Jan Anderson (born Janina Anderson on 17 June 1974 in Porthcawl, South Wales) is a Welsh actress.
Born to a Welsh mother and Italian lumberjack father, her father died in a factory accident when she was 11. Her sister Ruth committed suicide during her first series of Casualty.
Anderson joined Porthcawl based Vagabond Theatre at age seven, performing with them at The Grand Pavilion until age 13 in productions including starring as Annie in Annie, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Cecily in The Importance of Being Earnest, and as Lily in Under Milkwood.[1] At aged nine, she was chosen to portray the wild child Jodie in children's drama Tiger Bay for the BBC.[2]
After leaving school aged 16, she joined the Welsh National Opera and studied at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama. She resultantly played an extra in Bristol filmed Casualty for four series, before she gained the full cast role of Staff Nurse Chloe Hill between 1998 and 2002.
Her other television credits include Is Harry on the Boat, The Bill, Doctors and London's Burning. She had a role in the 1999 British film Human Traffic as well as many small budget productions. During the late 1990s she did photoshoots for various lad mags including Maxim and FHM.
In the early 2000s, Jan spent her time breaking into the US film and TV arena. She made a cameo as a patient in the Torchwood episode "Reset".
In July 2011, Jan featured in the second episode of the eighth series of Curb Your Enthusiasm, playing the role of Richard Lewis' girlfriend and a burlesque dancer.
Now living and based in Los Angeles, she is a committed Buddhist and vegetarian.