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Nicola Stapleton (born 9 August 1974 in Elephant and Castle, London) is an English actress. Stapleton began her career at an early age. She is most famous for her work on British television, in particular her roles as Mandy Salter in BBC`s EastEnders and Janine Nebeski in ITV`s Bad Girls.

Stapleton grew up off East Street, which runs down the middle of the Old Kent Road in South London. She and her younger brother Vince were born to working class parents, Kate—a cleaner from Scotland— and Vincent Stapleton, who ran a car hire business.[1]

She attended the Townsend Primary School in South East London, where her parents were advised by a teacher "to channel her energy into something positive."[2] As a result they sent her to the Sylvia Young Theatre School, where Denise Van Outen, Dani Behr and her future EastEnders co-star, Daniella Westbrook, were among her contemporaries.

Stapleton`s career in showbusiness started at the early age of six and at the age of 9 she had a minor role as an extra in the Bond movie Octopussy (1983).[1] She made her TV debut in the detective series, Dempsey & Makepeace (ITV), in 1985 and she went on to have roles in feature films such as Little Shop of Horrors[4] (Geffen Pictures, 1986); Hansel and Gretel (Paramount, 1988); Snow White (1988) and Courage Mountain (Paramount, 1990).

At age 12 she played the part of Sally in the 1987 Children`s BBC production, Simon and the Witch. She also had a minor role in the successful BBC sitcom, Bread.

[edit] EastEnders

Stapleton is perhaps best known for her role as the wayward Mandy Salter in the popular BBC soap opera EastEnders, which she played from 1992-1994. During her stint in the soap, Stapleton`s character was featured in storylines about child and drug abuse, homelessness and prostitution.

Her EastEnders character was also featured in a special episode of the popular science fiction series, Doctor Who, which was entitled Dimensions in Time (1993). The episode was specially screened as part of BBC`s annual fund-raising event, Children in Need. Viewers were asked to phone in and vote which EastEnders character, Mandy or `Big` Ron, would appear in the show. Two versions were filmed for each voting outcome, but the Mandy version won with 56% of the vote.

Stapleton grew tired of all the attention she received from being in such a high-profile show, so she quit the role in 1994.[5] In an interview in 2005 Stapleton commented: "Working on EastEnders was so high-profile it put me off working on soaps for a while…I`ve been asked a number of times to go back but I`ve done a lot of really credible stuff in theatre, and I thought, `It took me a long time get here. I`m not ready to go back to Mandy just yet`…The publicity with something regarding EastEnders is huge and sometimes you end up feeling like a famous person rather than an actress - I wanted my work to be more fulfilling than that."[6]

[edit] Other roles

Stapleton`s subsequent TV credits have included; The Thin Blue Line (BBC, 1995); The Bill (ITV, 2002); Casualty (BBC, 1999) and Casualty@Holby City (2004); Harry Enfield and Chums (BBC); Audrey and Friends (2000); Brinks Mat: The Greatest Heist (2003) and Jane Hall (ITV, 2006), among others.

She has also appeared in feature films including: Urban Ghost Story (Living Spirit Pictures, 1998); the 1999 film The Killing Zone; It Was an Accident (2000); South West Nine (2001); Goodbye Charlie Bri

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