Julie Hesmondhalgh

Julie Claire Hesmondhalgh was born in Accrington, Lancashire, where she was involved in local amateur theatre and studied A-level Theatre Studies at Accrington and Rossendale College under Martin Cosgrif. Despite planning to go into social work, she won a grant to attend LAMDA, where she studied from 1988-91. After graduating she was part of the theatre company, Arts Threshold, and with her teacher and mentor Brian Astbury and a group of friends, built a theatre in a basement in Paddington. This led to roles on television in, among other programs, The Bill (1984), The Dwelling Place (1994), Pat and Margaret (1994), and an episode of Dalziel and Pascoe (1996). She was spotted by the casting crew for Coronation Street (1960) while appearing in "Much Ado About Nothing" in the Royal Exchange theatre in Manchester. She played "Hayley" in Coronation Street (1960), the first trans-character in a UK soap, from 1998 to 2014, when she left, winning a National TV Award for her performance in her