Amelia Bullmore
Amelia Mary Bullmore was born on 31st January 1964 in London. She took a drama degree at Manchester University. After graduation she was a founder member of the Red Stocking Theatre Company, an all-girl radical comedy group that toured the country performing musical comedies.
Her early work was mainly on stage with the Contact Theatre Group in Manchester along with other productions including Breaking Rank, Ladies in the Lift, Oh Yes We Can, The Threepenny Opera and A View From a Bridge.
In February 1990, she made her television debut in Coronation Street as newly married yuppie, Stephanie Barnes and remained with the series for eighteen months. Amelia went on to work in radio and on the film Woman Of The Wolf. She also returned to the stage as Leanne and Tish in The Queen and I at The Royal Court Theatre, London and later their productions of Road and Thickness of Skin.
In May 1992, Amelia rejoined Coronation Street briefly before appearing at the Glasgow Citizens Theatre in Major Barbara and at the Manchester Royal Exchange in Romeo and Juliet. She also returned to television as Beth in the comedy Stuck On You, opposite Neil Morrissey, and as Catriona Bilborough in Cracker alongside Robbie Coltrane.
After playing Ros in Faith for ITV, Amelia rejoined Coronation Street again in 1995 for one month, before taking roles as Caroline Poole in Frontiers and Karen in Hetty Wainthropp Investigates. She also appeared in the film Mrs Dalloway as Rezia Warren Smith, and on television in The Other Side of Midnight. A string of comedy credits followed at the turn of the century, and included memorable roles in Brass Eye and I'm Alan Partridge.
She juggled the dual role of actor and writer for BBC2's sketch show Big Train (1998, 2002), Attachments (2000) and Blue Jam on radio, which was subsequently remade for television as Jam. Her other writing credits include two scripts for the BBC2 drama This Life in 1997 and two for Black Cab, a series she co-devised, in 2000.
In more recent years, Amelia has played regular characters in several TV series, including Helen Preger in State of Play, Joyce Hazeldine in Suburban Shootout and Caroline Price in Ashes to Ashes. Guest roles have included parts in Donovan, Sorted, Dalziel and Pascoe, The IT Crowd, Agatha Christie's Poirot, Shameless and Lewis. Returning to writing, her stage play - a comedy entitled Mammals - premiered at London's Bush Theatre in 2005 before embarking on a UK tour, and was awarded the prestigious Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for female playwrights.
Amelia trod the boards once again in 2008, in a revival of Alan Ayckbourn trilogy The Norman Conquests at the Old Vic Theatre in London. The production was critically acclaimed and transferred to Broadway the following year, where it received Drama Desk and Critics' Circle awards for its ensemble cast, and a Tony award for Best Play Revival.
In 2011, Amelia played Kay Hope in acclaimed Olympics comedy Twenty Twelve. That same year she created the role of DCI Gill Murray in ITV's Manchester-based detective drama Scott & Bailey, alongside fellow Coronation Street alumnus Suranne Jones. Bullmore also contributed scripts for the second and third series. A guest role in an episode of BBC's Sherlock aired in 2012, and in 2013, she returned to TV sketch comedy as part of the cast of It's Kevin.
Amelia lives in London although she used to have a place in Manchester. She was romantically involved with Families actor Martin Glyn Murray, whom she met when appearing at the Liverpool Playhouse but later married actor Paul Higgins and they have two daughters, Mary and Flora.