Sarah Baxendale

Sarah Baxendale (born 23 April 1978) is a British actress. She began her career with guest appearances in Fat Friends and Doctors, as well as appearing in the television movie My Beautiful Son (also known as Strange Relations). From 2002 to 2005, she portrayed Ellie Mills on the British soap opera Hollyoaks, which she also played in the one-off spinoff Hollyoaks: Leap of Faith. For her role as Ellie, Baxendale was longlisted for Best Actress at the 2004 British Soap Awards. After leaving the soap, she appeared in the theatre productions Wrestling Mad (2005) and Secrets (2009), the television comedy-drama A Civil Arrangement (2012), the gameshow whodunnit series Armchair Detectives (2017) and the films The Knife That Killed Me (2014) and Happy New Year, Colin Burstead (2018). She has also guest-starred in various other television and internet shows, including Benidorm and Holby City.

Early life Sarah Baxendale was born on 23 April 1978. She attended St Mary's Catholic High School, Astley, which she later returned to present the year 11 record of achievements.

Career

In 2000, Baxendale appeared in "Face the Fat", the fifth episode of the drama series Fat Friends. She also appeared in the soap opera Doctors and the television movie My Beautiful Son (also known as Strange Relations). In 2002, Baxendale and Hollyoaks broke the Guinness Book of Records's world record of the longest kiss featured onscreen, with the characters of Ellie and Ben Davies (Marcus Patric) kissing for 3 minutes and 15 seconds; of the kiss, Baxendale said, "I think we did it in about five takes but not every kiss went on for the full three minutes! I had kissed Marcus before, because our characters have been a couple for a few weeks now, but I cleaned my teeth about 50 million times." For her role in Hollyoaks, Baxendale was longlisted for Best Actress at the 2004 British Soap Awards, whilst "Leap of Faith" was nominated for Spectacular Scene of the Year at the same awards. Baxendale left Hollyoaks in 2005 and has since appeared in another soap opera, Coronation Street, in addition to another stint in Doctors.

In 2005, she appeared in the play Wrestling Mad at the Hull Truck Theatre; she was replaced by Amy Thompson when the play ran later that year. In 2008, Baxendale played a receptionist in the second episode of the three-part BBC One comedy-drama Sunshine. The following year, Baxendale took part in the production of Secrets, a composition where the secrets of eight actors reveal a personal secret and have it "woven into a narrative", at the Kilburn theatre, which ran from 17 November to 5 December 2009. She was a last-minute replacement for Rachael Boulton, and as a result, Baxendale took over Boulton's secret rather than revealing her own. She has also returned to Doctors once again for one-off stints as different characters in the episodes originally airing on 17 May 2013, 16 January 2015 and 19 April 2018.

Baxendale played Kelly in the BBC Four one-off television comedy A Civil Arrangement, which was originally broadcast on 6 May 2012. She portrayed Shane's mother in the 2014 drama film The Knife That Killed Me. In 2017, she appeared in an episode of the ninth series of the British sitcom Benidorm. She also played SOCO Simmons in the 2017 British gameshow whodunnit series Armchair Detectives. Baxendale made an appearance in the second episode of the British crime drama Hard Sun, which aired in January 2018. She also played the main role of Paula in the comedy drama film Happy New Year, Colin Burstead. The film premiered at the 2018 BFI London Film Festival. Baxendale portrayed Ruby in two episodes of the second series of the online sitcom M.O.T.H.E.R Knows Best, which were both released in March 2020. She has also appeared in Bo' Selecta! and Loose Women.

Acting credits Filmography Year Title Role Notes Coronation Street Doctors 2000 Fat Friends Trendy Assistant Series 1, episode 5 ("Face the Fat") 2001 My Beautiful Son/Strange Relations Television movie 2002–05 Hollyoaks Ellie Mills Regular role 2003 Hollyoaks: Leap of Faith Ellie Mills Late night spinoff 2008 Sunshine Receptionist Episode 2 2011 Holby City Gemma Lavelle 1 episode ("Boy Valentine, Girl Valentine") 2012 A Civil Arrangement Kelly One-off television comedy-drama 2013 Doctors Rosemary McMann 1 episode ("Crash Barrier") 2014 The Knife That Killed Me Shane's Mother Drama film 2015 Doctors Katia Palowsi 1 episode ("Safe House") 2017 Benidorm Jenny 1 episode (Series 9, episode 7) 2017 Armchair Detectives SOCO Simmons 1 series 2018 Hard Sun Frankie Buckley 1 episode ("Episode 2") 2018 Doctors Susie Fleetwood 1 episode ("Place of Safety") 2018 Happy New Year, Colin Burstead Paula Comedy drama film 2020 M.O.T.H.E.R Knows Best Ruby 2 episodes

Theatre Year Production Role Venue 2005 Wrestling Mad Hull Truck Theatre 2009 Secrets Kilburn theatre

Awards and nominations + List of acting awards and nominations Year Award Category Title Result 2004 British Soap Awards Best Actress Hollyoaks 2004 British Soap Awards Spectacular Scene of the Year Hollyoaks