Michelle Ryan

Born: April 22 1978
Where: Enfield, Middlesex, UK

The former EastEnders star plays the waitress chum of two amateur porn film-makers in the Carmen Electra comedy I Want Candy.

She also starred alongside Emilia Fox in the feature-length version of director Sean Ellis' Cashback, which was nominated for best short film at the Oscars.

Ranked fourth in FHM magazine's 100 sexiest women in 2005, she is probably best known for the role of Zoe Slater in the BBC soap EastEnders.

As a child she couldn't afford to go to stage school so made do with local theatre groups before getting a job at London's Pineapple Studios and landing an agent.

She made her small screen debut in 2000 in The Worst Witch series and landed the role of Zoe Slater in 2003, staying with EastEnders for five years.

In 2005, she made her stage debut in the Whitehall farce Who's The Daddy, which satirised politician David Blunkett's sex'n'visa scandal.

Switching direction, she made her big screen debut in Cashback shortly followed by I Want Candy in 2006.