Who plays Linda Carter in EastEnders?

Born 1976 in Brentwood, Essex, Bright trained at the Sylvia Young Theatre School before winning the role of Joanna Burrows on sitcom The Upper Hand (1990–96) at the age of 11.

Her other prominent roles include Cassie Tyler in prison drama Bad Girls (2002) and Kate Aldridge on Radio 4’s long-running drama The Archers. Bright also appeared in Sacha Baron Cohen’s comedy Ali G Indahouse (2005) and comedy-drama Kinky Boots (2005).

For her role as Linda Carter, she won Best Actress and Best Dramatic Performance at the 2015 British Soap Awards.

That same year, she also almost won BBC1's celebrity dance competition, Strictly Come Dancing. She settled instead for second place—no small feat after juggling EastEnders during the day and dance rehearsals in the evening.

Bright, who considers on-screen partner Danny Dyer as one of her best friends, gave birth to a son in 2011 and married her long-term partner Paul Stocker in 2014.

Linda Carter moved her family to Walford at the end of 2013 when she became the landlady of the Queen Vic pub.

She initially struggled with her youngest son Johnny’s sexuality, but eventually came to accept that he was gay.

Less than a year later, Linda was raped by Dean Wicks - soon after which she became pregnant. However, a blood test eventually confirmed that the father of the baby (later named Ollie) was her partner Mick.