Michelle Ryan: I'll always be known for Zoe Slater

Michelle Ryan: I'll always be known for Zoe Slater
Michelle Ryan: I'll always be known for Zoe Slater

Michelle Ryan thinks she'll always be known for her role as EastEnders' Zoe Slater, no matter what she does! The actress, who left the show in 2005 and has since starred in US series Bionic Woman, said she's learned to accept she'll always be associated with the soap. She said: "Bionic Woman was a huge show, but people are still going to know me for being Zoe Slater - people liked her so much." She said recognition for her Albert Square days, during which Zoe famously discovered that her 'sister' Kat Slater (Jessie Wallace) was actually her mother, even reached the States. "I was in LA and I was signing some autographs and I could hear someone shouting, 'Zoe, Zoe'! I didn't think it could be for me, so I turned around and it was." Michelle said the training she got from EastEnders was 'invaluable'. "I think EastEnders is an apprenticeship, and you just have to do the work. There's no time to get above yourself there, the work needs doing. It's such a great grounding." Michelle is now starring with fellow ex-Walford star Sean Maguire (Aidan Brosnan) in Mister Eleven, an ITV1 two-part comedy drama, also starring Adam Garcia. Mister Eleven will be on ITV1 on Friday 11 December at 9pm. Click here to watch whatsontv.co.uk’s new weekly soaps video preview, the Soap Scoop

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.