Dawn Steele - Career

Career

Dawn Steele was born in Glasgow, moved to Milton of Campsie in 1982, attended Kilsyth Academy from around 1987-1993 and studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow from 1994–1998, supporting her early career as a waitress in the Rogano Restaurant. She graduated with First Class Honours in July 1998, and was the winner of the Silver Medal at the RSAMD in 1998.

She is perhaps best known as Alexandra "Lexie" MacDonald from the hit BBC drama Monarch of the Glen, a part which she played for series 1 - 6 of the show, 1999-2004. In January 2005, she appeared as new character Justine McManus in the second series of the BBC's paranormal drama show Sea of Souls with Iain Robertson and Bill Paterson. Before she teamed up with Iain Robertson to work on Sea of Souls they had previously worked together on The Slab Boys and The Debt Collector. Shortly after, she appeared as a student on the BBC reality show Fame Academy in a second all-celebrity series in aid of the charity Comic Relief does Fame Academy.

In January 2006, Steele returned in the third series of Sea of Souls. In April 2007 she played Shazza in Simon Farquhar's powerful Aberdonian drama Rainbow Kiss at the Royal Court Theatre in London's West End. Reviews praised her performance as a promiscuous beautician who becomes the object of a lethal obsession. In 2002 Steele was voted the Most Eligible Woman in Scotland and followed this up in 2003 when she was voted the second most eligible woman in Scotland by readers of a Sunday newspaper.

Steele starred in a one-off BBC One comedy, Magnolia, which aired on 22 September 2006. In November 2007 she made her pantomime debut as the Wicked Witch Carrion in Sleeping Beauty at the King's Theatre, Glasgow. In 2009 she returned to TV screens in the 4th series of ITV's Wild at Heart, playing a new character, Alice Collins, as replacement for Amanda Holden who left the show after the third series.

In the summer of 2009, She guest presented STV's daily lifestyle show The Hour for a week, alongside main anchor Stephen Jardine.

In 2010 she returned once more as Alice for a 10-episode run in the fifth series of the popular show Wild at Heart. She returned again for another 10-episode run in the sixth series of "Wild at Heart" but as Alice Trevanion; Alice and Danny got engaged at the end of series five. She was in episode 1 of the 7th series but was forced to abandon filming of the hit TV drama to dash back to Britain for the birth of her first child "Coco" with partner, Dear Green Place actor Paul Blair. There will be no 8th series, but Dawn will return in 2012 for the final two hour Christmas special.

In 2011, Agatha Christie Theatre Company's national tour of the 1958 play Verdict, starred Dawn Steele playing the part of Lisa Koletzky. In May 2012 she returned to the stage for the UK tour of Noël Coward's Volcano as Melissa Littleton which transferred to the West End in August.