Natalie Anderson

Anderson was born in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England.^[1] She was once a Bradford Bulls cheerleader.^[2] Anderson married James Shepherd at a ceremony in Harrogate on 6 June 2008. On 1 August 2012, Anderson gave birth to their first child, a son.^[3]

In 2001, Anderson competed in Pop Idol; she narrowly missed out on a place in the live finals after finishing third in her group.^[4] Anderson appeared as Nurse Stella Davenport in the ITV drama series The Royal between 2005 and 2008.^[5] Then in 2008, she released an album, Return to Me.^[6]

From 2009–2010, Anderson played the role of Nessarose in the West End production of Wicked at Apollo Theatre taking over the role from Caroline Keiff.^[7]

Anderson joined the cast of Emmerdale in 2010 as Alicia Gallagher, Leyla Harding's (Roxy Shahidi) sister.^[8] On 24 May 2015, Anderson announced she would be not be renewing her contract for Emmerdale and would leave the soap after five years.^[9]

On 9 February 2014, Anderson appeared on the ITV entertainment show, All Star Family Fortunes with her family, who were competing against Steve Redgrave and his family.^[10] On 27 September 2014, Anderson appeared in a celebrity episode of The Chase.^[11] In 2015, she began appearing on the ITV talk shows Loose Women and This Morning as a features presenter.^[6] In 2016, she launched the lifestyle brand, the Capsule; the brand focuses on fashion, beauty and wellbeing, and in 2019, its accompanying podcast The Capsule in Conversation interviewing celebrities and experts was launched.^[12] From 2017 to 2018, Anderson originated the role of Lauren in Kay Mellor’s Fat Friends The Musical which had its world premiere at Leeds Grand Theatre. From 2018 to 2019, Anderson hosted Mishaps Podcast with Jodie Prenger and Neil Hurst.^[13] In October 2021, she began appearing in the Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks as Lexi Calder.^[14] Natalie played Maryanne Borden in the Liam Neeson action feature Memory, released 29 April 2022. In 2023, Anderson took supporting roles in BBC’s Happy Valley and Boiling Point. In 2024, Anderson played Claire Walker in the Netflix adaptation of Harlan Coben’s thriller Fool Me Once.