Louisa Lytton

**Louisa Claire Lytton**(born February 7, 1989) is an English actress born in Camden and living in Islington. She rose to fame in 2005 when joining EastEnders as Ruby Allen. After leaving EastEnders in November 2006, Lytton joined The Bill as PC Beth Green, a role she played from May 2007 to March 2009. She also appeared on Strictly Come Dancing in 2006. Lytton also represented the UKat the Eurovision Dance Contest 2008 in Glasgow and finished in 9th place out of 14 with 47 points.

## Career

### **EastEnders**

Lytton made her first appearance in EastEnders on March 18, 2005, playing Johnny Allen's daughter Ruby Allen. Weeks after winning the "Sexiest Female" award at the British Soap Awards where she cut a figure wearing a stunning thigh revealing white dress. In July 2006 it was announced that Lytton would be leaving EastEnders in November 2006. On the exit of her character, Lytton had commented "I've really enjoyed my time at EastEnders. It has been a great experience which I will never forget but I am now looking forward to trying new things and not getting typecast."

Lytton's final scenes were broadcast in November 2006. On December 1, 2006, Lytton appeared on the ITV1 show Loose Women and confirmed that EastEnders was not her decision. In August 2008 she stated she would like to return to EastEnders once she had left The Bill.

### **Strictly Come Dancing**

In 2006, Lytton took part in the fourth series of the popular BBC One reality television programme Strictly Come Dancing, and aged 17 at the time was the youngest contestant to have appeared on the show until gymnast Claudia Fragapane took part in 2016. Lytton's professional dance partner was Vincent Simone. After several impressive performances she was eliminated in the quarter-finals, finishing in fourth place out of fourteen, losing out to Emma Bunton on the viewer vote for a place in the last three. Despite this, Lytton appeared in the Christmas Special on Christmas Day with fellow contestants Mark Ramprakash, Matt Dawson and Emma Bunton, along with 2005's finalists Zoe Ball and Colin Jackson. This show was won by Jackson.

Lytton began touring with "Strictly" on January 18, 2008 with ex-EastEnders co-stars, Letitia Dean and Matt Di Angelo, and ended the tour with 11 wins under her belt. Along with her EastEnders co-star Christopher Parker, Louisa was vocal in her criticism of the media treatment of John Sergeant, which led to him resigning from the 2008 series of Strictly Come Dancing. She said she was surprised that Arlene Phillips was removed a judge from the series due to her age and was replaced by former contestant and 2007 winner Alesha Dixon.

She was one of the former Strictly participants to be asked to return for Strictly on Tour which took place in early 2008 and toured the country. She was asked to return due to her personality and popularity with the audience on Strictly. "I absolutely loved taking part in Strictly Come Dancing and jumped at the chance to take part in the live show, and thanks to my bosses at The Bill I've got the chance to get back out there and this time, fingers crossed, win it for the girls!". She won numerous times. She appeared on BBC Breakfast for a second time in January 2008 and a third time in September 2008.

### **The Bill**

On May 16, 2007, Lytton first appeared in the ITV1 police drama The Bill as PC Beth Green. She had previously appeared as a different character in a 1997 episode, coincidentally starring alongside actor Billy Murray, who previously played her father in EastEnders. She left the show in March 2009.

### **Other Work**

Lytton was Emma Watson's double in the film Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

Between leaving EastEnders and joining The Bill she made an appearance on the CBBC show Hider in the House as herself. She has appeared on The Paul O'Grady Show to promote her role in The Bill. She also appeared on Big Brother's Little Brother with Dermot O'Leary. On June 26, 2007 she made a second appearance on lunchtime show Loose Women, this time promoting her addition to the cast of The Bill. She also briefly appeared on Emma Bunton's video for her single "Downtown" for Children in Need. She has been on the TV show This Morning twice.

On August 27, 2007, Lytton appeared on BBC's Test The Nation and was the top "Celebrity" participant.

She attends numerous charity events and movie premieres throughout the year such as "Children's Champions" in 2007 and 2009 and the "Legends Ball" in 2008.

She was a member of the audience on Happy Birthday Brucie which celebrated TV presenter Bruce Forsyth's 80th birthday in 2008.

Lytton was chosen as one half of the United Kingdom's entry for the Eurovision Dance Contest 2008, finishing 9th out of 14 countries.

She appeared on GMTV for a third time in March 2009 as well as Loose Women for a third time.

She starred in American Pie Presents: The Book of Love as Imogen (a British exchange student). The seventh installment from the franchise was released straight to DVD in December 2009.

On July 13, 2009 Lytton went on GMTV to talk about her roles in the Shakespearean plays Much Ado About Nothing and A Midsummer Night's Dream. This interview was conducted with Lorraine Kelly on her segment of the show.

She appeared in FHM December 2009 issue. She gave an interview along with provocative pictures of herself in her bra and panties and lingerie.

On June 12, 2010 she was a guest star on Casualty on BBC1, on which she played goth girl Grace Fielding.

In 2012 she was in the film the knot where she played Stephanie and she was also in Payback Season where she played Keisha.

In February 2012, she attended the pres night for magicianHans Klok's show The Houdini Experience at The Peacock Theatre in London. While there, she was invited up on stage by Klok, who then sawed her in half in his Clearly Impossible illusion. In September 2012 she was in the stage show A broken rose she was thelead character Maria.

In 2013 she was in Young High and Dead, in which she played a character called Jenny.

Since 2014, she has been playing Michelle in the ITV sitcom series Edge of Heaven.

In 2015 she was in a music video for ILL BLU - Give Me ft. Kahlia Bakosi. In 2015, Louisa was guest appearing in the episode Murdoch Mysteries barenaked ladies as Ginny Beasley.

In 2016, Lytton took part in the third series of The Jump. She became the first celebrity to be eliminated on January 31.

She is also in an independent film called Fractured as Alva to be released in 2016.

She is also in a film called Nowhere released in 2016.

### **Theatre Work**

In 2001 Lytton was on a musical production of Les Miserables and played the leading role in the musical of Annie.

She performed in the Peter Pan Pantomime in 2008/2009 at Milton Keynes Theatre. She also played Peter Pan in Pantomime in December 2009 at the Deco Theatre, Northampton.

She was on the panel of candidates for the West End production of Oliver!.

In July 2009 she joined the British Shakespeare Company to tour the UK and Prague in A Midsummer Night's Dream and Much Ado About Nothing. She played Cobweb (a fairy) in A Midsummer Night's Dream and Hero in Much Ado About Nothing. She also starred in a Southampton theatre production in November 2009.

From January 31, 2013 until April 2, 2013 Louisa was in the boogie nights tour. She played Debs.

From December 2016 until January 2, 2017, Louisa was performing in Sleeping Beauty (Pantomime) at the Hazlitt Theatre where she played Princess Aurora.

From March 10, 2017 until January 2018 Louisa will be playing Rizzo in Grease the Musical UK Tour.

## Personal Life

Lytton attended the Sylvia Young Theatre School in Marylebone, London. She is close friends with her former EastEnders co-stars Kara Tointon (Dawn Swann), Lacey Turner (Stacey Slater) and Matt Di Angelo (Dean Wicks). She is also friends with singer and Strictly rival Emma Bunton. She is of Italian descent on her mother's side and her cousin is Lisa Maffia of So Solid fame. She is also an Arsenal fan. She also dated singer Aston Merrygold when she was younger.