Holly Matthews

Holly Matthews (born Holly Wilkinson, 1984) is an actress from Newcastle upon Tyne, England. She started her career in the hit BBC children's drama Byker Grove, playing the role of Emma Miller for seven years.^[1]

She left the show in 2003 to pursue a singing career after signing to Sony UK. She appeared on various TV shows promoting her single "Little Miss Perfect" under the name Summer Matthews. The song's instrumentation consists of a guitar and synthesizer.^[2] An editor from Cambridge News noted that "Little Miss Perfect" is reminiscent of songs released by Canadian recording artist, Avril Lavigne.^[3] However, they felt that it was "not the worst single ever made", although "not one you're likely to remember either."^[3] Matt Gray of The Digital Fix wrote that the song "doesn't quite scan", and joked that it has "all the ferocity and attitude of a cute ickle Care Bear. He also felt that "Amy Studt and Avril Lavigne do it a lot better" and went on to describe it as a "bland, uninspired pop tune".^[2] "Little Miss Perfect" peaked at number 32 on the UK Singles Chart for the issue dated 28 February 2004.^[4]

Some of the shows she appeared on were Top of the Pops Saturday, MTV, TRL, Dick and Dom, The Box, RI:SE, Disney, Trouble, CBBC, Xchange, The Saturday Show, The Chart Show and Blue Peter.

She attended the British drama school East 15 in 2005, and left after winning a high-profile role in the BBC drama Waterloo Road, playing the bully Leigh-Ann Galloway.^[5] Since that role, Matthews has continued to act in BBC's Doctors, playing Connie Whitfield; in ITV's The Bill playing drug addict Josie Clarke; and she was back in the BBC soap Doctors in 2009, playing Tansy Flack.

Matthews gave birth five weeks early to a daughter, Brooke early in 2011.^[6] At five months old Brooke was diagnosed with meningitis, which Matthews herself had at seven years old.

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