Jennifer Ellison - Biography

In a nutshell

Lovely lovely little Jen. She's the pint-sized star who took on the West End stage in Chicago, via Brookside ? well, she is from Liverpool.

When it comes to being an all-rounder in the strange land we call showbiz, you've either got 'it' or you haven't got 'it' but have a very pushy mother. Whichever it was for Jen, she started off early by training with the Royal Ballet School until she was 16. She must have been pretty good because she managed to win some world titles including the National Ballet and Modern Dance Championships two years in a row.

Of course if you're a dancer these days it means you are an actress too! Which came in handy when she landed the role of Emily Shadwick in Channel 4's gritty soap opera Brookside until it was axed when everybody decided they didn't like it no more.

A lot of soap actresses decide the next best step is to release a record, and 'our Jen' wasn't any different. She had very minor success in 2003 with her cover of Transvision Vamp's 'I Don't Care'. There wasn't any follow-up single for quite a while, until...

....Jen decided to appear on ITV's Hell's Kitchen show. Although she wasn't very confident in the early stages, she actually went on to win the show and this gave her the exposure she needed to justify shoving another single our way. This was called 'Bye Bye Boy' and wasn't very good, reaching unlucky 13 in the charts.

One of the most significant aspects of Ellison's career is her stint in theatre. Despite being small she can definitely belt out a tune or two, as proved when she starred in Chicago in London's Covent Garden and then across the UK on its touring production.

Boys, don't forget that Jen also used to glamour model. And she seems a little keen to forget it, telling a newspaper that although she hasn't done a shoot for a few years she's still appearing on the cover of various lads mags.

Carrying on with her TV stints, we last spotted her on 'Ghosthunting with Paul O'Grady and Friends' which was jolly good fun...

She married boxer, Robbie Tickle in Oct 2009 and the couple had their first child together, Bobby in February 2010.

Did you know?