Tara Fitzgerald

Born: 18 September 1967
Where: Sussex, England, UK

Tara has made her name playing strong female characters - who often get their kit off.

She's not one to hide behind high collars and ankle length skirts - although she has done her fair share of historical costume dramas, including The Woman in White (1997), The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1996), and Frenchman's Creek (1998).

But she's totally unabashed by doing nude scenes, as she said:

"In England, people are so repressed. It is all giggle-giggle and 'look at the shameless woman taking her clothes off.' When you are doing a nude scene you just have to take a deep breath and get on with it. I can't bear bedcovers-up-to-the-chin jobs."

Straight out of drama college Tara found work, starting off with Hear My Song (1991), followed by plenty of television work, most notably the mini-series The Camomile Lawn (1992).

Some more film work came next, the highlights being Sirens (1994) in which she played the prim wife of Hugh Grant's church minister who struggles against her sexual urges.

Then The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill But Came Down A Mountain (1995) followed, in which she again played alongside Hugh Grant in this romantic comedy set in Wales.

Anyone who hadn't heard of Tara before, certainly would have done after the enormous success of Brassed Off (1996). She played flugelhorn-playing Gloria, the only woman in Grimley Colliery Brass band, who are struggling for survival as their pit also struggles against closure.

Tara acted alongside Pete Postlethwaite, Ewan McGregor and Stephen Tompkinson in this British romantic comedy drama.

Her career continues as a mix of TV work, stage work and films. In 2000 she starred in Rancid Aluminium, with Rhys Ifans, Joseph Fiennes, Sadie Frost and Steven Berkoff in this dark British crime thriller.

In 2003 Tara played nudist Topaz Mortmain in I Capture The Castle, a British film based on a love story set in 1930s England, also starring Bill Nighy, Romola Garai and Sinéad Cusack.