Zöe Lucker

Career

Lucker studied acting at Oscars Academy of Performing arts in Huddersfield, and later at the Manchester Arden School of Theatre. In 1996 she made her television debut in Brazen Hussies playing Busty Babs. Later that year she appeared in three episodes of the long-running soap opera Coronation Street. In the next four years, she appeared on Doctors, Where the Heart Is, Barbara and Killer Net.

Lucker got her big acting break when she got the part of the nations favourite WAG and super-bitch Tanya Turner on ITV's trashy drama Footballers' Wives, which made her a household name on British television. In 2004, she was nominated and won a TV Quick and TV Choice Award for 'Best Actress' for her role of Tanya Turner; she was also nominated for a National Television Award in the category of 'Most Popular Actress' for her work on Footballers' Wives and made an appearance in sister show, ITV's Bad Girls as her Footballers' Wives character. The viewers halved when she left the show in series 4, cementing her status as being the most popular character and star of the show. She later came back in series 5 to star in the dramatic storylines alongside Joan Collins

From 2002 through to 2005, she made many appearances presenting GMTV in various locations all over the world including Africa and Cuba. In 2004, she co-hosted the British Academy Television Awards 2004, and guest presented on CD:UK in 2005. Her first main presenting work was on the Living home makeover show Love the Place You're In.

In 2005, Lucker toured New Zealand extensively in the play Then Comes Love as the female lead Jane opposite Shane Cortese and played the lead role in Bombshell for ITV1, which is yet to be screened on British Television but has been broadcast in New Zealand and sold to a number of other countries. She appeared in HolbyBlue for the BBC playing the character Kate Keenan. However, due to low ratings during the second series the BBC decided to axe the program in August 2008.

In 2009, Lucker appeared on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire alongside John Suchet, winning £150,000 for the Caron Keating Foundation

In March 2010, Lucker joined the cast of EastEnders to play a character called Vanessa Gold, who was in a relationship with Max Branning, played by Jake Wood. She left in October 2011.

In June 2012, Lucker joined the cast of Waterloo Road to play Carol Barry, the head of the crime family from Liverpool, alongside her three children Barry, Dynasty and Kacey played by Carl Au, Abby Mavers and Brogan Ellis respectively.

In February 2015, Lucker joined the cast of Hollyoaks to play Reenie McQueen the youngest daughter of Nana McQueen (Diane Langton) and mother to Porsche (Twinnie Lee Moore), Celine (Sarah George) and Cleo McQueen (Nadine Rose Mulkerrin). Reenie has been billed as "good-time party girl without an 'off' switch and can be exhausting company although deep down she is the most vulnerable of Nana's children" and hasn't set the best example to her children and has let them down in the past. She made her first appearance on 16 April 2015. It was later announced in December 2015 that Lucker would be leaving the role at the conclusion of the child sexual abuse storyline, with Reenie making her final appearance on 30 June 2016.

Lucker was a part of BBC history-reality series, 24 Hours in the Past, along with Colin Jackson, Alistair McGowan, Ann Widdecombe, Tyger Drew-Honey and Miquita Oliver. The four-part series was aired from 28 April until 19 May 2015.

Personal life

After announcing her engagement to long term boyfriend James Herbert in February 2008, Lucker announced she was pregnant in March 2008 with her first baby, which was due on 28 August 2008. She had a baby girl named Lilly Alabama Herbert on 2 September 2008, weighing 8 pounds 12 ounces (4.0 kg), five days after her due date .

Lucker said meeting Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, was one of the most influential moments in her life. She said he was "an extremely charismatic man, and his great presence could be felt the moment he walked into the room". Following the stress of filming Footballer's Wives, Lucker looked for ways to relax and bought a book written by the Dalai Lama The Art of Happiness. She made a pilgrimage to Dharamsala, in northern India to film the documentary A Date with the Dalai Lama for ITV2 with her Footballers' Wives co-star Sarah Barrand, and describes her meeting him as a life changing event: "When I first saw him my whole body just went into this weird state. We'd just trekked the Himalayas and there was this huge sea of people waiting to see him. Yet it was incredibly serene. Then he walked past us, about 3ft away, and waved. It's the first time I've ever been starstruck."

Awards

Strictly Come Dancing performances

In September 2009, Lucker was announced as a contestant for series 7 of Strictly Come Dancing. Her former Footballers Wives co-star, Laila Rouass also participated in the series. She was partnered up with professional ballroom dancer James Jordan. Despite earning high scores and having the third highest average, the couple were eliminated on 31 October, after being in a dance-off against Ali Bastian and her partner Brian Fortuna.

In November that year, it was confirmed that she would take part in the Strictly Come Dancing 2010 live tour at arenas across the UK.