Sacha Parkinson

Sacha Louise Parkinson (born 11 March 1992) is an English actress. She is best known for playing the role of Sophie's girlfriend Sian Powers in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street from 2009 to 2011.

After leaving Coronation Street, she went on to play Miriam Caterall in the Channel 4 drama The Mill, and in late 2014, she appeared in The Driver playing Katie. In 2015–16 she played Connie Hawkins, later Towler, in the third and fourth series of Mr Selfridge.

In February 2016 it was confirmed Parkinson is joining the cast of returning ITV drama Safe House for its second series.^[1]

Early life

Parkinson was born in Salford, Greater Manchester. She is the only child of Cliff, a housing officer, and Leigh Parkinson, a former social worker.^[2] Sacha Parkinson was educated at Walkden High School, Walkden.^[3]

Career

In one of her earliest roles, Parkinson was cast in Always and Everyone. This was followed by the 2003 Channel 4 adaptation of Jacqueline Wilson's The Illustrated Mum. She later made guest appearances in The Royal, The Street and The Bill before joining CBBC's Grange Hill in 2007, in which Parkinson played schoolgirl Anna Duncan for six episodes. Parkinson appeared in minor guest roles in Waterloo Road, Doctors, Survivors and Shameless between 2007 and 2008, as well as the acclaimed drama Clay starring Imelda Staunton. In 2009 she was cast as Natasha in the Red Union Films Awaydays,^[4] and played the role of Leanne in A Boy Called Dad a Made Up North Productions which was released in March 2010.

On 15 December 2008, it was announced Parkinson was to join British soap opera Coronation Street,^[5] where she would play Sian Powers. Parkinson first appeared on screen as Sian on 26 January 2009, as a friend of established character Sophie Webster, played by actress Brooke Vincent. Sian and Sophie later became the soap's first lesbian couple in the spring of 2010. Due to the popularity of the storyline, Coronation Street extended Parkinson's contract until 2011.^[6] Parkinson made the decision to leave the soap, filming her last scenes on 18 November 2011. These scenes were shown in an episode on 30 December 2011. She cited a wish to work on other projects and not wanting to outstay her welcome on the show as her reasons for leaving.^[7]

On 18 August 2012 Parkinson appeared as a guest star on series 27 of the BBC medical drama Casualty. Parkinson placed 63rd on the 2012 AfterEllen Hot 100 List.^[8] In March 2013, she appeared in a 2 hour long drama on BBC 3 named The Crash, previously titled One Day Like This. Co stars include Skins' Lily Loveless, Georgia Henshaw and Waterloo Road's Darcy Isa. Some of the filming took place in Kilsyth Academy in Kilsyth. More recently she appeared in British singer Charlee Drew's music video for "Somebody Else".

In 2013 Parkinson appeared in Channel 4, four-part drama The Mill portraying the role of Miriam Catterall.

In October 2013, she appeared as Suzy in Truckers.

In 2014, she will play Katie in the BBC One three-part drama The Driver.

Most recently she has appeared in the E4 new series of My Mad Fat Diary, as Stacey, the most popular girl.

Filmography

References

External links

• Sacha Parkinson at the Internet Movie Database
• Sacha Parkinson at AllMovie