Heather Peace

At 49 years old, Heather Peace has this physical status:

Heather Mary Peace (born 16 June 1975) is an English actress, musician and LGBT rights activist from Bradford, England. She is best known for her hit roles as Nikki Boston in BBC1 long-running school-based drama Waterloo Road, from 2012 until 2014, Sally 'Gracie' Fields in ITV's long-running series London's Burning, Fiona Murray in Kay Mellor's drama The Chase, and Sam Murray in BBC Scotland's serial drama Lip Service.

Early life

Heather Peace was born in Bradford, West Yorkshire. She has been playing piano since she was six years old, and guitar since her teens. Peace decided to be an actress at an early age and credits her parents for the encouragement they gave her to achieve that goal. She went to St Joseph's Primary School in Little Horton, Bradford, and St Joseph's Catholic College in Manningham, Bradford. Her mother was a long-serving cantor at St Joseph's Catholic Church (which is next to the primary school) and also did readings. Peace was also a cantor at St Joseph's Catholic Church which is where her love of music and singing started. Peace and her mother are no longer Catholics, due to the Catholic church's stance on LGBT relationships.

Personal life and activism

Peace came out as a lesbian to her mother when she was 19 years old, shortly after she broke up with her first girlfriend. Peace and longtime partner Ellie Dickinson entered into a civil partnership in 2013, and subsequently converted it to marriage in 2014. They have three daughters together: Annie Mary, born to Dickinson in April 2015, and twins Jessie and Lola, born to Peace in June 2017.

Peace is a prominent supporter of LGBT equality causes. She is a patron of Manchester Pride and has recorded a video for Stonewall's "It Gets Better" campaign. She is involved in a number of related charities, including Diversity Role Models and The Albert Kennedy Trust.

Peace has hosted and curated her own "Heather Peace Presents" stage in several editions of Manchester Pride. In July 2016 Diva announced Peace as its new columnist. Peace said it was an honour for her to be part of a magazine that was relevant to her coming out.

In 2010, she was number 40 on the Independent on Sunday's Pink List, and number 10 in 2011. She was also voted number 18 on US website afterellen.com's 2011 Hot 100 list. She is also the only woman to have appeared twice on the cover of Diva Magazine in the space of six months.

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Acting career

Peace studied at Manchester Metropolitan University, where she earned a BA (Honors).

Peace's introduction to television came when she starred in the ITV soap opera Emmerdale, playing Anne Cullen for seven episodes between January and June 1997.

Eliza Doolittle appeared in My Fair Lady's 1997 Harrogate Theatre performance, her first professional stage appearance. Miranda has appeared in Shakespeare's The Tempest and the same character in the actor-musician spoof Return to the Forbidden Planet.

Peace played in The Bill and Dangerfield before being cast as Firefighter Sally "Gracie" Fields in the ITV series London's Burning from 1998 to 2002. Peace made Thunder Road, a television film in which she played Sonia, during this time.

Peace appeared in television series including Casualty and Where the Heart Is between 2003 and 2005.

Peace played Special Air Service Trooper Becca Gallagher on the ITV action film Ultimate Force alongside Ross Kemp. Becca appeared on the 3rd and 4th series, which aired from 2005 to 2008. Peace has lauded Becca's "one of the lads" rather than an overly emotional story, and that she had "too much fun" being the hero in the program. Ross Kemp has argued that including a female role makes the show much more enjoyable, and that Peace is the right option for the role ("she is absolutely superb").

Peace appeared in Kay Mellor's TV series The Chase as single mother Fiona Jones between 2006 and 2007. Fiona is portrayed as a left out family member whose resentment and betrayals lead to unexpected sinister conduct, giving rise to an entirely different character to the girls often played by Peace.

She then appeared in television programs including Coronation Street, Heartbeat, and Holby City. Peace appeared as the ostensibly abusing wife in the Blue Murder's "Private Sins" episode in 2008.

She appeared in the film 31 North 62 East, where Peace appears again as part of a Special Air Service unit. Captain Jill Mandelson, who also played by Peace, will try to uncover the political bribes that resulted in the death of the majority of her troops.

In 2010, Peace was portrayed as Detective Sam Murray in the BBC Three TV series Lip Service. Peace argued that being the only openly lesbian cast member influenced the show's interest. In Glasgow, Scotland, a series revolves around a group of aged-30-something lesbians. The show attained cult status in the first few episodes, with Peace's character Sam, and the actor himself becoming the object of a cult following ("Team Sam") among fans of the series. The second series's filming wrapped in July 2011 with a release date of spring 2012. Fans of the second and final season of the drama have been waiting for a new season, but Peace said in an interview with Cult Box that she would 'definitely' return as the protagonist.

Peace was cast as Head of English in Nikki Boston in 2011 before being appointed Deputy Headteacher in 2013 for BBC One's school-based drama film Waterloo Road. She returned to the series for the second part of Series 8 after a tour of her debut album. She appeared in Series 9, which screened on BBC One in September 2013. She took another break from Waterloo Road at the end of the Series 9 Spring Term, but has speculated that she may return in Series 11.

Peace appeared in ITV's three-part drama Prey as Abi Farrow, wife of main character Detective Marcus Farrow (played by BAFTA candidate John Simm). Nick Murphy, a BAFTA winner, produced the drama.

Chrissy Woodward appeared in the BBC television series "Those in Peril" as Chrissy Woodward in 2016. Di Murphy appeared in Series 22 of Silent Witness as DI Murphy in 2019. In the BBC One medical drama, Holby City, Peace later played Alex Dawson.

Heather Peace, a two-part chat and music show on the brand new digital TV channel Diva Box Office in 2019, which is Europe's first lesbian digital TV channel. Saara Aalto, Sinitta, Desiee Akhavan, and Alicya Eyo were among the show's guests, as well as Saara Aalto, who performed her song "Dance Like Nobody's Watching" and Lot Holloway (formerly known as Charlie Rundle from MK1) performing her song "Naked."

Peace Unwin, the wife of Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner), was confirmed in 2021 that she would be joining the cast of BBC soap opera EastEnders as Eve Unwin.

Singing career

Peace had been classically trained at piano since six years old and then learned guitar.

When she first attended drama school, she had a jazz residency at Velvet.

Peace's character starred in a 2000 episode of London's Burning, performing a version of the Bette Midler classic The Rose. It was not released by BMG as a result of the subpoena. In the UK charts, the 58th highest position. She decided to put her music career on hold to concentrate on acting, but with her first sell-out UK tour and the debut of an acoustic album of covers and some original songs, she reignited her love of music in 2011.

Fairytales is her complete debut jazz album starring producer Nigel Wright. Following its debut on May 21, 2012, it ranked 43 in the UK Albums Chart and number 9 in the independent albums chart, aided by a UK tour. Heather's Fairytales UK tour came to an end with a performance in London, where Peace shared a duet with Alison Moyet.

In 2013, she released a new single, a Jack Guy remix of "Fight For" on iTunes, and a special version of her debut album "Fairytales." She has been to Australia twice, where she has appeared on stage and also hosted the event for SBS TV.

The single "We Can Change" and her second studio album The Thin Line were announced on June 9, 2014. In Brighton, Peace introduced the new single with Europe's first rainbow crossing.

Peace wrote all of the songs on "The Thin Line" (as well as her previous studio album, Fairytales). Nonetheless, some of the tracks are the result of a joint effort with other songwriters. It's either the single "We Can Change" written by Peace and Shelly Poole or the song "Lily" (freely available on her official website), a co-write by Peace and her guitarist Michael Clancy, that's the case.

Peace was a part of this new album with producer James Lewis, who had a "duty of care" for it. Her attention in The Thin Line, an album she is extremely proud of, was primarily focused on her music (she took a break from acting), as well as extensive artwork on the album, which did not finish until the two (musician and producer) were perfectly content with it.

Following the album's release, Peace appeared at a number of festivals over the summer. In October 2014, the Thin Line tour, in which Peace and her band performed the songs from the new album, took place. In March/April/July/October 2015, an acoustic tour was held, and in September/October 2015.

Peace also announced her plans for a new EP, as well as a European and a full band UK tour in Spring 2016.

Peace launched a PledgeMusic campaign in February 2016 for the unveiling of her latest album, Come Home. The support of her followers resulted in the collection of 75% of the funds in 24 hours, with the project's target being met in less than a week. On August 8, 2016, the Come Home EP was released.

Peace wanted to collaborate with her producer James Lewis, who has said that James brings out the best in her for her new EP. In 20 minutes, Peace described Come Home as a love story from meeting to breaking up.

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