Sally Phillips

Born: May 10 1970
Where: Hong Kong

The actress is probably best known as Shazzer, Bridget Jones' sweary drinking pal in the hit movie Bridget Jones Diary.

The Oxford graduate (she studied Italian) is also a familiar face on British TV in Smack The Pony and was also the permanently doubled-up receptionist Sophie in I'm Alan Partridge.

Phillips also starred in the well-received BBC series Rescue Me as the unlucky-in-love magazine journalist Katie Nash.

She began her performing career guesting in friends' Edinburgh Festival shows like Arthur Smith and Lee & Herring.

Soon progressing to TV, she appeared in Saturday Night Armistice and Fist of Fun before making her name corpsing as Sophie in I'm Alan Partridge.

Together with Doon Mackichen and Fiona Allen, she performed and wrote three series of Smack the Pony as well as starring in the romanic comedy Rescue Me.

On the big screen - apart from Bridget's Jones' Diary - she starred in Born Romantic with Craig Ferguson and Birthday Girl with Nicole Kidman.

Unfortunately, the scenes she recorded for Richard Curtis' Notting Hill ended up on the cutting room floor.

In Mean Machine she seduced Vinnie Jones and also starred in the comedy short Blowing It with Paul Kaye.

Recent work included the spoof Gladiatortress with her Smack The Pony colleagues and Tooth with Harry Enfield.