Ronnie Mitchell

2007 Arrives for cousin Phil Mitchell’s non-wedding to Stella Crawford with sister Ronnie. Quits running a bar in Ibiza to and help aunt Peggy with the Vic.

Sam was born on 2 November 1972 in Brighton and grew up in a Bohemian household. Her mum Diane was model and her dad Noel was a singer-songwriter who worked with the likes of Fleetwood Mac. Sam’s parents separated when she was young and her mother married GP Mark Koperski. The family moved to Edinburgh and later to London, where Sam was sent to the Sylvia Young Theatre School. She soon won several roles in TV ads and, with her own money coming in and desperate to be independent, wild child Sam left home at 15 to share a squat with her then boyfriend.

Sam first came to the public’s attention as the UK’s Eurovision Song Contest entry in 1991. A Message To Your Heart came in equal 10th with Ireland and reached the UK’s top 40 charts. Sam decided to concentrate on acting after her foray into music and after bit parts in The Bill and Press Gang, she landed a lead role in hit BBC sitcom Game On with Ben Chaplin, as well as taking over as Sandy in a West End production of Grease, alongside Shane Richie’s Danny.

Sam went on to star in detective series Pie in the Sky, ITV cop drama Liverpool One and short-lived BBC sitcom Babes in the Woods. She has also starred in the West End musical Guys and Dolls and had guest roles in many other TV series.

Sam met the man in her life, actor Mark Womack, on the set of Liverpool One in 1999 although she was still with her husband Mauro Mantovani, who she had been with since she was 17. Mark was also married at the time, with a young son, and their relationship caused a minor scandal. The couple are still together and they now live in London’s Muswell Hill with their two children, Benji, born in 2001, and Lily-Rose, born in 2005.