Kinsella denied the rumours in various interviews. Following her split from Brindle (who the Sunday Mirror
Sunday Mirror
The Sunday Mirror is the Sunday sister paper of the Daily Mirror. It began life in 1915 as the Sunday Pictorial and was renamed the Sunday Mirror in 1963. Trinity Mirror also owns The People...

revealed had been convicted of racial assault) at the end of 2003, she remained single for two years. From 2005 until 2010 she dated Ray Panthaki
Ray Panthaki
Ray Panthaki is a British-born actor, film producer and writer.Born in London, Panthaki is best known for the roles he played on BBC soap opera EastEnders as Ronny Ferreira and as 'Hassan B' the nemesis to Sacha Baron Cohen's Ali G in Ali G Indahouse...

.

Murder of brother

On 29 June 2008 at 02:00 BST, Kinsella's 16 year-old brother, Ben Kinsella was stabbed to death by a gang of three youths in a London street. Ben, the seventeenth teenager killed in London in 2008, died in hospital a few hours later. Kinsella said she was "devastated".

Following his death, Kinsella and her family led hundreds of people in a march to protest against London's knife and gun crime. On July 3, 2008, three people were charged with Ben's murder, for which they were later tried and convicted. The Kinsella family has launched a website and fund in Ben's memory, in a bid to end knife crime. In the run up to the 2010 general election, Kinsella announced her support for the Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 and revealed she would head a panel deciding how grants were distributed to voluntary groups tackling youth crime.

On 23 and 25 February 2011, an anti-knife campaign, funded by the Kinsella trust was run in Birmingham's New Street Station, in conjunction with the British transport police
British Transport Police
The British Transport Police is a special police force that polices those railways and light-rail systems in Great Britain for which it has entered into an agreement to provide such services...

 and Great Barr School's
Great Barr School
Great Barr School is a co-educational secondary school on Aldridge Road in Great Barr, Birmingham, England for pupils aged 11 to 19. The school is usually the next level for children who attended Great Barr Primary School on the same area site.-History:...

 drama department from its Sixth Form centre. A play was performed to the public throughout each of these days in the stations concourse, to raise awareness of the effects of knife crime.

Kinsella was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2011 Birthday Honours
2011 Birthday Honours
The Birthday Honours 2011 for the Commonwealth Realms were announced on 7 June 2011 in New Zealand and 11 June 2011 in United Kingdom to celebrate the Queen's Birthday of 2011.-Privy Councillors:...

 for services to the prevention of knife crime.

Films

Year Film Role Notes
2011 London Town Kate in production
2007 The Feral Generation
The Feral Generation
The Feral Generation is an award winning British feature film written and directed by Welsh filmmaker Andrew Jones and starring Ray Panthaki and Brooke Kinsella in the leading roles. The film was shot in Swansea and Cardiff, South Wales in 2007 and was the first film to be produced by London based...

Nikki
2001 Just Like My Dad Unknown Role
1998 Candy Sandra

TV

Year TV Show Role Notes
2011 Law & Order: UK Tina 1 episode : Episode Tick Tock
Holby City
Holby City
Holby City, stylised as Holby Ci+y, is a British medical drama television series that airs weekly on BBC One.The series was created by Tony McHale and Mal Young as a spin-off from the established BBC medical drama Casualty, and premiered on 12 January 1999...

 
Emma Kerrigan 1 episode : Episode Too Much Monkey Business
2009–2011 Loose Women
Loose Women
Loose Women is a British lunchtime television programme, first broadcast in 1999 on ITV. It consists of a panel of four women who interview celebrities and discuss topical issues, ranging from daily politics and current affairs, to celebrity gossip...

Herself 2 episodes
2010 Missing
Missing
Missing or The Missing may refer to:-Film:*Missing , a 1982 starring Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek*The Missing, a 2003 film starring Cate Blanchett and Tommy Lee Jones*Missing , a U.S...

Leanne Hallam 1 episode : Episode #2.1
2009 The Wright Stuff
The Wright Stuff
The Wright Stuff is a British television chat show, hosted by Matthew Wright, and currently airing on Channel 5 each weekday morning from 9:15 to 11:10am....

Herself - Guest Panelist 1 episode
My Brother Ben: Brooke Kinsella's Story Herself - Narrator
2006 Vital Signs
Vital Signs (TV series)
Vital Signs is a British television drama series airing on ITV from 2006. It stars Tamzin Outhwaite as a supermarket check-out operator who decides to become a doctor. The series co-stars William Beck, Fraser Ayres, Eve Best, Claudie Blakley, Lucinda Dryzek, Beth Goddard, Alfie Hunter, Brooke...

Mandy 3 episodes : Episode #1.1 Episode #1.2 Episode #1.5
2005 Jericho
Jericho
Jericho ; is a city located near the Jordan River in the West Bank of the Palestinian territories. It is the capital of the Jericho Governorate and has a population of more than 20,000. Situated well below sea level on an east-west route north of the Dead Sea, Jericho is the lowest permanently...

Dawn Masters 1 episode : Episode A Pair of Ragged Claws
Rose and Maloney
Rose and Maloney
Rose and Maloney is a British television crime drama starring Sarah Lancashire and Phil Davis as Rose Linden and Maloney, two investigators working for the fictional Criminal Justice Review Agency. This agency takes on claims of miscarriages of justice, assessing whether there are grounds to...

Lola Shore 1 episode : Episode #2.1
EastEnders Revealed The Growing Pains of Zoe Slater Herself
2001–2004 EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...

Kelly Taylor
Kelly Taylor (EastEnders)
Kelly Taylor is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Brooke Kinsella. The character was introduced by executive producer John Yorke, in 2001...

 
Series Regular
2004 Big Brother's Big Mouth Herself - Guest Panelist 1 episode : Episode #1.18
Big Brother's Little Brother Herself 1 episode : Episode #4.10
This Morning
This Morning
This Morning may refer to:* This Morning , a British daytime television show* This Morning , a Canadian radio show* CBS This Morning and This Morning, former names of the American morning show The Early Show...

Herself 1 episode
2003 EastEnders: Christmas Party Herself
2002 The Bill
The Bill
The Bill is a police procedural television series that ran from October 1984 to August 2010. It focused on the lives and work of one shift of police officers, rather than on any particular aspect of police work...

Liz Chambers 2 episodes : Episode 023 Episode 024
NCS Manhunt Pauline Kowatowski 1 episode : Episode #1.1
2001 The Vice
The Vice
Vice is a stock character of the medieval morality plays. While the main character of these plays was representative of every human being , the other characters were representative of personified virtues or vices who sought to win control of man's soul...

Inez 1 episode : Episode Into the Night
2000 Killers Unknown Role
Sunburn
Sunburn
A sunburn is a burn to living tissue, such as skin, which is produced by overexposure to ultraviolet radiation, commonly from the sun's rays. Usual mild symptoms in humans and other animals include red or reddish skin that is hot to the touch, general fatigue, and mild dizziness. An excess of UV...

Sally Prince 1 episode : Episode #2.6
1999 Kid in the Corner Lucy Letts unknown episodes
Hope and Glory
Hope and Glory
Hope and Glory is a 1987 British-American comedy-drama-war film, written and directed by John Boorman. Boorman based the film on his own early life experiences of growing up in the Blitz in London during World War II...

Marina 3 episodes : Episode #1.1 Episode #1.3 Episode #1.4
1998 Maisie Raine
Maisie Raine
Maisie Raine was a drama series originally broadcast on BBC1 for 2 series from 28 July 1998 - 9 July 1999.Pauline Quirke took the lead role as DI Maisie Raine, an unorthodox detective whose hands on and down to earth approach was not always appreciated by her superiors...

Sarah 1 episode : Episode Happy Families
Coming Home Jess
1997 Original Sin
Original sin
Original sin is, according to a Christian theological doctrine, humanity's state of sin resulting from the Fall of Man. This condition has been characterized in many ways, ranging from something as insignificant as a slight deficiency, or a tendency toward sin yet without collective guilt, referred...

Daisy Reed 3 episodes : Episode #1.1 Episode #1.2 Episode #1.3
No Child of Mine Kerry
1996 Jack and Jeremy's Real Lives
Jack and Jeremy's Real Lives
Jack and Jeremy's Real Lives was a 1996 comedy show for Channel 4, written by and starring Jack Dee and Jeremy HardyThe series was a collection of mockumentaries similar to their previous collaboration, Jack And Jeremy's Police 4...

Unknown Role 1 episode : Episode Consumer Watchdogs
No Bananas Janet Episode Escape Episode Sitzkreig Episode Christmas
1994–1995 Mud
Mud (TV series)
Mud was a 1994 CBBC television show, best known for featuring early appearances from Russell Brand, Brooke Kinsella, Russell Tovey and a teddy bear called, incongruously, 'Steve'....

Ruby 7 episodes : Episode #1.1 Episode #1.2 Episode #1.3 Episode #1.4 Episode #1.5 Episode #1.6 Episode #2.1

External links

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