Natalie Gumede



Natalie Gumede (IPA: /ˈnætəli ˈgʌmədiː/, Gum-ed-dee) (born 20 March 1984) is an English actress. She is best known for playing Kirsty Soames in the ITV1 soap opera Coronation Street. She previously played China in BBC Three's Ideal.[1]  She also appeared in The Persuasionists on BBC Two, and is a contestant in the 2013 series of Strictly Come Dancing.



Contents
[hide]  *1 Early life  ==Early life[edit] == Gumede was born in Burnley and lived in Colne during her early life, attending firstly Christ Church C of E Primary School and then Park High School. Her grandfather Josiah Gumede was the only President of the short-lived Zimbabwe-Rhodesia.[2]  At the age of 11 while attending Pendle Hippodrome Youth Theatre, she was picked by BBC producers to help present the north-west regional insert for Children in Need in 1995.[3]  She attended the London Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts graduating in 2003 from a three-year course in Acting and Musical Theatre.[4] ==Career[edit] == Between 2004 and 2007, Gumede played China in the dark-comedy sitcom series, Ideal, who along with her friend Asia (Rebecca Atkinson), was one of Moz's regular clients.[citation needed]  Her character featured in the pilot episode, and was a regular in the first three seasons.[5]
 * 2 Career
 * 2.1 Strictly Come Dancing
 * 2.2 Television roles
 * 2.3 Film roles
 * 2.4 Stage roles
 * 2.5 Commercial roles
 * 2.6 Video games
 * 3 References
 * 4 External links

In 2008, she featured in her first full length film, Clubbed, a British drama about a 1980's factory worker who takes up a job as a club doorman.[citation needed]

In January 2010, Gumede featured in the sitcom The Persuasionists, broadcast on BBC Two, set in the world of advertising, starring Iain Lee, Simon Farnaby, Adam Buxton, Jarred Christmas & Daisy Haggard.<sup class="Template-Fact" style="line-height:1em;white-space:nowrap;">[citation needed]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">In September 2011, Gumede made her first appearance in the ITV soap-opera, Coronation Street, portraying Kirsty Soames, who became the domestic abusive love interest to mechanic Tyrone Dobbs (Alan Halsall). She had previously tried out for the part of Kelly Crabtree, but lost out to Tupele Dorgu.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-6" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[6]  For her portrayal of the character, Gumede had received the "Best Newcomer" accolade at the 2012 British Soap Awards.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-7" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[7]  She was later nominated for Best Soap Newcomer at the TV Choice Awards and voted Most Popular Newcomer during the 18th National Television Awards.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-8" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[8] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-9" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[9]  In Digital Spy's end of year reader poll, Kirsty's domestic abuse storyline with on-screen boyfriend Tyrone won Best Storyline with 28.3% of the vote.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-10" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[10]  On 21 February 2013, it was announced that she would leave the soap after a year-and-a-half, and departed when her character, Kirsty went to serve time in prison on 3 April 2013.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">On 2 September 2013, Gumede was announced as one of the fifteen celebrity contestants, participating on the eleventh series of Strictly Come Dancing. Her professional partner is the eighth series champion, Artem Chigvintsev. They quickly became the early favourites for the title after a strong start.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-11" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[11]  However, their progress also drew criticism after it emerged that Gumede had previously trained when she was a child, and possibly gave her an unfair advantage. ===Strictly Come Dancing<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[edit] === ===Television roles<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[edit] === ===Film roles<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[edit] === ===Stage roles<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[edit] === ===Commercial roles<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[edit] === ===Video games<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[edit] ===