32 Facts About Lucy Speed

Lucy Renee Speed was born on 31 August 1976 and is an English actress best known for her television roles as Natalie Evans in the BBC One soap opera EastEnders appearing in 526 episodes between 1994 and 2004, and as DS Stevie Moss in the ITV police drama series The Bill from 2008 to 2010.

Lucy Speed has starred in the BBC One sitcom Cradle to Grave and ITV dramas Marcella and Unforgotten.

Lucy Speed is the second of two children born to Sue and Sid Lucy Speed, having an older brother, Dan.

Lucy Speed attended a local after-school theatre group in south Croydon alongside actor Nigel Harman, who she would later work with in EastEnders.

Lucy Speed spent two terms at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts.

At the age of seven, Lucy Speed modelled clothes for Kays catalogue and she went on to appear in commercials for Sunpat peanut butter, then for gas, paint, soup and the children's toy My Little Pony.

Lucy Speed appeared in several films during her youth, which included playing the role of Josephine Stitch in the 1987 film Scoop when she was eleven.

Lucy Speed went on to secure the role of 'young Aurora' in the film Impromptu, which was about Polish pianist Frederic Chopin and starred Hugh Grant.

Lucy Speed made an early appearance on television when she filmed at Windsor Safari Park with television presenter Johnny Morris.

Lucy Speed went on to have roles in legal drama Rumpole of the Bailey in 1987, and later appeared in an episode of Saracen in 1989.

Lucy Speed played Rose Penfold, a streetwise love interest for Maguire's character, Simon; they meet at a children's home and then run away to be together.

Lucy Speed later appeared in an episode of the BBC children's programme Parallel 9, which aired in 1994.

Lucy Speed played the brow beaten best friend of Bianca Jackson, making her first appearance on-screen in January 1994.

Lucy Speed quit the soap after a year as she felt overwhelmed and unprepared by all the press attention she received from being in such a high-profile show.

However, in 1999 Lucy Speed reprised the role of Natalie Price, four years after her initial departure.

Lucy Speed's return was prompted by her friend and EastEnders co-star Ross Kemp, who initiated contact between her and producer Matthew Robinson.

In 1995 Lucy Speed played Nell Gwyn in England, My England, a film about the composer Henry Purcell.

Lucy Speed made minor appearances in the films Metroland, Keep the Aspidistra Flying, and the Academy Award-winning film Shakespeare in Love.

Lucy Speed worked on a television series in America called Unsolved Mysteries.

Lucy Speed appeared in the BBC hospital drama Holby City in 2004, the Detective series Jericho in 2005, and in 2007 she filmed for the second series of the BBC comedy Love Soup.

Away from acting, Lucy Speed has appeared in television game shows.

In 2007 Lucy Speed was one of several former soap stars to act in the stage play Soap at the Royal Theatre, which was a parody of TV soap operas written by Sarah Wood.

In 2017, Lucy Speed appeared in Stephen Unwin's All Our Children, which premiered at the Jermyn Street Theatre.

Lucy Speed portrayed the mother of a disabled son in Nazi Germany.

Lucy Speed joined radio soap opera The Archers as Home Farm manager Stella Pryor in 2021.

Lucy Speed was part of the show's first on-air lesbian kiss in August 2023.

In March 2022, Lucy Speed performed as Ada Jarvis in Mark Ravenhill's version of Blackmail.

In January 2023, Lucy Speed starred as Truvy in a production of Steel Magnolias at the Richmond Theatre, London.

Lucy Speed appeared alongside Laura Main, Diana Vickers, Caroline Harker and Elizabeth Ayodele.

Lucy Speed married model and actor Spencer Hayler on 12 September 2009, and gave birth to their daughter Kitty Bina Grace Hayler on 20 May 2012.

Lucy Speed is good friends with Charlie Brooks, the actress who played Janine Butcher, her on-screen adversary in EastEnders.

Lucy Speed gave birth to a baby boy Sullivan in August 2018.