Early career Bright has been acting since she was 11, appearing on stage in shows such as
Annie and
Les Misérables, before landing a place at the
Sylvia Young Theatre School where she became friends with
Emma Bunton and
Keeley Hawes. As a child actress, she appeared in several different series' on British television in the late 1980s and the 1990s, including
T-Bag and
Maid Marian and Her Merry Men. In 1990, at the age of 13, Bright was cast as Joanna Burrows in TV series
The Upper Hand alongside William Puttock,
Joe McGann,
Diana Weston and
Honor Blackman which ran for six years. After
The Upper Hand had finished, Bright has said that she struggled to make ends meet. She says, "I didn't have any acting work, so I got a job waiting on tables to pay the mortgage, but it was while
The Upper Hand was still on air. Next thing I know, a customer had called a newspaper saying I was there and some photographers appeared out of the blue snapping away." She also worked as a receptionist at a nightclub in London. She continued, "I was getting rejected from one job after another and no matter how much I tried not to take it personally, a part of me couldn't help but think: 'I was too ugly to get that part'."
Mainstream success Bright has also had main roles in
Bad Girls and has also guest starred in
Da Ali G Show and made an appearance in the film
Ali G Indahouse. Bright has made several guest appearances on British television programmes, her credits include
Holby City,
Casualty,
The Catherine Tate Show and
Vera. Bright appeared as Joan Trotter in the
Only Fools and Horses prequel,
Rock & Chips, from 2010 until 2011.
EastEnders In October 2013, Bright was cast as
Linda Carter in the
BBC soap opera EastEnders. Linda made her first on screen appearance on 19 December 2013, but officially arrived on
Albert Square with her husband,
Mick (played by
Danny Dyer) and her children on 26 December 2013. The Carter family were created by the show's executive producer
Dominic Treadwell-Collins who planned to completely revamp the show. Since her arrival, Bright's character Linda has been a part of some of the show's biggest storylines such as struggling to accept that her son
Johnny (
Sam Strike) is
gay. In October 2014, Linda was involved in a controversial storyline where she was raped by
Dean Wicks (
Matt Di Angelo). On filming this particular storyline, Bright stated that "It is a challenging storyline, but it is an important storyline and I feel honoured to have been given it". Bright was praised for her performance during this storyline. Bright won the 2014 Digital Spy's Readers Award for Best Female Soap Actress. Along with Dyer, Bright was nominated for "Best On-screen Partnership" at
The British Soap Awards 2014 for the relationship between Mick and Linda. In 2015, she was nominated for the "Serial Drama Performance" award at the
National Television Awards, however the award was won by Dyer. She has been nominated for
Best Actress and Best Dramatic Performance at The British Soap Awards 2015; Bright won both. On 12 March 2015, Bright revealed that she had received "personal letters" from rape victims who had been affected by Linda's story, leaving her feeling "humbled" by the audience's response.
Other ventures In 1992, Bright voiced the character of Beauty in the Bevanfield Films production of
Beauty and the Beast. She has also voiced several video game characters, including the Hero of Brightwall in the game
Fable III in 2010. In 2011, Bright did voicework for Nintendo and Monolith Soft's
Xenoblade Chronicles as the medic Sharla. Bright took part in the BBC's
Children in Need appeal in 2014 along with
Danny Dyer and the rest of the
EastEnders cast who performed a
Grease medley titled "Grease Enders". Bright appears as Linda though dressed up as Sandy Olsen. She performed in "
You're the One That I Want" and "
We Go Together". In September 2015, Bright joined the
thirteenth series of
Strictly Come Dancing on BBC One. Bright chose to continue playing Linda Carter on
EastEnders while competing on
Strictly Come Dancing, working all day at
EastEnders and rehearsing for
Strictly in the evening. Paired with professional dancer
Kevin Clifton, she was described by head judge
Len Goodman as a "great all round dancer". On 19 December the pair reached the final three and topped the leaderboard with a score of 119. Their score including two maximum scores of 40 for their
tango to "
You Really Got Me" by
The Kinks and their showdance to "The Ding-Dong Daddy of the D-Car Line" by
Cherry Poppin' Daddies. Their final dance, a
Charleston to "Cantina Band" from
Star Wars, scored 39, but the public voted
Jay McGuiness and
Aliona Vilani as the competition winners. ==Personal life==