DATE OF BIRTH : 1st July 1971
BORN : Leeds
HEIGHT : 5ft 4
FAMILY : Mother, Margaret, who is a nurse.
HUSBAND : Mark, who works for a pharmaceutical firm.
PETS : A cat called Wila, ‘I love her to death, all my clothes are covered in fur but I don’t care.’
STUDIED : Tara originally planned to study languages at University. But she started acting at school and aged 11, bored during a teacher’s strike, auditioned for Annie. By the time she was 16, she had an Equity Card, enabling her to work in The Fifteen Streets – the Catherine Cookson story, in the West End, ‘So I forgot about school.’
SKILLS: Dancing – ballet, tap, modern, classical Greek, jazz; Singing – mezzo soprano
ON CHARACTER MARY : ‘Mary’s newly qualified but she’s got a few opinions of her own.’
ON RESEARCH FOR CASUALTY : ‘It was a real eye opener. During the day it was fairly quiet and there was a lot of standing around but at the weekend I was there until 3 in the morning, I couldn’t leave.’
ON CASUALTY AUDITION : ‘When I auditioned for Casualty, I came back from London feeling very depressed because it had cost me a lot of money in fares to get there and I was convinced I’d never get this job.’
ON BEING IN CORONATION STREET : Tara appeared as a waitress in Coronation Street, and was nervous, she almost needed tranquilisers, ‘On my first day I had to carry two cups of tea from the counter to customers. My hands were shaking so much I slopped half of the contents into the saucers. I was still suffering from this strange feeling that I’d walked into a dream. After all I’d been watching those sets and some of those characters since I was a child. I couldn’t believe the cafe didn’t actually exist.’
ON MAKE UP : ‘I’m mad about make up and am always buying something new. I love to sit infront of my dressing room table and experiment.’
FAVE HOLIDAY DESTINATION : ‘Australia – I could easily live there.’
TELEVISION CREDITS : The New Statesman; Families; Coronation Street; Casualty; Eastenders; Touching Evil III; Sunburn; A Touch of Frost; Take Me; Merseybeat; Spooks; The Royal; The Courtroom; Heartbeat; Judge John Deed; The Baby War; How We Used to Live; Cracker; Harry; Eight Hours From Paris; Hollyoaks; The Queen’s Nose; Shameless; The Ghost Squad; The Bill; Strictly Confidential; New Street Law; Most Mysterious Murders; Drop Dead Gorgeous; The Royal Today; Doctors; Waterloo Road; The Road to Coronation Street; Scott & Bailey
THEATRE CREDITS : Annie; Hans Anderson; The Fifteen Streets; Seaside or Bust; Puss In Boots; Blithe Spirit; Barnaby and the Old Boys; Time Windows; Billy Liar; Accrington Pals; Pig’s Ear; Love on the Dole; Hard Times; Room at the Top; Design for Living
BOOKS : Appears in ‘CASUALTY : The Inside Story (Revised & Updated) by Hilary Kingsley.
AGENT : Susan Angel & Kevin Francis Ltd, 1st Floor, 12 D’Arblay Street, London, W1V 3FP.
DID YOU KNOW?
* Tara has been a diabetic since she was six, ‘Being a diabetic hasn’t restricted my life. In a funny way I’ve been determined to do more.’ She is also a supporter of the charity Diabetes UK, which is very close to her heart, and has even been a judge at their ‘Young Achievers Awards’.
