Early career At the age of seven, Speed modelled clothes for Kays catalogue and she went on to appear in commercials for Sunpat peanut butter, then for gas, paint, soup and the children's toy
My Little Pony. By the age of eight she was acting on stage at London's
National Theatre in
Neap Tide, a controversial play about lesbianism and women's oppression. Speed appeared in several films during her youth, which included playing the role of Josephine Stitch in the 1987 film
Scoop when she was eleven. She went on to secure the role of 'young Aurora' in the film
Impromptu (1991), which was about
Polish pianist
Frédéric Chopin and starred
Hugh Grant. Speed made an early appearance on television when she filmed at
Windsor Safari Park with television presenter
Johnny Morris. She went on to have roles in legal drama
Rumpole of the Bailey (as Isolde Erskine-Brown) in 1987, and later appeared in an episode of
Saracen in 1989. In 1991 she starred in the award-winning
Dodgem alongside actor
Sean Maguire.
Dodgem was a six-part televised drama for children's BBC, written and adapted by
Bernard Ashley. Speed played Rose Penfold, a streetwise love interest for Maguire's character, Simon; they meet at a children's home and then run away to be together. During 1992–93 Speed appeared as Beki Jenner in two series of
Rides, a BBC drama about an all-woman minicab firm, written by Carole Hayman. She later appeared in an episode of the BBC children's programme
Parallel 9, which aired in 1994.
EastEnders Speed's big television break came in 1993 aged 17, when she won the part of
Natalie Price in the BBC soap
EastEnders. She played the brow beaten best friend of
Bianca Jackson (played by
Patsy Palmer), making her first appearance on-screen in January 1994. Speed quit the soap after a year as she felt overwhelmed and unprepared by all the
press attention she received from being in such a high-profile show. Speed commented: "I was very frightened by it quite frankly and certainly unprepared for it. I didn't like at all the attention that came with being on such a high-profile show. It simply wasn't what I signed up for in the first place---all that craziness. I was very young and extremely shy, so it all became a huge difficulty for me…I honoured my initial one-year contract and then moved on…they did express their interest in signing me for another year, but I politely but firmly declined. They were a bit shocked. I tried to explain in the best way I could my reasons for leaving at the end of my contract and they ultimately understood, and so I left on good terms with them…I had some growing up to do and instinctively knew that growing up more or less in front of the British public for one year was enough!" She commented "I'd been back for five years and had very little to do the year before. I quite like being busy and I could see the scriptwriters were struggling with Natalie and where to place her so it seemed like the right time to go. It's nice that they've left it open, I'd hate to think the door was shut behind me. Absolutely, I'd like to go back, never say never.”
Stage and radio Speed has appeared in stage and radio plays. In 2000 she starred in
Be My Baby at London's
Soho Theatre, playing a four-month pregnant singer called Queenie. In 2004 she toured with the
Vagina Monologues and in 2006 she starred in the Louise Roche play/musical ''Girls' Night
, which toured the UK. The comedy play follows five friends as they relive their past at a karaoke night. In 2007 Speed was one of several former soap stars to act in the stage play Soap
at the Royal Theatre, which was a parody of TV soap operas written by Sarah Wood. The play also starred Coronation Street's
Paul Fox, Emmerdale's
Janice McKenzie and EastEnders'
Marc Bannerman. In 2003 she performed in the Radio 4 series Elephants to Catch Eels, with former Coronation Street
star John Bowe, and she played the part of Silver in the radio play, Speed and Silver''. In 2017, Speed appeared in
Stephen Unwin's
All Our Children, which premiered at the
Jermyn Street Theatre. Speed portrayed the mother of a disabled son in Nazi Germany. About the role, Speed told the
Evening Standard: "I’ve always been interested in history, but when I was a child I did a play called Rosie Blitz at the Polka Theatre where I played a refugee and it was a really lovely play and all-consuming [...] I just felt the emotional connections and then I kept returning to reading about the home front and Germany and Russia — and when you start reading about the subject you just learn more and more [...] I met Stephen and spoke with him and I know about his history with it, and I just thought when it comes from such an honest place I wanted to be involved. I wanted to represent a lot of those parents I knew, and this is the same reason I would say people should come and see it." Speed joined radio soap opera
The Archers as Home Farm manager
Stella Pryor in 2021. She was part of the show's first on-air lesbian kiss in August 2023. In March 2022, Speed performed as Ada Jarvis in
Mark Ravenhill's version of
Blackmail. Chris Wiegand, reviewing for
The Guardian, rated the play 3/5 stars. Dave Fargnoli, for
The Stage, rated
Blackmail 4/5 stars. In January 2023, Speed starred as Truvy in a production of
Steel Magnolias at the
Richmond Theatre, London. Speed appeared alongside
Laura Main,
Diana Vickers,
Caroline Harker and Elizabeth Ayodele. The production, going on to tour the UK, was rated 2/5 stars by ''What's on Stage''. Speed's last performance was on 22 April 2023. ==Personal life==