Kazia Pelka

Pelka was born in Dewsbury, West Riding of Yorkshire, in December 1962, and spent her childhood in the Roundhay district of Leeds, the daughter of a Polish engineer father and Irish stage actress Alma Herley. She is the niece of actor Randal Herley, and her maternal grandmother was Irish opera singer Anne Herley. She received her formal education at Notre Dame High School in Leeds. Before becoming an actress she briefly worked as a make-up artist. She subsequently trained in acting at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, where she was awarded the Wilfred Foulis prize. On graduation from L.A.M.D.A. she briefly worked as a theatre actress before being talent-spotted on-stage in Manchester by a Granada Television agent, and cast to appear in the soap opera Coronation Street in 1987 as Linda Jackson.[1]

Since beginning her career in mid-1980s she has worked extensively in the theatre with roles ranging from classical to contemporary.[2] She appeared in a bit part as a prostitute in the American World War 2 television film The Dirty Dozen: The Fatal Mission (1988). She has had major roles in Brookside (Anna Wolska), Heartbeat (district nurse Maggie Bolton) and Channel 5's soap Family Affairs, where she played Chrissy Costello from September 2003 until the show's final episode on 30 December 2005. Pelka won the award for "Best Dramatic Performance" at the 2005 British Soap Awards, the first award to be won the series Family Affairs. She also appeared as a semi-regular character Deputy Assistant Commissioner Georgia Hobbs in The Bill, and in numerous other television productions, including the part of 'Hazel Wilding' in a return to the soap opera series Coronation Street in 2002. She played Carole Middleton in the American television film William & Catherine: A Royal Romance (2011). In 2015 she played the role of 'Lena Winters' in the B.B.C. television mystery drama series World's End.[3] In 2020 she appeared in Midsomer Murders.

She is the owner of 'Dr. Boo', a cosmetics shop and beauty salon in the North Cross Road in Dulwich, London, which was awarded 'Gold' status by Clarins in 2015.[4] From July 2014 she started to write a beauty column for the magazine Prima.

Her brother is actor Valentine Pelka. They appeared together in the Heartbeat episode Sitting off the Dock of Bay. On 24 September 1998 she married television scriptwriter Brian Jordan. Their daughter Theodora was born on 25 February 2000.

• 'Wilfred Foulis Prize' (awarded whilst studying acting at the London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art).
• 'Best Dramatic Performance' (2005) at the British Soap Awards.[5]

• Kazia Pelka at IMDb