Short Biography

English actress who is best known for her roles of Lynda Day, editor of The Junior Gazette in the children`s drama series Press Gang, Saffron Monsoon in Absolutely Fabulous and Lydia Bennet in the 1995 mini series of Pride and Prejudice. Sawalha was born in London, the daughter of Roberta and Nadim Sawalha. She was named after her grandmother, a Jordanian businesswoman who had received an award from Queen Noor for enterprise. She is of Jordanian, British, and French Huguenot ancestry.[1] She was born into an acting family: her father Nadim is an actor who appeared in the James Bond movie The Spy Who Loved Me, while her sister Nadia starred in the soap EastEnders and is now a television presenter and chat show host.

She first gained public attention for her starring role in the ITV teenage comedy/drama Press Gang, which ran from 1989 to 1993. The on-screen chemistry between the two leads was reflected off-screen, as she and co-star Dexter Fletcher became an item for several years.

From 1991-94, she starred in the ITV family comedy Second Thoughts and continued with her character, Hannah (Lynda Bellingham`s daughter), in the British Comedy Award winning Faith in the Future (1995–98).
After meeting Rich Annetts at the Glastonbury Festival in 2005, the couple moved to Bath, Somerset and lived in a flat close to the Royal Crescent. Annetts had a canal boat on the Kennet and Avon canal, which the couple would regularly visit. The couple then moved to a cottage in the Somerset countryside, with solar panels and a woodburner stove, which they renamed Flowers Cottage. Sawalha started growing her own vegetables, attending yoga lessons and is studying for an Open University English degree. Sawalha and Annetts have since split up, in part caused by her return to acting in Cranford.

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