Kazia Pelka

Kazia Pelka (born 1962) is a Polish actress who has worked primarily in British television, appearing in the drama series Brookside in the early 1990s, the period police drama series Heartbeat in the late 1990s, the police drama series The Bill, and the British Broadcasting Corporation medical drama series Doctors, and Casualty.

Early life[]

Pelka was born in Dewsbury, West Riding of Yorkshire, in December 1962. She spent her childhood in the Roundhay district of Leeds as the daughter of a Polish engineer father and Irish stage actress Alma Herley. She is the niece of actor Randal Herley, and her maternal grandmother was Irish opera singer Anne Herley. She received her formal education at Notre Dame High School. Before becoming an actress, she briefly worked as a make-up artist. She subsequently trained in acting at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, where she was awarded the Wilfred Foulis prize. Upon graduating from L.A.M.D.A., she briefly worked as a theatre actress before being talent-spotted on-stage in Manchester by a Granada Television agent, and cast to appear in the soap opera Coronation Street in 1987 as Linda Jackson.^[1]

Acting career[]

Since beginning her career in mid-1980s she has worked extensively in the theatre with roles ranging from classical to contemporary.^[2] She appeared in a bit part as a prostitute in the American World War II television film The Dirty Dozen: The Fatal Mission (1988). She has had major roles in Brookside (Anna Wolska), Heartbeat (district nurse Maggie Bolton in 98 episodes from series 5–10) and Channel 5's soap Family Affairs, where she played Chrissy Costello from September 2003 until the show's final episode on 30 December 2005. Pelka won the award for "Best Dramatic Performance" at the 2005 British Soap Awards, the first award to be won the series Family Affairs. She also appeared as a semi-regular character Deputy Assistant Commissioner Georgia Hobbs in The Bill, and in numerous other television productions, including the part of 'Hazel Wilding' in a return to the soap opera Coronation Street in 2002. She played Carole Middleton in the American television film William & Catherine: A Royal Romance (2011). In 2015 she played the role of 'Lena Winters' in the B.B.C. television mystery drama series World's End.^[3] In 2019 she appeared in Midsomer Murders as Tanya Brzezinski (S21E1) “The Point of Balance”. In 2021 Kazia played Dubravka Mimica in 6 episodes of the channel 4 remake of the Swedish crime drama Before We Die.

Cosmetics career[]

She is the owner of 'Dr. Boo', a cosmetics shop and beauty salon on North Cross Road in Dulwich, London. It was awarded 'Gold' status by Clarins in 2015.^[4] From July 2014, she started writing beauty columns for the magazine Prima.

Personal life[]

Her brother is actor Valentine Pelka. They appeared together in the Heartbeat episode Sitting off the Dock of Bay. On 24 September 1998, she married Brian Jordan. They have one daughter together named Theodora, born in 2000.

Awards[]

• 'Wilfred Foulis Prize' (awarded whilst studying acting at the London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art).
• 'Best Dramatic Performance' (2005) at the British Soap Awards.^[5]

References[]

External links[]

• Kazia Pelka at IMDb