Clare Perkins
Clare Perkins (born 18 August 1965) is an English actress who is known for her roles as Denise Boulter in "Family Affairs" and Ava Hartman in "EastEnders". Career. Perkins' first role was in "Screen Two", as Opal in 1991. In TV she has appeared in "Family Affairs", "All in the Game", "Pig Heart Boy", "Casualty", "EastEnders", "Men Behaving Badly", "Big Women" and "Clapham Junction". She has appeared in many theatres, such as the Royal Court, Young Vic, National Theatre and Soho Theatre. Her film credits include "Ladybird, Ladybird" (Ken Loach), "Secrets & Lies" (Mike Leigh), "Bullet Boy" (Saul Dibb ) and "7 Lives". In 2011 she turned to performing in many radio dramas for Radio 4 including "The Winter house", "Landfall", "Corrinne Come Back and Gone" and "Best Intentions". Clare was part of the BBC production "Pig Heart Boy", which won a Children's BAFTA for Best Drama. Clare has worked in theatre, film, TV and radio, she has been a member of the BBC Radio Drama Company and played the character of Mel for 8 years in the World Service soap "Westway". Clare played Beverly in the acclaimed film "Bullet Boy" which opened the London Film Festival in 2004 ; she won Best Actress for this role at the Screen Nation Awards. She also played Jill in the Ken Loach film "Ladybird, Ladybird" which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes. Clare was in two West End productions in 2019 - "Emilia" which transferred from The Globe, and "Sweat" which transferred from the Donmar Warehouse, with the consequence that at one point her face was on the front of two West End theatres simultaneously for a month, The Vaudeville and The Gielgud; it is believed that she is the only Actress to achieve this. Clare played Kerene Nagashi in the Amazon fantasy  series "The Wheel of Time". She is due to be seen in the horror film "Censor" and the independent film "Medusa Deluxe", as well as "The Outlaws". Personal life. She was educated at the Rose Bruford College from 1983–1985, and is the mother of Kali Perkins (who appeared in the TV programme "The Undateables"). She is based in Greater London.