Jill Halfpenny Actress and winner of Strictly Come Dancing in 2004

She was born on the 15th of July 1975 in Gateshead, Newcastle, England, UK. She grew up in Leam Lane, Gateshead.

Trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. Her hobbies include roller-skating, ice-skating, fencing, dancing and enjoys traveling. She won Strictly Come Dancing in 2004 with her dance partner Mr Bennett. Jill enjoys traveling and would love to visit Bali, Hawaii or somewhere like China.

At school she got 9 GCSEs and 3 A-levels. She went to an inner city comprehensive where there was a cross section of backgrounds.

Her debut acting role was playing an urchin in a production of Sweeny Todd at the Newcastle Playhouse.

She says she is best know as Kate in Eastenders.

Jill went to drama school at First Act Theatre, in Gosforth, with Ant and Dec, and Donna Air.

She has said she does not want to go down the pop star route.

Height: 1.63m
Eye Colour: Blue
Actress - filmography

Waterloo Road

Shameless
EastEnders
Barbara
Dalziel and Pascoe
Coronation Street
Command Approved (2000)
Peak Practice
Dangerfield
Touching Evil II (1998)
Heartbeat
The Round Tower (1998)
Birds of a Feather
Touching Evil (1997)
Byker Grove (1989)

Self - filmography
Richard & Judy
Strictly Come Dancing
Comic Relief Does Fame Academy
Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway
Today with Des and Mel
Inside Soap Awards 2004
GMTV
Making It at Holby (2004)
EastEnders: Christmas Party (2003)
T4
Children in Need

CHARACTER PROFILE in EastEnders as Kate Mitchell (nee Morton)
D.O.B.:
First Appearance: 24.12.2002

Occupation: Manicurist
Marital Status: Separated

Kate was a detective investigating Lisa's death. She was part of a honeypot trap to fool Phil into confessing, but her feelings soon became real ones. Kate stayed in the Square and ran a nail bar. She missed the force and moved to Brighton to go into the force again.

Her enemies in the soap were.
Sam Mitchell : (After Phil's arrest) and Chrissie Watts (Kate got on the wrong side of Chrissie after having an affair with her husband)

CHARACTER PROFILE in Coronation Street she played Mr Platt's love interest, Rebecca.

In Barbara she played a short term, kinky, girlfriend of one of the characters in one episode. Where she was dumped for being too kinky.

In Waterloo Road she plays Izzie Redpath a teacher. Izzie is the Drama and Movement teacher. She was a former singer and dancer and is a free spirit at heart. She is warm, open and feisty and in love with her best friend!

Background Info:

Gateshead is a town in Tyne and Wear in north east England on the south side of the River Tyne opposite Newcastle upon Tyne which covers the North Bank. It is the main settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead. Gateshead and Newcastle are linked by ten bridges .

Gateshead is part of the postal county of Tyne and Wear and historically within the traditional county of County Durham.

Newcastle upon Tyne, often shortened to Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough situated on the north bank of the River Tyne, in North East England. This northernmost city in England was founded in Roman times under the name Pons Aelius, with the current name being adopted from 1080 onwards.

The city is the 20th most populous in England and the Tyneside conurbation is the 5th most populous conurbation in England, and as such Newcastle is one of England's core cities.
Byker Grove is a British children's TV series shown on BBC One, and was created by Adele Rose.

The show has run since 1989, and is set in a youth club in the Byker district Newcastle upon Tyne. The show depicts the lives of children aged 11-16 as they grow up from childhood to adolescence. Although some of the action takes place outside the youth club, the series is unusual among children's dramas in that the characters are never shown in school. One of the major settings is the foster home run by the kindly Lou Gallagher, now the longest-running character.

EastEnders is a popular BBC TV soap opera, first broadcast on 19 February 1985. It has been running ever since, generating strong viewing figures for much of that time, and has at times been the UK's highest-rated programme.

Despite the strong criticism of the show by critics and poor ratings on occasion, EastEnders won the prestigious National Television Award for 'Most Popular Serial Drama' in October 2005, was inducted into the Rose d'Or Hall of Fame in April 2006, and in May 2006 won the BAFTA for 'Best Continuing Drama'. It also won seven British Soap Awards in May 2006, including the award for 'Best British Soap'.

Coronation Street is Britain's longest-running TV soap opera and its consistently highest rating show. It was created by Tony Warren and first broadcast on Friday December 9, 1960 on ITV1, where continues to be scheduled. The programme is produced by Granada Television, the ITV1 franchise for the northwest England, and was initially shown only in that area; it was networked in May 1961. The working title of the show was Florizel Street, but a tea lady named Agnes remarked that 'Florizel' sounded too much like a disinfectant.

Strictly Come Dancing is a British TV show, shown on BBC One based on ballroom dancing. The title of the show suggests a continuation of the long-running series Come Dancing, with allusions to the film Strictly Ballroom. The show has run for three series on BBC One from 2003 to 2005 so far. A fourth series is due to air from October to November 2006. The format has been exported to other nations. The finals of the third series in December 2005 attracted an audience of over 10 million viewers.

Barbara, was a British TV sitcom that aired from 95 to 2003 on ITV.

Waterloo Road is a BBC television drama series about a comprehensive school, its teachers and students. It is produced by the production company responsible for Bad Girls and Footballer's Wives.

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