She's back on our TV screens tonight in one of the most popular crime dramas but ITV Grace star Zoe Tapper has been a regular face on film and TV for 20 years.
After securing her first role just a week out of drama school, opposite Rupert Everett and Claire Danes in the movie Stage Beauty, Zoe's appeared in a number of hit TV shows, including Nexflix’s The One, and ITV's Mr Selfridge.
Away from the cameras, Kent-born Zoe, 42, has been married to actor Oliver Dimsdale of Grantchester and Downton Abbey fame since 2008 and the pair have two daughters.
Speaking about relationships in the past, Zoe said: "I feel like love is just not enough, you have to have other things, a sense of self worth, you have to have interests and passions in life. (...) If you are lucky enough to find someone who you want to spend a lot of time with then that’s wonderful."
But it hasn't always been plain sailing as Zoe has suffered from crippling post-natal depression - something which she's been very open and honest about.
During the podcast White Wine Question Time with Kate Thornton, Zoe spoke candidly about her illness. She said: “When I had my daughter, I almost immediately, post-birth, had crippling postnatal depression. It hit me like a sledgehammer, and I couldn’t actually access the help I needed, at all.”
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Although she put better support in place during her second pregnancy she found herself hit yet again by this “debilitating” maternal illness. “Two weeks after birth, I’m suddenly like a zombie on the sofa – I mean, it was so extraordinary,” she recalled.
While medication helped, she explained that she “didn't really recover from it properly psychologically, because I couldn't talk about it… I didn't have the people supporting me that I needed to sort of work through those very complicated feelings".
Her experience led her to free counselling service Mums Aid, run by “angel” Miriam Donaghy. She discovered the organisation was struggling for funding, and offered her assistance with “writing grants and bids”, including a proposal to Children In Need.
“We reasoned that… this has directly affected children,” she explained. “If the mother is not well, and is unable to look after the child to the best of their ability, it has a direct impact on children.”
To her delight, the Children In Need funding was secured and since then Zoe has watched the “London-centric” organisation grow to become a nationwide resource. “It’s a brilliant, brilliant organisation," she said.
Since getting support from the group, Zoe could not be better. Now she's back for the fourth series of Grace and enjoying life at home as a mum - to both her daughters and her cats, who often feature on her Instagram account.
Grace returns to ITV 1 on Sunday, September 1 at 9pm
