Jennifer Ellison Biography and Photo Gallery

Jennifer Lesley Ellison (born 30 May 1983, Liverpool, England) is an English actress, glamour model, television personality, dancer and singer. Ellison is perhaps best known for playing Emily Shadwick in the television soap opera Brookside until 2003, and as Meg Giry in the 2004 film adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera.

Ellison studied dance from the age of three, first at a dance school in Liverpool, then later at the Elizabeth Hill School of Dancing in St. Helens, Merseyside. She has achieved examination passes with the Royal Academy of Dance and appeared on instructional videos for the academy. She has also taken examinations with the International Dance Teachers Association and won Ballet and Modern Dance titles at the IDTA Theatre Dance Championships in 1996 and 1997, and in addition was awarded the Carl Alan Award for ballet in 1998. Choosing to pursue a professional career in dance, she successfully auditioned for the Royal Ballet Lower School, but was asked to leave due to her large bust which ruined her chances for classical ballet. She left dance to pursue to acting.

After success in television and men's magazine, Ellison pursued a pop music career. She released two pop rock singles before giving this venture up for acting and glamour modelling. Her first single was "Baby I Don't Care", released in June 2003, which reached #6 in the United Kingdom. The song was originally released by Transvision Vamp in 1989.The following year in July, after being brought back into the public eye after winning Hell's Kitchen, Ellison released her second single, "Bye Bye Boy" - a song originally recorded by the Japanese singer Nanase Aikawa - which reached #13 in the UK chart.