Kay Mellor

Kay Mellor (born 1951) is an English actress, scriptwriter, and director best known for her work on several successful television drama series.

Biography

Early life

Mellor was born in Leeds, Yorkshire to a Catholic father and a Jewish mother. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/friday_review/story/0,,254806,00.html] She attended Bretton Hall College at the University of Leeds and graduated in 1983. She still lives in Leeds and has been married to her husband Anthony since 1967. She has two daughters: actress Gaynor Faye and television producer Yvonne Francas.

Career

As a writer, she began working for Granada Television in the 1980s, writing for their hugely popular soap opera "Coronation Street", the most watched programme on the ITV network. She also wrote for the antholgy drama series "Dramarama", before in 1988 co-creating the long-running children's drama "Children's Ward" with her "Coronation Street" colleague Paul Abbott. She also created the soap opera "Families", which aired from 1990 until 1993.

Since then she has written a host of highly-acclaimed and popular television drama serials, including "Band of Gold" (1995), "Fat Friends" (2000), "Between the Sheets" (2003) and "Strictly Confidential" (2006) for ITV; and the women's football-based "Playing the Field" (1998) for BBC One.

Outside of television, in 1999 she both wrote and directed the feature film "Fanny and Elvis", starring Ray Winstone.

In her parallel career as a television actress, Mellor has appeared in her own adaptation of "Jane Eyre" (1997) and in other series such as the comedy drama "Stan the Man" (2002) and in "Gifted" (2003).

In July 2006 another of her dramas aired on BBC One, called "The Chase", another programme in which her daughter, actress Gaynor Faye, has starred. Gaynor had previously starred in "Fat Friends" and "Playing The Field".

Charity Work

Because of her own experience Kay believes so strongly in the usefulness of marriage guidance that she is now president of the charity Relate Leeds.

External links

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