Melanie Clark Pullen
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Melanie Clark Pullen | |
| Born | 1977 Bray, Co. Wicklow, Ireland |
| Notable roles | Mary Flaherty in EastEnders |
Melanie Clark Pullen (born 1977 in Bray, Co. Wicklow, Ireland) is an Irish actress and writer.
Contents |
[edit] Career
Pullen grew up in Blackrock, a suburb of the city of Dublin, in County Dublin.[1]
She studied drama at Trinity College, Dublin and graduated in June 1997. Shortly after graduating she was cast in her most notable role to date. She played Mary Flaherty, the long lost relative of Pauline Fowler (Wendy Richard) in the BBC soap opera EastEnders. She remained in the role for two years and left the show early in 1999.
Since this time she has appeared in the big budget costume drama Lady Audley's Secret (2000) on ITV and also starred alongside Sir Richard Attenborough and Jenny Agutter in the remake of the classic The Railway Children (2000).
Other credits include Doctors (2000); The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse (2005) and The Clinic (2006).
On stage she starred as Mariane in the play, Tartuffe (2002) at the Lyttleton Theatre, as Perdita in the Shakespeare play, The Winter's Tale (2001) at the National Theatre and she also co-wrote and starred in the play, Missing Stars (2001) at the Finborough Theatre.
Pullen wrote, directed and produced the Irish short film Marion agus an Banphrionsa in 2006, for which she won the award for Best Irish Language Short at the Cork International Film Festival that same year. She also produced the short film Sounds Good in 2004, which was written by her partner Simon Maxwell.
[edit] Personal life
Pullen is married to the writer Simon Maxwell.
Since leaving EastEnders she has admitted to suffering from panic attacks and depression as she struggled to cope with the instant fame she received from being in such a high profile show. In a bid to help others cope with depression she teamed up with another writer, Aoife Maguire, to create Missing Stars, a play that was staged in 2001 in which she also starred. The purpose of the play was to highlight to sufferers of depression that there is help out there.[1]
[edit] References
- ^ a b "I felt so lonely and isolated when I went to work on EastEnders", Sunday Mirror. URL last accessed on 2007-03-31.
