Tamzin Outhwaite's Biography

Who is Tamzin Outhwaite?

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, Tamzin 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 Edinburgh Festival award for best British film.

Her television performances include roles in Red Cap, Frances Tuesday and Final Demand. Whilst on the stage Outhwaite played a dysfunctional woman in the Royal Court's Flesh Wound. Also at the Royal Court, Tamzin Outhwaite 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 did not work out.

Tamzin also used to go out with former EastEnders actor, Nigel Harman.

In November 2005, Tom Ellis, who played Dr Oliver Cousins in EastEnders, proposed to Tamzin and they married the following year.

In 2006 Tamzin played Rebecca in the BBC One drama Hotel Babylon and she also got a major role in the new ITV drama, Vital Signs, where she played Rhoda, a checkout assistant who wants to be a doctor.

In 2007, Tamzin Outhwaite's performance in Boeing-Boeing at the Comedy Theatre was described by the Daily Express as 'dazzling'.

In March 2008, ITV1 started broadcasting The Fixer, in which Tamzin Outhwaite played a honey trap specialist.

In June 2008 Tamzin Outhwaite and Tom Ellis had a child, Florence Elsie Ellis.

In 2009, Tamzin Outhwaite was cast in the leading role of Detective Inspector Rebecca Flint in the BBC One series Paradox.

In 2010 she played the lead in Sweet Charity in the West End, and was also an expert on the panel of Channel Five's talent search Don't Stop Believing.

In 2013, Tamzin Outhwaite was cast in New Tricks, replacing Amanda Redman.

In 2017, she had to temporarily pull out of West End show Stepping Out just before the first preview show, after fracturing her foot.

In October 2017, the BBC revealed that Tamzin Outhwaite was returning to her role as Melanie Owen in EastEnders after a 15 year gap.