28 Facts About Letitia Dean

Letitia Jane Dean was born on 14 November 1967 and is an English actress.

Letitia Dean is best known for her portrayal of Sharon Watts in the BBC soap opera EastEnders.

Letitia Dean's family moved to the north Buckinghamshire village of Stoke Goldington near Newport Pagnell when she was three years old.

Letitia Dean acquired a penchant for performing at an early age; both she and her older brother Stephen attended a local dance school, the Sylvia Mitchell School of Dance, and they performed a dance act together on stage.

Letitia Dean began performing professionally at the age of 12, when she was cast as Pepper in the musical Annie at London's Victoria Palace Theatre.

Between the ages of 13 and 17, Letitia Dean appeared in numerous television programmes, including: Love Story; Tales Out Of School; the Matthew Kelly sitcom Relative Strangers; Grange Hill, playing a student named Lucinda Oliver ; and the role of Dawn in the Channel 4 soap opera Brookside.

In 1984, Letitia Dean auditioned to play one of the original characters in BBC One's new soap opera, EastEnders; she was selected for an interview on the strength of a photograph alone.

The creators of EastEnders, Tony Holland and Julia Smith, were looking for a "bouncy, attractive, oddly vulnerable young woman" to play the part of Sharon Watts, and out of the various applicants they had seen, they believed that only Letitia Dean had all of those qualities.

Letitia Dean featured in one of the soap's most popular storylines in 1994, a love triangle featuring Sharon, her husband Grant Mitchell and his brother Phil.

Six years following her initial exit, Letitia Dean was lured back to EastEnders by producer John Yorke, reprising the role of Sharon from 2001 to 2006.

Letitia Dean's exit was announced in August 2005 and an official EastEnders press report initially stated that she was only taking a scheduled break and was due back on set later in 2006; however, this did not happen, and in June 2006 the BBC denied press speculation that there were any immediate plans for her to return to the series.

In February 2012, producer Bryan Kirkwood announced that Letitia Dean would make a second return to EastEnders, having been absent for a period of six years.

Letitia Dean made her return on 13 August 2012 after fleeing from her wedding to her fiance John Hewland, with her son, Dennis Rickman Jr.

Letitia Dean is one of three remaining original cast members, along with Gillian Taylforth and Adam Woodyatt.

Away from EastEnders Letitia Dean has had various theatre and television roles.

Letitia Dean starred in two seasons of the BBC drama The Hello Girls, set in a Derby telephone exchange in the 1960s; medical dramas Casualty and Doctors; the ITV police drama The Bill; romantic comedy Lucy Sullivan Is Getting Married, and the Channel 4 sitcom Drop the Dead Donkey as a weathergirl.

Letitia Dean starred in the 1995 film England, My England, which told the story of the musician and court composer Henry Purcell.

Letitia Dean played a prostitute in the revival of Charles Dyer's 1960s play Rattle of a Simple Man at the Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham.

In 2007, Letitia Dean participated in the fifth series of the BBC celebrity dance contest, Strictly Come Dancing.

Letitia Dean was partnered with the professional dancer, Darren Bennett.

Letitia Dean joined the cast of the stage production of Calendar Girls the same year, playing Cora.

In 2006, Letitia Dean appeared as the wicked witch in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at the Deco, Northampton, taking over the role from her EastEnders co-star, Gillian Taylforth, who pulled out due to ill health.

In 2004, Letitia Dean was nominated for Best Actress and Best Dramatic Performance at the British Soap Awards.

Letitia Dean was nominated in the category of Best Couple.

In 2022, Letitia Dean won the Outstanding Achievement award at the British Soap Awards.

Letitia Dean says her self-confidence was damaged during this time, and this, as well as back pain, contributed to her decision to get a breast reduction in her teens.

In 2001, Letitia Dean became engaged to jobbing actor Jason Pethers after knowing him for only a few months.

Letitia Dean's close friend and EastEnders co-star, Susan Tully, was a bridesmaid at the wedding.