Kimberley Nixon’s talent, charisma and delicate beauty have seen her segue straight from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama into the BBC’s prestige period drama series The Cranford Chronicles alongside A-listers including Judi Dench, Imelda Staunton and Michael Gambon. That production – about a rural Cheshire town on the cusp of change – wrapped earlier this month and Nixon has moved straight on to Working Title’s boarding school comedy Wild Child, in which she co-stars as the spiky tormentor-in-chief of a spoilt US newcomer, played by Emma Roberts.

It is the first big screen role for Nixon, a self-confessed film buff, whose tastes run to “films which rely on the screenplay and acting rather than the money”. And was she given any tips from the veterans on The Cranford Chronicles? “Eileen Atkins told me the best piece of advice she got was from Alec Guinness – to set three alarm clocks.”

Contact: Ken McReddie Associates, (44) 20 7439 1456

Screen Daily | UK Stars Of Tomorrow 2007