Background

Jessica Harris was born in Halifax

Halifax, West Yorkshire

Halifax is a minster town, within the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale in West Yorkshire, England. It has an urban area population of 82,056 in the 2001 Census. It is well-known as a centre of England's woollen manufacture from the 15th century onward, originally dealing through the Halifax Piece...

, West Yorkshire

West Yorkshire

West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....

, England to Miles and Jo Harris. She grew up in the nearby towns of Hebden Bridge

Hebden Bridge

Hebden Bridge is a market town within the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale, in West Yorkshire, England. It forms part of the Upper Calder Valley and lies 8 miles west of Halifax and 14 miles north east of Rochdale, at the confluence of the River Calder and the River Hebden .A 2004 profile of...

 and Heptonstall

Heptonstall

Heptonstall is a small village and civil parish within the Calderdale borough of West Yorkshire, England. The population of Heptonstall, including the hamlets of Colden and Slack, is 1,448. The town of Hebden Bridge lies directly to the southeast...

, and attended Calder High School in Mytholmroyd

Mytholmroyd

Mytholmroyd is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale, in West Yorkshire, England. It lies east of Hebden Bridge and west of Halifax....

. She graduated from the Calderdale College

Calderdale College

Calderdale College is a further education college based in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England.-External links:*...

 in Halifax with a National Diploma

National Diploma (UK)

A National Diploma is a standard academic qualification, offered by most further education colleges and universities in the United Kingdom. The title National Diploma is used in a variety of ways, however most are undergraduate qualifications rated at levels 3 on the National Qualifications...

 in Performing Arts. She later attended the Arts Educational School in London on a scholarship.

Career

Harris made her television debut in the late 1980s when she appeared in the children's educational series How We Used to Live

How We Used To Live

How We Used to Live is a British educational historical television drama written by Freda Kelsall and sometimes narrated by Redvers Kyle and John Crosse, both employed as continuity announcers at Yorkshire Television at the time of production. Production began in 1968 at the YTV studios in Leeds...

, produced by Yorkshire Television

Yorkshire Television

Yorkshire Television, now officially known as ITV Yorkshire and sometimes unofficially abbreviated to YTV, is a British television broadcaster and the contractor for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV network...

. She later appeared in other Yorkshire series, such as Heartbeat.

She has had other major television roles in Linda Green

Linda Green

Linda Green is a British television comedy-drama series that lasted for two series, screened in 2001 and 2002. The twenty half-hour episodes were broadcast on BBC One and produced for the BBC by the independent Red Production Company....

(as Katy Green), Burn It

Burn It

Burn It was a drama series, with touches of dark comedy, following the lives of three twenty-somethings in present-day Manchester.-About:The series followed Carl, Andy and Jon as three self-proclaimed Generation X-ers going through life without any real responsibilities to worry them...

(as Kelly) and Thieves Like Us

Thieves Like Us (TV Series)

Thieves Like Us is a six part BBC Three sitcom which was first broadcast in 2007, based on the book The Burglar Diaries.It follows the lives of Bex and Ollie, a pair of burglars who make their living by burgling factories, warehouses, offices and shops, and take work wherever they can find it.It is...

(as Mel). On stage, she has appeared in Bottle Universe (October–November 2005, Bush Theatre), Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights is a novel by Emily Brontë published in 1847. It was her only novel and written between December 1845 and July 1846. It remained unpublished until July 1847 and was not printed until December after the success of her sister Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre...

(York Theatre Royal, June 2007) and The Pornographer Diaries (Edinburgh, August 2007). In 2009, she played Desdemona in a national tour of Othello

Othello

The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...

, opposite Lenny Henry

Lenny Henry

Lenworth George "Lenny" Henry, is a British actor, writer, comedian and occasional television presenter.- Early life :...

. Her performance in Othello was praised by Kate Kellaway of The Observer

The Observer

The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...

, who described her as "charming". She received criticism from Paul Callan of the Daily Express

Daily Express

The Daily Express switched from broadsheet to tabloid in 1977 and was bought by the construction company Trafalgar House in the same year. Its publishing company, Beaverbrook Newspapers, was renamed Express Newspapers...

, who called her a "colossal disappointment", and from Georgina Brown of The Mail on Sunday

The Mail on Sunday

The Mail on Sunday is a British conservative newspaper, currently published in a tabloid format. First published in 1982 by Lord Rothermere, it became Britain's biggest-selling Sunday newspaper following the closing of The News of the World in July 2011...

, who called her "too girlish", though praised her performance of the death scene.

Harris has appeared in the ITV police drama The Bill

The Bill

The Bill is a police procedural television series that ran from October 1984 to August 2010. It focused on the lives and work of one shift of police officers, rather than on any particular aspect of police work...

three times. She first appeared in 2002 as Karen Best, the sister of cast regular PC Gary Best. The role was a recurring one and she appeared in a number of episodes for a year. She next appeared in 2007 as an inmate who has an affair with a prison officer. Harris's most recent role in the series came in 2009 when she appeared as Cathy Menal, a sister of murder victim.

Television

Year	Title	Role	Other notes
1995	Heartbeat	Vicki	1 episode: "Sophie's Choice"
1998	Heartbeat	Maureen Dodds	1 episode: "Love Me Do"
	The Broker's Man	Jane	1 episode: "Kith and Kin"
2000	Cold Feet Cold Feet Cold Feet is a British comedy-drama television series produced by Granada Television for the ITV network. The series was created and principally written by Mike Bullen as a follow-up to his award-winning 1997 Comedy Premiere of the same name. The storyline follows three couples experiencing the...	Student Two	1 episode: Series 3, Episode 2
2001	Peak Practice Peak Practice Peak Practice is a British drama series about a GP surgery in Cardale — a small fictional town in the Derbyshire Peak District — and the doctors who worked there. It ran on ITV from 10 May 1993 to 30 January 2002 and was one of their most successful series at the time...	Teri	1 episode: Series 12, Episode 1
	Linda Green Linda Green Linda Green is a British television comedy-drama series that lasted for two series, screened in 2001 and 2002. The twenty half-hour episodes were broadcast on BBC One and produced for the BBC by the independent Red Production Company....	Katy Green	Recurring role, 9 episodes, 2001–2002
2002	Holby City Holby City Holby City, stylised as Holby Ci+y, is a British medical drama television series that airs weekly on BBC One.The series was created by Tony McHale and Mal Young as a spin-off from the established BBC medical drama Casualty, and premiered on 12 January 1999...	Kate McIntyre	1 episode: "The Love That Binds"
	Sparkhouse Sparkhouse Sparkhouse is a BBC drama, originally shown in 2002, written by Sally Wainwright which is a modern take on Wuthering Heights.-Synopsis:Two young lovers battle against the odds to be together...	Tessa Gillespie
	The Bill The Bill The Bill is a police procedural television series that ran from October 1984 to August 2010. It focused on the lives and work of one shift of police officers, rather than on any particular aspect of police work...	Karen Best	4 episodes, 2002–2003
2003	Heartbeat	Kelley	1 episode: "The High Life"
	Burn It Burn It Burn It was a drama series, with touches of dark comedy, following the lives of three twenty-somethings in present-day Manchester.-About:The series followed Carl, Andy and Jon as three self-proclaimed Generation X-ers going through life without any real responsibilities to worry them...	Kelly	Main cast member
2004	The Royal The Royal The Royal is a British medical drama series produced by ITV. The show comprises one hour episodes which were normally first aired on ITV in the Sunday early evening slot....	Shirley Baird	1 episode: "Hold on Tight"
	Doctors	Jess Simons	1 episode: "Run Baby Run"
	Conviction Conviction (2004 TV series) Conviction is a British television crime drama that premiered on BBC Three on 7 November 2004. The six part series was written by Bill Gallagher and stars William Ash, David Warner, Ian Puleston-Davies, Reece Dinsdale, Nicholas Gleaves, Laura Fraser and Jason Watkins...	Hayley Bryant	1 episode: Series 1, Episode 3
2005	Fat Friends Fat Friends Fat Friends is an ITV drama , following a group of overweight people, their laughter and pain and addresses the absurdities of dieting in our modern age. The drama looks at people and how they relate to one another and use body weight as an excuse for all sorts of failings in their relationships,...	Joanne Simpson	1 episode: "Icing on the Cake"
2006	Holby City	Kerry Peters	2 episodes: "I Am Not What I Am" and "Conscience"
	Wire in the Blood Wire in the Blood Wire in the Blood was a British crime drama television series, devised and produced by Coastal Productions for the ITV network that ran from 2002 to 2009. The series is based on characters created by Val McDermid; a university clinical psychologist, Dr Anthony "Tony" Valentine Hill , is teamed with...	Sally Hayter	1 episode: "Time to Murder and Create"
	Doctors	Katrina Thompson	1 episode: "Year of the Rat"
	Strictly Confidential Strictly Confidential (TV series) Strictly Confidential is a six part drama, written by Kay Mellor and originally shown on ITV during November and December 2006.It stars Suranne Jones as Linda, a bisexual ex police officer turned sex therapist, who shares a practice in Leeds with her brother-in-law, played by Tristan Gemmill...	Vicky Melton	1 episode: Episode 3
2007	The Bill	Evie Barnes	1 episode
	Thieves Like Us Thieves Like Us (TV Series) Thieves Like Us is a six part BBC Three sitcom which was first broadcast in 2007, based on the book The Burglar Diaries.It follows the lives of Bex and Ollie, a pair of burglars who make their living by burgling factories, warehouses, offices and shops, and take work wherever they can find it.It is...	Mel	Recurring role
2009	Being Human Being Human (TV series) Being Human is a British supernatural drama television series. It was created and written by Toby Whithouse and is currently broadcast on BBC Three. The show blends elements of flatshare comedy and horror drama...	Becca	1 episode: Series 1, Episode 1
	The Inbetweeners The Inbetweeners The Inbetweeners is a British sitcom which aired for three series from 2008 to 2010 on E4. Created and written by Damon Beesley and Iain Morris, the show follows the life of suburban teenager Will , and three of his friends at the fictional Rudge Park Comprehensive. The Inbetweeners Movie was...	Michelle	1 episode: "Will's Birthday"
	Heartbeat	Ruthie Abbott	1 episode: "Cashing In"
	The Bill	Kathy Merrill	1 episode: "Twist of Fate"

Theatre

Year	Title	Role	Director	Performance history
2005	Bottle Universe	Lauren	Sue Dunderdale	Bush Theatre Bush Theatre The Bush Theatre is based in Shepherd's Bush, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. It was established in 1972 above The Bush public house by Brian McDermott, and has since become one of the most celebrated new writing theatres in the world. An intimate venue renowned for its close-up... , 12 October–12 November 2005
2006	Billy Liar Billy Liar Billy Liar is a 1959 novel by Keith Waterhouse, which was later adapted into a play, a film, a musical and a TV series. The work has inspired and featured in a number of popular songs....	Rita	Phil Wilmott	Made in Liverpool/Liverpool Playhouse, 3–25 February 2006
2007	Cocoa	Girl	Chris White Chris White Chris White or Christopher White may refer to:*Chris White , British jazz/rock saxophonist*Chris White , bassist and songwriter with The Zombies*Chris White , jazz bassist...	Theatre 503, 20 April–5 May 2007
	Wuthering Heights	Catherine Earnshaw Catherine Earnshaw Catherine Earnshaw, known as Catherine Linton after her marriage, is the main female protagonist of Emily Brontë's novel Wuthering Heights.... /Linton	Sue Dunderdale	Theatre Royal, York, 2–23 June 2007
	The Pornographer Diaries	Female roles	Kate McCarthy	Have a Word Productions/C venues C venues C venues is the home of the largest theatre and new writing programme at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, which is held annually in August each year... , Edinburgh Festival Edinburgh Festival The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August... , 1–27 August 2007.
2008	Harper Regan	Justine Ross	Marianne Elliott Marianne Elliott (director) Marianne Elliott is a British theatre director.-Early life:Marianne Elliott was born in 1966 in London, the daughter of Michael Elliott, the theatre director and co-founder of the Royal Exchange theatre in Manchester and the actress Rosalind Knight. The family moved to Manchester when she was 8...	National/Cottsloe Theatre, 16 April–9 August 2008
2009	Othello Othello The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...	Desdemona	Barrie Rutter Barrie Rutter Barrie Rutter is an English actor and the founder and Artistic Director of the Northern Broadsides theatre company based in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England....	West Yorkshire Playhouse, national tour, February–December 2009.

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