Katherine Kelly (actress)

Early life and career

Kelly was born in Barnsley, South Yorkshire and grew up in both Barnsley and Wakefield, West Yorkshire. She attended Wakefield Girls' High School. She has strong links with The Lamproom Theatre in Barnsley, established in 1998 by her father John (who is originally from Castleisland, County Kerry, Ireland), and has regularly supported fund-raising events held there.

She trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), London, with fellow students Meredith MacNeill and Laurence Fox, graduating in 2001.

After she left Coronation Street in 2011, she starred as Miss Hardcastle in She Stoops to Conquer at the National Theatre from 24 January 2012.

Kelly's first television role after leaving Coronation Street was in the 90-minute BBC Four biopic The Best Possible Taste, in which she played Lee Middleton, wife of Kenny Everett. In early 2013 she played socialite Lady Loxley in the ten part ITV1 drama series Mr Selfridge, later signing on to appear in the second series of the show in 2014 and its final series in 2016.

Later in 2013 she joined the lead cast of The Field of Blood, based on the novel by Denise Mina. Kelly played Maloney, an ambitious woman in the "ferociously male-dominated world of 1980s newspaper journalism". Also that year she starred in the three part ITV thriller, The Guilty, as Claire Reid, mother to a missing five-year-old child.

In August 2015 it was announced that Kelly would join the cast of Happy Valley, which aired the following year. In the series Kelly portrays DI Jodie Shackleton, a part that was written for her by series creator Sally Wainwright. Kelly enjoyed the opportunity to play a character in her native Yorkshire accent, and prepared for the role by shadowing police detectives in Halifax. Also in 2016 she appeared as the Permanent Secretary in four episodes of The Night Manager.

On 4 April 2016, it was announced that Kelly would appear in the BBC Three Doctor Who spin-off series Class written by Patrick Ness, airing from October 2016.

Music

Kelly appeared on the 2010 album, Coronation Street: Rogues, Angels, Heroes & Fools. Kelly, in character as Becky McDonald, sang the lead single from the album, If It's Too Late, which was remixed by former PWL and Stock Aitken Waterman "Mixmaster", Pete Hammond as a "surprise present" for Kelly after she announced she was leaving Coronation Street.

Personal life

Kelly married Ryan Clark in 2013 in Las Vegas. In 2014, she gave birth to their first child, a daughter named Orla Kelly Clark. On 21 October 2016, she gave birth to a second daughter, Rose Christie Clark.

National Television Awards

British Soap Awards

Other