Angela Griffin's acting career began as a "childcare option".
Angela Griffin fell in love with acting when her working mother had to put her into a youth theatre for childcare
The 48-year-old actress has been a mainstay on British television screens for more than 30 years but revealed that she first discovered her passion aged just five years old after her mother put her into a theatre club so she could go to work.
Angela told Prima UK: "I actually started doing a Saturday morning workshop at the Leeds Children’s Theatre when I was five. It was a childcare option at that point, as my mum was working on a Saturday and her friend offered to take me along. I just fell in love with being able to be someone else. I found transforming myself and getting people to believe what I was doing intoxicating"
"When I was 13, I went to a school in Leeds that did GCSE dance, drama and music. And that’s where ITV and Granada came to do auditions for children’s TV shows, because they knew there were actors there. And I got my first role via school. It was just what I always wanted to do."
'The Wives' actress got her big break as a teenager when she was cast as Fiona Middleton in 'Coronation Street' and is these days probably best known for starring as art-teacher -turned-headmistress on the BBC One school drama 'Waterloo Road' but recalled that she simply "couldn't wait" to be independent and was working in a fast food chain when she secured her role on the ITV soap opera.
She said: "I couldn’t wait to move out and be an adult, and I’ve never looked back. As soon as I got my National Insurance number, I got a job in Burger King. "I went to college to do my A levels, got the audition for 'Corrie' in the October, shot it in November, and it came out about a week before Christmas. I was working in Burger King the entire time and I only stopped because I got offered a six-month contract. And then, after a year, I’d given up college and my A levels, and I was full-time at 'Corrie'."
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