Kara Tointon Biography
Summary
"Kara Louise Tointon" (born 5 August 1983) is a British actress, best known for playing Dawn Swann in the popular BBC soap opera "EastEnders".
Early life
Tointon was born in Southend on Sea in Essex, but shortly afterwards moved to Middlesbrough. Her younger sister Hannah is also an actress, best known for portraying Katy Fox in "Hollyoaks". She had speech and drama lessons at school. She also took part in LAMDA examinations, entering local musical festivals performing poetry recitals. This was done whilst attending the Morgan Academy of Performing arts (M.A.P.A) in Leigh-on-Sea. She dated James Bourne from Busted from when she was 15 until she got her part in Eastenders.
Career
Her first professional acting experience came when she played the part of Brigitta in "The Sound of Music" at the Cliffs Pavilion. Shortly after that, her first paid job was as one of the children in the pantomime "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". Her first appearance on television was as an extra in "EastEnders" in 1994 when she played a school friend of Sonia Fowler.
She also played the part of student Pauline Young in 2001's first series of "Teachers" on Channel 4.
In 2004, Tointon appeared in "Mile High" and in December returned to her former "Dream Team" role as Gina Moliano until May 2005. She has also made appearances in the films "Just My Luck" and "The Football Factory," and adverts for a number of companies, including McDonald's.
Almost a month to the day that her last "Dream Team" episode aired, it was revealed to the press that she would be joining the BBC soap "EastEnders" as a new character, Dawn Swann. Tointon auditioned for "EastEnders" at the same time as Tiana Benjamin, Matt Di Angelo, Kellie Shirley and Charlie Clements all auditioned for their respective roles. Tointon left "EastEnders", along with co-star Ricky Groves, on 27 August 2009. She has said that she would return to eastenders.
Tointon won the Sport Relief version of "Strictly Come Dancing" in March 2008, partnering former champion, Mark Ramprakash.
In August 2009, she was unveiled as the new face of Michelle for George underwear at Asda.
She co-starred with then partner Joe Swash in "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" in Bristol in the 2009/2010 pantomime season. The couple split-up during the performance run, but after getting back together finally split in May 2010.
In July 2010, alongside former co-star Ricky Groves, she recorded a documentary for BBC Three on how the two learn lines differently. Tointon revealed that she suffers from dyslexia, and resultantly has a reading age of 12.
In September 2010 it was announced that Tointon would be appearing as a contestant on the eighth series of "Strictly Come Dancing" and has been partnered with Artem Chigvintsev. The pair have achieved good scores in the first four weeks: 30, 32, 31, 32.
Filmography
"The Bill" (2010)
"EastEnders" (2005-2008) - Dawn Swann (2009) - Dawn Hobbs
"Just My Luck" (2006) Uncredited, along with sister Hannah, most likely to be herself
"America Or Busted" (2004) - Herself
"The Fete" (2004) - Lizzie
"The Football Factory" (2004) - Shie/Tameka
"Mile High" (2004) - Geneveve
"Keen Eddie" (2004) - Fred Friedman
"Boudica" (2003) - Poppaea
"Dinotopia" (2002) - 18 Year Old Le Sage
"Harry and Cosh" (2002) - Gabby
"Never Play with the Dead" (2001) - Victoria
"Teachers" (2001) - Pauline Young
"Dream Team" (1999, 2004-2005) - Gina Moliano
Credit
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article about Kara Tointon.
