CV: Eve Myles

Now playing the lead in Keeping Faith (9pm, BBC1), Eve Myles, 40, is rapidly becoming one of Wales’s most famous exports…

Valley girl: Born in 1978 in Ystradgynlais, Powys, Eve graduated from the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff in 2000. That same year, she landed her first big role, as Ceri Owen in the BBC Wales drama Belonging; she was to stay from the first episode to the final series, nearly nine years later.

Leading lady: In 2005, she appeared in the ITV miniseries Colditz, but it was playing servant girl Gwyneth in an episode of Doctor Who called The Unquiet Dead in the same year that was to prove life-changing. Eve was spotted by writer Russell T. Davies, who declared her ‘one of Wales’s best-kept secrets’. He went on to write the lead character of Gwen in the Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood (which co-starred John Barrowman) especially for her; she appeared in every episode (2006-11). Other shows in which she has starred include Merlin, Little Dorrit, Victoria, the second series of Broadchurch, A Very English Scandal and Frankie, in which she played the eponymous lead, district nurse Frankie Maddox. With a second series of Keeping Faith in the pipeline and a role in the next series of Cold Feet, Eve is set to be around for some time to come. Behind the scenes: Eve is married to actor Bradley Freegard, who plays her missing husband, Evan, in Keeping Faith (‘It was a bit weird kissing him on set!’); they have two daughters, Matilda and Siena.